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Thursday, May 10. 2012

Learned Helplessness

Arthur Brooks played French Horn in the Barcelona Symphony, but returned to the USA:



Learned helplessness was what my wife and I observed then, and still do today, in social-democratic Spain. The recession, rigid labor markets, and excessive welfare spending have pushed unemployment to 24.4%, with youth joblessness over 50%. Nearly half of adults under 35 live with their parents. Unable to earn their success, Spaniards fight to keep unearned government benefits.


Meanwhile, their collective happiness—already relatively low—has withered. According to the nonprofit World Values Survey, 20% of Spaniards said they were "very happy" about their lives in 1981. This fell to 14% by 2007, even before the economic downturn.


That trajectory should be a cautionary tale to Americans who are watching the U.S. government careen toward a system that is every bit as socially democratic as Spain's.



Humans are very responsive to incentives, even to their own detriment (eg addiction).

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 17:53 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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That implies that leading Democrat politicians are helplessness enablers.
#1 PacRim Jim (Link) on 2012-05-10 23:49 (Reply)
Hayek's idea was that the worst of all the effects of socialism are only indirectly in the economic realm; the damage is done to the personality of the individual living under the system. The 'learned helplessness' is only part of it, as he spoke of 'devaluation' of the individual in terms that meant exactly that. The devaluation in real terms of the individual who has been made helpless and unable to understand that the loss of autonomy is a condition that prevents its own change --self-perpetuating, chronic, and socialism-endemic.

Almost like a disease.


That's my impression of Hayek, not his particular words, particularly.
#2 buddy larsen on 2012-05-11 00:51 (Reply)
re learned helplessness:

So what's the answer?

Do we adopt a "work or starve but you can keep what you earn" policy, and ignore those among us us who don't know where their next meal is coming from or let charities handle it?

Return to the poor farms, or the English schemes of work houses, debtors prisons, and deportations for the unemployed?

What to do about the unemployed urban poor has been the problem since there were cities. How do you deal with the people that can't or won't fend for themselves?

I doubt a solution satisfactory to everyone will ever be found.
#3 feeblemind on 2012-05-11 10:51 (Reply)
Name a dozen or two ideas on post-it notes, put 'em on a dartboard and let Tommy Thompson and Star Parker each throw a dart. Let the two of them take the two hits and co-author an action plan. Just make sure that nowhere on any of the post-its does it say "continue present course".
#3.1 buddy larsen on 2012-05-11 11:21 (Reply)

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