Ferguson, Murray, and the US

I just finished reading Civilization, by Niall Ferguson. There is a new book I will read soon by Charles Murray: Coming Apart.

Ferguson's book marked me. There are connections in my brain which were not there before I read the book. I hope Murray's - of "The Bell Curve" fame - would be as inspiring. Those two men are conservative, and I am  liberal. Most of all though, I am a thinking person.

Read Thomas B. Edsall comments on Murray's new book in the NYT.

These ideas resonate with me, because I was a gifted student, I even got a scholarship by the Mexican government to study at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My son now has a scholarship at the University of Iowa, so  obviously I wonder: Did I pass this gift to my son?

Professor Krugman (no lack of brains here either) also has added to the debate, [link].

Ferguson writes that religious beliefs have more to do with the US success, than I thought before. Many Americans in the past three hundred years, have worked and saved more than people without their beliefs. Since I am not a believer, and work a lot, I have to figure out what their Protestant Ethics, as Max Weber put it, means. Also, and to me more importantly, property rights and the rule of law existed in North America, to a different extent than in my neck of the woods. From the Rio Grande down, there is no Law. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, I believe, is partnering with criminals like Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, and his ilk.  That is not a Civilization, that is a Criminal Gang Ruling a Country, as Mexican presidential candidate AMLO, says.

Ferguson discovers a recipe for success, that the Chinese are copying now, and the Japanese did before.

All the US has to do, according to this author, is stay the course, and believe more in what has been so successful since 1776.

Charles Murray also is telling us, that poor Whites and Blacks, and I will add Latinos, have to get into the program. The ones that don't, should know the religious saying: Many were called, but only a few were chosen.

2012 is a year of atonement!