Garett Jones is an economist at George Mason University and the author of Hive Mind, 10% Less Democracy, and The Culture Transplant. His work explores how intelligence, institutions, and ancestry shape national prosperity — often in surprising ways, follow Garett on Twitter
We talk about national IQ, smarter governance, immigration policy, and why “less democracy” might sometimes mean better results. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.
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Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
03:11 – Smart people build better institutions that help everyone
06:22 – IQ gaps, immigration, and intergenerational convergence
09:33 – IVF, embryo selection, and boosting intelligence
12:44 – Should we optimize our children’s genetics?
15:55 – Axelrod, cooperation, and designing better institutions
19:06 – What does “10% less democracy” really mean?
22:17 – Making the case for longer political terms and elite control
25:28 – Populism, Trump, and democratic decisions
28:39 – Education, cosmopolitanism, and political tolerance
31:50 – Why Europe is less market-friendly than the U.S.
35:01 – Does democracy really cause economic growth?
38:12 – Governance, boards, and the myth of top-down control
41:23 – Iceland, open borders, and testing migration theory
44:34 – Capitalism, communism, and cultural risk
47:45 – Guest worker models and citizenship debates
50:56 – Global elite summits and influence networks
54:07 – Teaching general principles that stick
57:18 – Public choice and win-win cooperation over 10,000 years
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