2021-10-21
51 分钟In one of the earliest Freakonomics Radio episodes (No. 39!), we asked a bunch of economists with young kids how they approached child-rearing. Now the kids are old enough to talk — and they have a lot to say. We hear about nature vs. nurture, capitalism vs. Marxism, and why you sometimes don’t tell your friends that your father is an economist.
In the first freakonomics book that Steve Leavitt and I wrote, there was one chapter called what makes a perfect parent?
We put forward a collage of data suggesting that much of what modern parents do or are encouraged to do probably doesn't matter all that much, especially when it comes to what you might call obsessive parenting, trying to maximize your child's potential with an abundance of culture, cramming and extracurricular activities.
There might be a strong correlation between obsessive parents and successful kids, but its not necessarily a causal relationship.
In other words, the kind of parent most likely to parent obsessively was also likely to have bestowed upon their kids some even more powerful tools, a high iq, for instance, or a strong work ethic.
A few years after that first free economics book, right when I started this podcast, we did an episode called the Economist's Guide to Parenting.
We interviewed a variety of economist parents to see how they approached the task.
The results were predictably nerdy.
From the very beginning of parenthood, we.
Approached getting pregnant like any other project.
We'Ve done to preparing their kids for the real world.
Mathilda was leaving the house the other day at 17 months of age.
I said, Matilda, this is your first day of human capital accumulation.
You can finish when you're 27.
We also heard some hardcore self reflection.
I do sometimes think, what if my kids don't turn out well?
And then everyone blames me?
And I would still say, well, the data just say it was gonna happen anyway.
At the end of that episode, we wondered aloud whether we should check in with those economists kids ten years later to see how they were doing.
It was kind of a joke.
I'd started the podcast on a lark.