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The World's Only Negative Personal Savings Rate
The most distinguishing feature of a graph of TIMSS scores vs. savings rates around the world is the fact that the nations for which data is available all have both higher TIMSS scores and higher rates of savings than the US and England. The European nations, Australia, and New Zealand have TIMSS scores roughly 40 points higher and rates of savings roughly 6% higher. Switzerland is at the high end of the European nations, with a TIMSS score 45 points higher and a rate of savings 12% higher. Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong are further up the scale, with TIMSS scores 100 points higher and rates of savings 19% higher. At the top of the scale is Singapore, with a TIMSS score 143 points higher and a rate of savings 36% higher.The linearity of this relationship suggests that savings rates are strongly influenced by math skills, or that higher savings rates provide the opportunity to educate children more effectively, or a combination of both. Regardless of which is the predominant relationship, it is strong evidence that an aggressive program to increase math education quality in the US today has immense long term benefits tomorrow. A 1% increase in the rate of savings as a percent of GDP in the US would put $70 billion more per year into savings. An increase in the rate of savings to a level equivalent to Singapore would put $2,520 billion more per year into savings.Discussions about savings rates with American students confirm this relationship. They also confirm that the low TIMSS scores do accurately reflect their significantly impaired math skills today. Their propensity to save could not be increased very much without completely restoring their competency in math. That cannot be done until teachers are tested for math competency before they are hired. That requires paying math teachers significantly more than current pay scales. That requires repealing the "Equal Pay Act"."Arete" is the Greek word for what needs to be done about math education--we must strive to put quality back into education. That requires hiring the very best math educators possible. The correlation of savings to scores (r-squared = 0.7868) is higher than the correlation of boys' 12th grade scores to boys' 8th grade scores (r-squared = 0.6932), and even higher than the correlation of girls' 8th grade to 12th grade scores (r-squared = 0.5186).
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Modified Monday, September 22, 2008 Copyright @ 2007 by Fathers' Manifesto & Christian Party |
