#11 - Garett Jones: national IQ, immigration and less democracy

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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