I'm not enough of an economic history expert to say whether David Brooks is right to argue that, unlike Europe, "American leaders expanded education and created the highest quality work force on the planet. That quality work force was the single biggest reason the U.S. emerged as the economic superpower of the 20th century." That's a very clean, compelling story that situates American economic dominance as the outcome of a bloodless meritocratic competition among rival nations, but I seem to remember my 20th Century history saying a lot more about two massive World Wars that rocked Europe, destroying their productive capacity and continental infrastructure, and requiring a fair amount of rebuilding. America, by contrast, was protected by an ocean, and benefited from a last man standing effect. That's not to say educational attainment wasn't important, but attempts to paint it as the only relevant factor in economic attainment tend to be wildly overblown, and contradicted by the evidence. It's a nice story to tell, because saying that all our economy needs is more education is an aspirational tale that neatly sidesteps more fundamental concerns of dsitribution and dignity, but it isn't, so far as the evidence goes, terribly true.
