Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…I think you’re right. I think it’s growth plus the hegemonic West expanding, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But a certain set of cultural mores has crumbled, especially in the big — like in Warsaw. I remember how shocked I was when I had really good customer service in a café in maybe 2006, ’07, with the extra American “Would you like anything more with that?” I’m like, “What are you saying? Why are you talking to me?” The mores had started to shift. That old, confrontational, dour way of interacting had inflected, and now it’s really changed. Now there’s a new generation that seems much more Western, seems much more American. It’s visible in customer interactions, stores, fashion, and in how people even — facial expressions; eye contact’s a little more direct than it used to be, I think. I think of the Russian women I know: they would, say, be in their 50s largely. It’s surprising to me — or was originally — how many of them had their kids quite young. Maybe they were 20, 21. Might have even divorced shortly afterwards and then had kind of a second, real marriage. That pattern seems to have shifted. There’s much more marrying in the late 20s, which is more of a US, higher-education, Western European rhythm to childbearing — having children, then, in the early 30s. What caused that change, and why did they have kids so young to begin with? That’s interesting. That’s actually very true of my aunt who stayed in — my mom came to America just to visit her aunt. My aunt stayed in Poland and had her first daughter at 21; had that first, short marriage and then a later marriage, another daughter. And that has changed. I think it’s a shift to those more Western, more career-oriented, home- and car-oriented, savings-oriented lifestyles. It was a really different political economy in the ’70s and ’80s. You were not waiting to save up for an apartment; you were usually on a list that your parents put you on, and you were waiting to be granted the right to an apartment. You didn’t have a hope of a car. And jobs were — not exactly a crapshoot, but you were going to be assigned something. You could actually start — if you went through college (even if you didn’t), you might be in a position to have a place to live and an income to support a family at 21, 22, and nothing much to save up for. No real way to save up, no real goal to save towards. And that’s completely shifted. People are trying to wait. And in a pretty unstable — in Poland, a volatile — economy, at least in the past 20 years. Growing, but with some tremors. People have that more Western — of, like, “Save up for — ” Now you can buy a house. Apartments have become expensive. It’s a much more Western life track that people are on.…

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