Full transcript
0:25everything we know in economics says the
0:27return on investment in people
0:29especially very young people very very
0:31high you've probably heard about the
0:33famous test of walter michelle the
0:35marshmallow test he gave these little
0:37kids marshmallows and said here's a
0:38marshmallow you're gonna have it
0:40now if you're willing to wait say 20
0:43minutes
0:44you will get a second marshmallow but
0:46you have to wait to eat the first
0:48marshmallow to get the second
0:49marshmallow
0:50so some of the kids couldn't wait they
0:51ate the marshmallow others waited
0:5420 years later michelle follows them up
0:56the ones who waited for the marshmallow
0:57what happened to them
0:58higher test scores they graduate high
1:00school they go on to college as
1:02successful in a number of dimensions
1:04but there are strong biological evidence
1:06strong neuroscientific evidence
1:08that suggests that early childhood
1:10conditions determine
1:11to a degree that we didn't realize
1:13before the
1:15later success of a person and so what we
1:18learn is that if we give the base early
1:20on
1:21it becomes much easier to invest to
1:24teach
1:24and to motivate later on early
1:26investment is giving people the early
1:28background that we know
1:29support success among those who do
1:31succeed in the larger society
1:33the technology of the 21st century is
1:37one that requires
1:38high skills requires math requires
1:41computer knowledge
1:42it requires communication skills right
1:45now a lot of economists don't have a
1:46clue what's going on
1:47i mean a lot of economists and probably
1:49me included but when we start thinking
1:51about how to get fixes to get the
1:52economy started again
1:54we have to be a little more careful than
1:55we've been in the past
1:57we have a big emphasis now on potholes
1:59on infrastructure it's called
2:02the new director of omb peter orzak has
2:04actually written a definitive study
2:06of what the economic rate of return is
2:08the potholes and he found that they're
2:09pretty pretty low actually
2:11what i learned and became so important
2:14was that investing in people
2:15was as important as buildings or
2:18structures or roads
2:19although those are important too there
2:21are many projects out there but few have
2:22the rate of return
2:24of early childhood investments offering
2:2610 annual rate of return so for the same
2:28dollars you can actually invest
2:30by training teachers and training
2:31children but what comes out of it is a
2:33reduction in crime
2:34the promotion of schooling the fact that
2:36we're going to get a more skilled
2:37workforce in the future
2:38there are very very few government
2:40programs that have any return
2:42close to this
3:02you