In addition to education levels, human capital models should consider factors like optimism, imagination, and hope for the future. It’s straightforward to measure a recession’s effects on employment and output. But what if the psychological impact of a recession is much more severe than we thought, to the extent that it could make a dent in long-term productivity growth This is the social risk: That the minds of many talented young people today will be permanently disfigured by this obsession with Trump embarrassments. have a vast base of knowledge to work with, when they’ll be able to make connections of facts on their own, instead of being taught some interesting rules and not enough content to practice them. The way to avoid this Girardian conflict is to direct our gaze outwards to the tangible things of the world.