A Textbook from Across the Pond
Greg Mankiw 
"Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer."
What are they writing in health books? that masturbation causes blindness?
Of course, this is but one book. Mankiw's textbook has a French version. 
Peter Boettke also weighed in on this matter.
This bias has tremendous implications that reach far beyond the domestic political debate in these two countries. These beliefs inform students’ choices in life. Taught that the free market is a dangerous wilderness, twice as many Germans as Americans tell pollsters that you should not start a business if you think it might fail. According to the European Union’s internal polling, just two in five Germans and French would like to be their own boss, compared to three in five Americans. Whereas 8 percent of Americans say they are currently involved in starting a business, that’s true of only 2 percent of Germans and 1 percent of the French. Another 28 percent of Americans are considering starting a business, compared to just 11 percent of the French and 18 percent of Germans. The loss to Europe’s two largest economies in terms of jobs, innovation, and economic dynamism is severe.
Hmmm.
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Comments :
One sentence
does not necessarily reflect on the entirety of an economics textbook. While inartfully phrased, I don't see anything wrong with the observation that we do live in a higher stress environment than people do in less dynamic cultures. It's just a tradeoff. I think the benefits outweigh the costs, but what's wrong with pointing out the costs?
Also, using entreprenurial zeal as a marker of this kind of bias doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I run my own business and it is a lot more stressful and chaotic than being an employee, so it's important that people realistically evaluate costs like that when planning their careers.
I'm all for being charitable when reading things
and I usually am. But that goes too far no matter how you look at it.
That's like saying everything we eat, do, see, drink, and breathe causes cancer.
I'd think
that it's like saying that stress causes all kinds of diseases.
Sic semper tyrannis
Sure, same thing
So do we simply blame stress on capitalism and pretend that less capitalism or more "controlled" capitalism will lighten the stress? Heck no. It's a fools errand.
Stress is a part of life and thinking intervention will lead to a cure is simply silly.
Well you could ask
how much things like a 40 hour work week, elimination ofchild labor, regulation to provide for job safety, and so on contirbute to lower stress, or how much their absence leads to increased stress.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
we've been through most of this already
Tell me why exactly you think I'm wrong. If not, I really don't see the point.
Uh, where?
Where did you go through this all already? Considering it is a short diary and there are less than 10 comments I'm surprised I missed it.
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
In the past
we've discussed the history behind those issues already as well as the aspect of economic development in making life better and "less stressful". Unless, you have anything new to add for me reflect on and reconsider, I don't see the need to go back into it and re-discuss the same thing.
Whatever
it is that they're doing, it seems to be working quite well for the average French or German. I don't doubt that it must be tough in these countries to become a real high achiever like Ken Ley, to pick a name at random, but no society can please everyone.
Is there data that actually links the way they teach children about the economy to something like low productivity or growth as compared to the US?
Sic semper tyrannis
I don't know
Go ahead and look for it and let me know ;)
I'm not an economist
so I don't even know what to look for. I'm just guessing that if there were actually any data that would be useful to his cause Stefan Theil would have presented it.
Sic semper tyrannis
Yikes! Economic Growth?
Wow, this is a profound statement. If there was only some way we can prevent or slow down economic growth, we would have less stress, less depression, and people will have healthier lives and less development of cancer!
Also, sex lives will improve and you may live longer.
OK, I made the last two up, but I think they should probably take a more careful look at the premise that correlation doesn't mean causation. I mean, I could substitute "Having many children and eating food with trans-fats" for "Economic Growth" here and the sentence could apply in whatever book this sentence appeared.
http://wealthweekly.blogspot.com
Wii FC:2805-8311-8040-2678 Brawl: 2277-7051-2186
Are there other translations?
I wonder if this is a good translation.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
Histoire du XXe siècle
The quote is actually from a history textbook, not an economics textbook.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki