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Read the archive   of Wattenberg's   syndicated column     A Conversation with Paul Volcker Before the economic boom of the 1980's and long before any talk of a ’new economy’ there was stagflation and malaise. ... more Fukuyama 101 Think Tank hosts celebrated author and social theorist, Francis Fukuyama. Fukuyama, a public policy professor at George Mason University, discusses ... more   Measuring America main page Measuring America Aired 12/14/2000 This week, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg examines the rise of social science in the twentieth century and its impact on American life. It has been said the that the twentieth century was the "first measured century," a time when Americans applied the techniques of social science to every facet of human activity. Today, few arguments are advanced and few decisions made without a check of the data. We now have numbers to describe everything – our economic well-being, health, sexual behavior, attitudes and opinions. But is there a downside to this? Do statistics lead policymakers to intervene too quickly? Think Tank is joined by: Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt chair in political economy at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The Tyranny of Numbers: Mismeasurement and Misrule. Seymour Martin Lipset, Hazel professor of public policy at George Mason University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.   Read the full transcript   Nicholas Eberstadt     American Enterprise Institute and Harvard University   Seymour Martin Lipset     president of the American Political Science Association and the American Sociological Association Originally Aired: 12/14/2000     Be sure to also check out: Here are some previous Think Tank programs that may be of interest. Thinking about Think Tanks, Part One of Two   aired 10/13/2005 Great Scots!   aired 10/2/2003 Whatever Happened to Socialism?   aired 6/13/2002 Send us your thoughts Think Tank is made possible by generous support from the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Donner Canadian Foundation, the Dodge Jones Foundation, and Pfizer, Inc. ©Copyright Think Tank. All rights reserved.     Web development by Bean Creative.