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High School Never Ends—Especially in Washington
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High School Never Ends—Especially in Washington
A protester stands as onlookers watch riots against president-elect Donald Trump in Oakland, California. (Joel Angel Ju/ZUMA Wire via Alamy)
As great apes, we obsess over the social hierarchy. Turns out it’s a great way to understand where our politics is headed.
By Tyler Cowen
04.28.25 — Tyler Cowen Must Know
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High School Never Ends—Especially in Washington
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No matter what people may say, often what they care about most when it comes to policy is exactly what they cared about in the high school cafeteria: Who is rising or falling in status.

As great apes, we obsess over the social hierarchy. Who is being praised and who is being excoriated? Who is hot and who is not?

That may sound like gossip, but it is also a big part of our politics. If politics is fundamentally about the way we human beings organize ourselves—or, put another way, how we build and wield power—then status is the ultimate coin of the realm.

By status I mean a person’s reputation. How much are you held in high regard? And as a consequence, how much can you influence events and other people? Who will take your phone calls?

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Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and also Faculty Director of the Mercatus Center. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1987. His book The Great Stagnation: How America Ate the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better was a New York Times best-seller. He was named in an Economist poll as one of the most influential economists of the last decade and Bloomberg Businessweek dubbed him "America's Hottest Economist." Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of its "Top 100 Global Thinkers" of 2011. He co-writes a blog at www.MarginalRevolution.com, hosts a podcast Conversations with Tyler, and is co-founder of an online economics education project, MRU.org. He is also director of the philanthropic project Emergent Ventures.
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Politics
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Trump's First 100 Days
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