ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

In this academic article from my past I look at the popular theory among psychologists that national economic affluence reflects the ambitiousness or achievement motivation of the people in the nations concerned. The idea is that poorer people are less ambitious. I show from survey research results that this is the reverse of the truth. Poorer people desperately WANT TO BE RICH. The reason some nations are poor and others are not goes then back to politics. Practice socialism and you will be poor. Practice capitalism and you will be rich. Get the wrong one of those two systems and you will be poor no matter what. Though it may be true that the smarter the people of a nation are, the more likely that nation is to make the right choice between those two alternatives. The article concerned was never published on paper but it summarizes earlier articles of mine that were published in the academic journals.

******************************