I'm sure he must have meant to say "... mis-spent they youth in *masturbating* the intricacies..."
"Paul Samuelson sneers at the "sterile verbalizations by which economists have tended to describe fertility decisions in terms of the jargon of indifference curves, thereby tending to intimidate non-economists who have not mis-spent their youth in mastering the intricacies of modern utility theory.'" Tom Walker 604 255 4812
