In the last few years, social scientists have started heavily appealing to “state capacity” to explain the wealth of nations. Why do some countries prosper? Because they have great state capacity. Why do others flounder? Because they have crummy state capacity. What do floundering countries need to do in order to prosper? Build state capacity, naturally.
Tag: lying
Government Likely to Make Itself Hero
If I had any trust or faith in government, this experience would have destroyed it for good. Of course, that ship sailed decades ago, so watching the incompetence and tyranny from those who imagine they know best how to run your life hasn’t affected me much.
You’ll Have To Be a Little Crazy To Return to Normalcy
Normalcy is never a safe bet at any time. Even when there’s not a WHO-designated pandemic, there’s always the risk that the next hands we shake will carry the virus or bacteria that will kill us. There’s always the risk that we’ll get infected, injured, insulted, exposed, defrauded, or abandoned whenever we interact with our fellow human beings.
Harvard Magazine Calls for a “Presumptive Ban” on Homeschooling: Here Are 5 Things It Got Wrong
As a Harvard alum, longtime donor, education researcher, and homeschooling mother of four children in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I was shocked to read the article, “The Risks of Homeschooling,” by Erin O’Donnell in Harvard Magazine’s new May-June 2020 issue. Aside from its biting, one-sided portrayal of homeschooling families that mischaracterizes the vast majority of today’s homeschoolers, it is filled with misinformation and incorrect data. Here are five key points that challenge the article’s primary claim that the alleged “risks for children—and society—in homeschooling” necessitate a “presumptive ban on the practice”.
The Answer is Always Individualism
I just saw an article by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen called “It’s Time to Build.” I’m both encouraged and troubled by it.
“China Lied, People Died?” Look Who’s Talking!
If a government lies and people die as a result, that government and its functionaries should be held responsible, right? Good enough for me. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so if we’re having Peking Duck this week, I’d like to know when Thiessen plans to cough up his share of US government’s tab.
COVID-19: Resist Much, Obey Little, and Never Forget
The COVID-19 outbreak isn’t over yet, but we’ve reached a turning point: American politicians and bureaucrats are beginning the tricky process of trying to simultaneously walk back their predictions of catastrophe, while awarding themselves the credit for those predictions not coming true, and avoiding the blame they deserve for inciting headlong irrational panic.
Is This Coronavirus the End of the End of History?
One of the more interesting things about the COVID-2019 coronavirus pandemic is how it might change the stable, comfortable routines that have existed in the US and the West largely untouched since the end of World War 2.
Coronavirus: Politically Created Panic is the Real Pandemic
Attention paid to, and resources thrown at, victims of the predictable annual flu epidemic will decrease in favor of the minor but newly lucrative COVID-19 nuisance.
American Fictionalists
It is both fun and informative to consider lists. To debate the list is a sign that you have engaged with someone who knows what she is talking about. This morning, I asked Google to find web pages that opined as to whom might be included on a list of the greatest American fictionalists (novelists,…