They keep coming at me! I think to myself, “Gee, that’s interesting, I’ll have to think more about that,” and then BAM another thing hits me… So here’s some things that some recent podcasts made me think about…
The current president of the Czech Republic gave a speech a little while back. He talked about a bunch of stuff, but he used a memorable phrase. He warned us to watch out for the people that want to “Rule from above.” A great, simple phrase that he was using to refer to any group that wants to impose it’s will over others. One of the things I like about it is that it applies equally to neocons, environmentalists, socialists, PETA, lobbyists, etc. Anyone that feels that they are in the right and feels that the government should compel the rest of us to obey want to “Rule from above.” In a free society, the groups should try to get others to voluntarily come over to their side. I think we do pretty well with this in general, but the President grew up under the Soviet Union and he knows oppression. He warned us to not give up the freedom that his country had only so recently been given.
Another podcast talked about how nations got out of poverty. One of the first things that struck me was that several people suggested that we stop trying to “fight poverty” and instead tried to create wealth. There’s something to be said for that. Often times, the measures used to fight poverty merely hold things in check, keep the status quo and try to prevent any deterioration. Not always, but often times the best that can be hoped for with many programs is that things don’t get any worse. Wealth creation implies an improving situation or at least an improving chance of getting better. Anyway, Tyler Cowen, economics professor at GMU and an author over at Marginal Revolution made the somewhat controversial remark that it is the country’s economic and entrepreneurial situations that were the overriding factors in determining prosperity more so than the cultural baggage that might come along with the country. He used the example of Somolia vs. the US. Obviously, we do a lot better in the US than Somalia does, but is it because of the culture or the economic situation? Being the empiricist that he is, he studied Somalis that came to the US. They did much better than their folks back home. This doesn’t clinch it for me, but I think he’s mostly right.
Of course then I thought about Yemen. What happens if you have a dysfunctional economy and a less than a go getter attitude nation wide (I’m being kind here)? Well, the obvious answer is that you get what Yemen is today. The more interesting question is how do you change it? I think Professor Cowen has the right idea, if the institutional structures are in place that allow people to prosper if they are willing to put in the work, things will eventually change for the better. The key is that they have to see a potential payout for the work. I’m not exactly sure why that’s not there now, but it obviously isn’t…
Isaac