Ideas For The Ash Heap
One of my favorite economists, Tyler Cowen, has an interesting essay suggesting six ideas that should die this year:
The world can be a humbling place for the purveyor of big ideas. Each year, earth-shattering events, be it the 9/11 attacks, the 2008 financial crisis, or the 2011 Arab Spring, upend received wisdom and demand fresh thinking. So what are the big ideas that should be thrown out this year?
The ideas he lists are:
1. Illegal Mexican immigration is a growing threat.
2. Green energy will save us.
3. Bank runs are a thing of the past.
4. The eurozone is for pretty much everyone in Europe.
5. Bailouts should be incremental.
6. Fiscal stimulus should be "temporary, targeted, and timely."
He sums up:
On the whole, 2011 has not been a good year for the global economy. But still, life expectancy continues to increase. Crime rates continue to fall in many countries, including the United States. Tolerance is on the rise. The developing world is elevating hundreds of millions of people from poverty. All these gains are real, and we should appreciate and applaud them. It's our economic core -- and in the most successful countries -- that is malfunctioning. I shudder to think what this list might look like next year.
I'm not entirely sure tolerance is on the rise. When it comes to religious tolerance, we seem to be struggling even here in the United States. What do you think, though? This list sound about right? Any other ideas that should bite the dust?
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Comments :
Apr '11
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Cowen isn't one of my favorite economists. He supported the bailouts and still does.
My short list of ideas to throw out.
Mar '11
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Bipartisanship is good and necessary.
This was only true when the left got 90% of what they wanted.
Apr '11
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Lets ask Victor Davis Hanson if he thinks "illegal Mexican immigration as a threat" is a dead idea.
May '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
In #6, is he opposing stimulus generally, or just "temporary, targeted, timely" stimulus? If the latter, he's wrong.
I'd add to the list "Grand schemes to save us from climate change", given their cost and fecklessness, and the fact that an 8-18" rise in sea levels over the next century (as the IPCC predicts as most likely) is about the same as the rise over the last 150 years, during which time mankind improved its lot in life in every measurable way.
May '11
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
"Pay their fair share" has grown old and obnoxious.
Gimmicky tax policy like the payroll tax holiday should be done away with. How about real tax reform.
As an aside how about we men stop calling each other "bro" or "brah". And what the devil is the "bro code". I swear I'm going to punch the next guy that calls me "bro" or "brah".
May '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Government can control and ration medical care to keep costs down.
Aug '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
As my missions-oriented church reminds us every other Sunday, Christians (and minor sects) are being persecuted and sometimes killed in many Asian and Middle East countries. It's hard to measure such things, but if we aren't limiting analysis to the USA, tolerance is probably decreasing globally.
I suppose European style wishy-washy multicultralist "tolerance" might be on the rise in the Western world, but that strikes me as a negative indicator, not positive.
Aug '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
And while we're talking about tolerance... Neal Stephenson on the spread of relativism and shallow, homogenized, commercial culture via technology:
"The global anti-culture that has been conveyed into every cranny of the world by television is a culture unto itself, and by the standards of great and ancient cultures like Islam and France, it seems grossly inferior, at least at first. The only good thing you can say about it is that it makes world wars and Holocausts less likely--and that is actually a pretty good thing!
The only real problem is that anyone who has no culture, other than this global monoculture, is completely screwed. Anyone who grows up watching TV, never sees any religion or philosophy, is raised in an atmosphere of moral relativism, learns about civics from watching bimbo eruptions on network TV news, and attends a university where postmodernists vie to outdo each other in demolishing traditional notions of truth and quality, is going to come out into the world as one pretty feckless human being.
And--again--perhaps the goal of all this is to make us feckless so we won't nuke each other."
May '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Spoken like a typically myopic economist who sees people as numbers and ignores the primacy of culture.
Texas became independent from Mexico after Mexico invited immigration without demanding assimilation. The illegals might be feeding our economy overall, but they are supplanting our culture. A nation is more than land and political borders.
And perhaps he didn't notice Hezbollah setting up shop along our border.
Mar '11
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
He's flat wrong on #1, and throwing "Mexican" into it betrays his motives (Shame on you, you Mexican hating white people!). The problem isn't Mexican, though that country is the source of the largest number of illegal aliens. The problem is illegal immigration as a whole, and especially from Latin America for the simple reason that the numbers are becoming uncontrollable, and large swaths of that population... especially in the southwest United States... is not assimilating culturally or linguistically.
Jan '11
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Looks to me like Al Gore, lost his to-do list.
1. Illegals not a growing threat? I want to live where this guy lives.
2. Of course green energy won't save us, but tell me one thing that will, if you can.
3. Bank runs seem to still be in vogue in faltering nations, why not here?
4. Eurozone is for pretty much everyone in Europe? Then what's all the fuss about?
5. Bailouts should be prohibited, not incremented.
6. A truism: A public sector fiscal stimulus never stimulates.
Apart from getting those six wrong, ...well...
Nov '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
The "unconstrained vision" as defined by Thomas Sowell in "A Conflict of Visions". Thomas Sowell: America's greatest living social philosopher.
Jul '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Aaron Miller
Spoken like a typically myopic economist who sees people as numbers and ignores the primacy of culture.
Texas became independent from Mexico after Mexico invited immigration without demanding assimilation. The illegals might be feeding our economy overall, but they are supplanting our culture. A nation is more than land and political borders.
Just so. A state is an independent political entity. A nation is a discrete cultural entity. A nation-state combines political autonomy with cultural chauvinism.
It's amazing how many folks with degrees (from relatively prestigious schools) in say, International Relations, are completely unaware of this.
Edited on Dec 2, 2011 at 6:32pmOct '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
since VDH is mentioned
http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=174&load=6330&utm_source=InstaPundit&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=VictorDavisHanson#
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Aaron Miller
Spoken like a typically myopic economist who sees people as numbers and ignores the primacy of culture.
Texas became independent from Mexico after Mexico invited immigration without demanding assimilation. The illegals might be feeding our economy overall, but they are supplanting our culture. A nation is more than land and political borders.
And perhaps he didn't notice Hezbollah setting up shop along our border. · Dec 2 at 12:48pm
I hit the "like" button on Aaron's comment so hard I think I broke it.
I'll add Lebanon to Aaron's comment. Recall their saying "Hey, let's let the Palestinians come in whatever numbers they wish! Welcome!" How'd that work our for them?
It's not about race. Its about culture, and culture is the number 1 influence on a nation's politics.
Edited on Dec 3, 2011 at 7:02amMay '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
It doesn't betray anything of the sort. The immigration debate is one about Mexicans, thus its not disingenuous or illegitimate to label it as such. Nor did he imply that those claiming that Mexican immigration is a threat are racists.
Oct '10
Re: Ideas For The Ash Heap
Tommy De Seno
Aaron Miller
Spoken like a typically myopic economist who sees people as numbers and ignores the primacy of culture.
Texas became independent from Mexico after Mexico invited immigration without demanding assimilation.
I hit the "like" button on Aaron's comment so hard I think I broke it.
I'll add Lebanon to Aaron's comment. Recall their saying "Hey, let's let the Palestinians come in whatever numbers they wish! Welcome!" How'd that work our for them?
It's not about race. Its about culture, and culture is the number 1 influence on a nation's politics. · Dec 3 at 6:38am
Edited on Dec 03 at 07:02 am
I’m sure the Muslims in southern Philippines (Mindanao) also regret allowing Christians to settle in their territory without assimilation or conversion. They may have been able to fend off the previous European and American colonizers for 400+ years, but they lost their “homeland” once they lost their majority status (population) to Filipino Christians because the demographics changed.