When poor countries catch up with rich countries, the actual absolute level of inequality between them can increase. Now that’s just wierd. My head hurts.
– Tony Stephenson responding to Brian Micklethwait
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The argument for collectivism is simple if false; it is an immediate emotional argument. The argument for individualism is subtle and sophisticated; it is an indirect rational argument. – Milton Friedman (via Ilana Mercer) June 21st, 2006 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
 “We need Crossrail to keep London’s Economy ticking over so that we can continue to pay for the Scottish to live the lifestyle to which they are accustomed.” – Ken Livingstone (via Guido Fawkes) June 6th, 2006 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Power corrupts. Powerpoint corrupts absolutely.” – Edward R. Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale May 2nd, 2006 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast to the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.” – John Kenneth Galbraith (1984), an American intellectual who passed away yesterday. April 30th, 2006 | 40 comments - (Comments are closed)
“If there is a businessman who has gone out of his mind and supports the left, I think he must have a lot of skeletons in his cupboard and a lot of things to ask forgiveness for.” – Silvio Berlusconi quoted in the Financial Times (via Open Europe‘s email list). March 20th, 2006 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
While activists call for consumers to buy Fairtrade coffee, critics – like the author of the documentary The Bitter Aftertaste – say that the achievements of the Fairtrade movement are too modest. Hostility to the movement is on the rise from right and left alike. As Reason magazine puts it:
It has always seemed to me that there is a better, more sustainable approach to raising living standards. That approach is to help farmers move away from just growing coffee and exporting the beans (with very little processing) to the developed world. If coffee-producing countries actually did the processing and packaging, and even stuck their own trademarks on the finished product, developing countries would be able to capture more of the value in a bag of coffee sold in shops in the high street. When I’ve spoken to Western companies selling Fairtrade produce, they never seemed all that interested in the idea – or they though it was not feasible. So I am delighted to have found a company that actually does it: coffee grown in Peru and Costa Rica where the packaging and processing is also done there too. I went to their UK online store and bought some which I will be tasting in the office on Monday, but it strikes me as a superb way of increasing living standards. More information is here. March 18th, 2006 | 31 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Almost every young libertarian I come in contact with these days is equally opposed not just to the sort of new copyright protections that the content providers seek, but even to traditional copyright laws and rules that pre-date the 76 Act. And not all of these people are wacko libertarian-anarchist types. Many respected young libertarian minds are turning against copyright. I don’t believe that the best strategy is to ignore them. You guys should engage them in debate and defend your views before this extreme anti-IP position becomes more mainstream.” – Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation (many years ago, he worked at the Adam Smith Institute), quoted here. February 8th, 2006 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
We have had over thirty years of comprehensives and eight years of Blair’s “education, education, education”. The result? According to The Guardian:
Astonishing. The opponents of choice and higher standards in schools definitely deserve a Saturday detention. January 26th, 2006 | 57 comments - (Comments are closed)
“I think this nanny state business, you know, is just nonsense.” – Tony Blair, today’s BBC2 Newsnight, responding to the allegation that he is creating a nanny state January 10th, 2006 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)
Protectionism does not aid development. Developing countries with open economies are catching up with rich ones; those with closed economies are falling further behind. – Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s Shadow Secretary of State for International Development December 15th, 2005 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
“No man in the country is under the smallest obligation, moral or other, so to arrange his legal relations to his business or property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible shovel in his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow – and quite rightly – to take every advantage which is open to it under the taxing statutes for the purpose of depleting the taxpayer’s pocket. And the taxpayer is in like manner entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue.” – The Lord President Clyde, 1929 November 11th, 2005 | 48 comments - (Comments are closed)
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