Monday, August 25, 2008
Nobel? No, hell! You don't know nothin' ...!
Leftist Nobel Prize-winning economists like Robert M. Solow ain't happy:
"Globalization and technology have increased income inequality around the world, four Nobel Laureates in economics argued, and governments should intervene to try to help those at the bottom.
Meeting on a picturesque island in southern Germany, the Nobel laureates focused Saturday on the growing gap between rich and poor. ... The discussion focused more on broad themes than detailed solutions. But the main thrust was clear: Free markets aren't always fair, and economists should help governments figure out how to make them fairer."
You'll need to buy a copy of today's Wall Street Journal to read the entire article. I'll save you two bucks and give you a brief synopsis:
There're are a lot of dirt-poor countries in this world, and the West ain't doin' enough to help 'em.
Over the past, oh, fifty years, the West has poured trillions of dollars into poor countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. These days, a lot of the countries into which Western dollars have flowed are just as poor as they were when Western taxpayers started subsidizing their economies.
I ain't no Nobel laureates, but I'm smart enough to know that poor nations ain't poor by accident. They're poor because: there're no property rights to speak of; they're led by despots who enrich themselves at the expense of the masses; citizens enjoy no rights of contract; and there's no such thing as the rule of law.
How many third-world nations 'round the globe respect property rights and contract rights and the rule of law? Not many, I assure you.
Someone once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Robert Solow and his left-wing Nobel laureate ilk want to tranfer even more monies from the West to poor nations -- even though they must know that such transers of wealth in the past have done little to lift poor nations out of poverty.
Is Robert Solow insane? I'll let you be the judge of that ...
"Globalization and technology have increased income inequality around the world, four Nobel Laureates in economics argued, and governments should intervene to try to help those at the bottom.
Meeting on a picturesque island in southern Germany, the Nobel laureates focused Saturday on the growing gap between rich and poor. ... The discussion focused more on broad themes than detailed solutions. But the main thrust was clear: Free markets aren't always fair, and economists should help governments figure out how to make them fairer."
You'll need to buy a copy of today's Wall Street Journal to read the entire article. I'll save you two bucks and give you a brief synopsis:
There're are a lot of dirt-poor countries in this world, and the West ain't doin' enough to help 'em.
Over the past, oh, fifty years, the West has poured trillions of dollars into poor countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. These days, a lot of the countries into which Western dollars have flowed are just as poor as they were when Western taxpayers started subsidizing their economies.
I ain't no Nobel laureates, but I'm smart enough to know that poor nations ain't poor by accident. They're poor because: there're no property rights to speak of; they're led by despots who enrich themselves at the expense of the masses; citizens enjoy no rights of contract; and there's no such thing as the rule of law.
How many third-world nations 'round the globe respect property rights and contract rights and the rule of law? Not many, I assure you.
Someone once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Robert Solow and his left-wing Nobel laureate ilk want to tranfer even more monies from the West to poor nations -- even though they must know that such transers of wealth in the past have done little to lift poor nations out of poverty.
Is Robert Solow insane? I'll let you be the judge of that ...
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, August 25, 2008 
