Insights du Jour - 2015-08-03

Haven't done one of these in a while. But here are some things I've found on-target recently…

  • Via Greg Mankiw, a Milton Friedman quote:

    “I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.”

    Milton Friedman would have been 103 last Friday, and he is sorely missed.

  • In a related vein, P.J. O'Rourke shares his insights at the Weekly Standard:

    I would like to address myself to the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched refugees teeming to America’s shore, the homeless, the economically, socially, and mentally tempest-tossed. Also, I’d like to address the young, the hip, the progressive, the compassionate, and the caring. I’d like a word with everyone who votes for Democrats.

    Democrats hate your guts.

    Read the whole thing and see if you don't agree.

  • Brian Doherty has a long but interesting discussion of "4 Prominent Ayn Rand Recanters": Rush's Neal Peart, Representative Paul Ryan, Alan Greenspan, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

    Every sentient being should be aware that a core unquestionable intellectual underpinning of progressive Internet modernity, one as undeniably certain as that A is A, is that Ayn Rand was an idiotic villain and all her fans are malign, childish bozos. (If you are sadly uneducated on this fact, start here.)

    Nevertheless, some people came out of the closet to admit their fanhood… only to hustle back in again.

    I was never a full-blown Objectivist acolyte, even in high school, the first time (and the last) I read Atlas Shrugged. And even then, I skipped over the big Galt speech. Nevertheless I've found her worth quoting in response to some local anti-capitalists.

    Maybe someone should bring out a "good parts" version of Atlas Shrugged, like William Goldman did with S. Morgenstern's The Princess Bride?