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I'm not being sarcastic, but for some things, democracy is a hinderance. For instance, in China, everybody is pretty much forced to learn Mandarin (generally).

I'm not being sarcastic, but for some things, democracy is a hinderance. For instance, in China, everybody is pretty much forced to learn Mandarin (generally). The schools are taught in it, and if you don't do well in school you won't get a good job and will be shown your way to irrelevance. In India, I believe there are hundreds of languages being spoken. Imagine their economic and political power if the government one day just said "All government free education will be taught in English. There will be no Hindi, Bengali, Keralan, etc etc for schools that receive government funding. Also, all government forms will only be available in English and all government offices will only speak English. If you don't speak English at least decently, you will be fired." You cannot get away with that in a democracy. In a dictatorship it's the stroke of a pen. Which is ultimately better for the economy?

hydrox24 9y ago
> Which is ultimately better for the economy? Only asking this question will naturally lead you to hypotheticals where dictatorships give better results. There are absolutely some systemic disadvantages to democratic systems, but I don't think this is one of them. There is enormous cultural richness and benefit and the multiplicity of languages. The stroke of the pen would help the economy immensely, but also destroy an extraordinary amount of culture and wealth, much of it intangible.
- jimmywanger 9y ago
  > The stroke of the pen would help the economy immensely, but also destroy an extraordinary amount of culture and wealth, much of it intangible. Maslov's pyramid. Does a starving peasant care about culture and intangible "wealth" if trading that for food is what we're talking about? The Communists rammed through a whole new writing system to replace a ~5k year old one and nobody complained too much, even though it's ugly as heck.

hydrox24 9y ago

> Which is ultimately better for the economy? Only asking this question will naturally lead you to hypotheticals where dictatorships give better results. There are absolutely some systemic disadvantages to democratic systems, but I don't think this is one of them. There is enormous cultural richness and benefit and the multiplicity of languages. The stroke of the pen would help the economy immensely, but also destroy an extraordinary amount of culture and wealth, much of it intangible.

jimmywanger 9y ago
> The stroke of the pen would help the economy immensely, but also destroy an extraordinary amount of culture and wealth, much of it intangible. Maslov's pyramid. Does a starving peasant care about culture and intangible "wealth" if trading that for food is what we're talking about? The Communists rammed through a whole new writing system to replace a ~5k year old one and nobody complained too much, even though it's ugly as heck.