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It all seems to be about increasing economic efficiency. Good little workers, turn dollars into more dollars as efficiently as possible! Nothing about increasin

It all seems to be about increasing economic efficiency. Good little workers, turn dollars into more dollars as efficiently as possible! Nothing about increasing anyone's quality of life, solving environmental problems, advancing science (except tangentially for the NSF/NIH item) let alone arts, etc. It's an MBA wish list, not a human one. Not a surprise considering the source, but still disappointing.

Isamu 7y ago
Tyler Cowen is an academic economist at GMU, so yeah, he presents an economic view. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Cowen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Cowen >Nothing about increasing anyone's quality of life, solving environmental problems, advancing science Tyler is all about those things, but his whole thesis is that they are directly linked to economic efficiency. That is not an unsupported idea.
ksdale 7y ago
Tyler posts all the time about music, literature, food, and travel. I think he's perfectly aware of what's required to increase quality of life. I think this list mostly demonstrates that he believes there are certain people and institutions in the world that are incredibly effective, and we actually don't understand why at all. We who live at the very top of Maslow's hierarchy wonder at his lack of focus on quality of life, but I believe if you asked most people in the world (people who are not American or European) what they most valued, they'd tell you access to food, clean water, cheap energy, healthcare, etc. Things that come from economic growth, which comes from building effective institutions and increasing the number of people who can be productive.
- marcus_holmes 7y ago
  Can confirm. Poor people really, really care about money. Since there are more poor people than rich people, it makes sense to focus on what most humans care about.
  - dmos62 7y ago
    To paraphrase Adso in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, only the powerful have the privilege of knowing their true enemies. In my own words, if someone who is troubled focuses on something, it doesn't necessarily mean that that something is the cause of their problems.
- notacoward 7y ago
  > Things that come from economic growth Things that come from actually building stuff. Purely economic growth, as represented by banks and brokerages and economics departments, doesn't put food in anyone's belly or a roof over their heads.
  - ksdale 7y ago
    Definitely! You'll get no argument from me there! I'd add a bunch of apps to that list as well.

Isamu 7y ago

Tyler Cowen is an academic economist at GMU, so yeah, he presents an economic view. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Cowen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Cowen >Nothing about increasing anyone's quality of life, solving environmental problems, advancing science Tyler is all about those things, but his whole thesis is that they are directly linked to economic efficiency. That is not an unsupported idea.

ksdale 7y ago

Tyler posts all the time about music, literature, food, and travel. I think he's perfectly aware of what's required to increase quality of life. I think this list mostly demonstrates that he believes there are certain people and institutions in the world that are incredibly effective, and we actually don't understand why at all. We who live at the very top of Maslow's hierarchy wonder at his lack of focus on quality of life, but I believe if you asked most people in the world (people who are not American or European) what they most valued, they'd tell you access to food, clean water, cheap energy, healthcare, etc. Things that come from economic growth, which comes from building effective institutions and increasing the number of people who can be productive.

marcus_holmes 7y ago
Can confirm. Poor people really, really care about money. Since there are more poor people than rich people, it makes sense to focus on what most humans care about.
- dmos62 7y ago
  To paraphrase Adso in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, only the powerful have the privilege of knowing their true enemies. In my own words, if someone who is troubled focuses on something, it doesn't necessarily mean that that something is the cause of their problems.
notacoward 7y ago
> Things that come from economic growth Things that come from actually building stuff. Purely economic growth, as represented by banks and brokerages and economics departments, doesn't put food in anyone's belly or a roof over their heads.
- ksdale 7y ago
  Definitely! You'll get no argument from me there! I'd add a bunch of apps to that list as well.