Kara Swisher, from a commencement address given at a school: “So with all your education, you have a job and, really, a duty, to do this as a group of people who are armed with all the advantages. Doing and not doing your homework aside, I guess I am really telling you that you have agency. Don’t let life run you when you should be running your life. No matter the political noise — and it is noisy — you are gifted to live in a place and time when you have the great ability to be what you want to become.”
Swaminathan Aiyar on Lee Kuan Yew: “Lee saw that high productivity was the key to prosperity and needed foreign investment and trade. These were facilitated by low taxes and incentives for select industries. Huge public sector companies provided world class infrastructure — ports, water, electricity, education — but the production of goods was left to the private sector. Foreign investment was emphasised to access the best technology, management, and marketing knowledge…Lee said welfare was the job of government and production was the job of business. He proved that the combination could produce record-beating growth and prosperity. He crushed corruption relentlessly, a rarity in developing countries. He paid civil servants only modestly less than they could earn in the private sector. He slashed red tape to zero or the minimum consistent with global quality standards. Dispute settlement was quick and fair.”
Read: Black Ice by Brad Thor
