David Perell: “Society functions like one big company now. On the surface, big companies are great. They’re safe, reliable, and predictable. They usually have good healthcare benefits and competitive paid-time-off policies. The problem is all the corporate nonsense: mindless paper pushing, work that only crawls forward, the need to always ask for permission, oppressively narrow specialization, slapdash Powerpoints, pointless meetings, and just about everything else you see in a Dilbert comic. Instead of innovating towards a better future, we’ve downshifted into risk management. Our world is increasingly governed by administrators and bureaucrats who tap, click, and filibuster their way through the world.”
Shankkar Aiyar: “The Constitution of India states that urban development is a state subject – and governments state this in Parliament with uncommon religiosity. That said, the biggest programmes and allocations for urban development emanate from the Union Government. The 74th Amendment to the Constitution promised the transfer of funds and functions from the Centre and states to local governments. In over a quarter of a century, the promise has been waylaid by politics. As the late Vilasrao Deshmukh once said, the states do to local governments what the Centre does to states. The divorce of authority and accountability has left urban India trapped in a systemic dystopia. Every five years, citizens of Mumbai vote to elect councillors in municipal elections. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation of Mumbai is the largest and richest municipal body with a budget of over Rs 45000 crore. How empowered is the body? The budget is presented by appointed officials. The 227 elected corporators can scarcely define how the money is spent.”
Richard Morrison: “When it comes to the biggest debate of economic policy—whether governments should exercise more or less control over economic life—[James] Otteson’s major assumption is simple: as human beings, we all have an equal worth and an equal moral agency. Thus, interventions into the market economy, whether they be large or small, are presumptively illegitimate because they supersede the judgment of peacefully contracting parties. This is true even when the goal is economic equality itself. Market participants have different talents, training, and goals, so implementing government policy that would force them into an identical status would mean disrespecting their freely chosen life paths.”
