La vot, dar pentru ce fel de schimbare?

Bryan Caplan – The Idea Trap:

When do the „crazies” start to get a serious political hearing? Only after a country is already going down the drain.

If we look around the world, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that bad performance is not self-correcting. One of the most important facts about economic growth is that, on average, poor countries do not catch up to rich countries.1 The main reason seems to be that poor countries consistently have bad policies. Many of these countries are democracies. But they almost never elect a candidate on the theme „We need to copy the policies of more successful countries like Hong Kong and Singapore, and turn our backs on our failed national political tradition.”

The least pleasant places in the world to live normally have three features in common: First, low economic growth; second, policies that discourage growth; and third, resistance to the idea that other policies would be better.

[…]

Depression and disarray benefit the Lenins of the world. That is when the public is most receptive to nonsense, to scapegoating sneaky foreigners and greedy corporations. The voice of reason, in contrast, gets its most sympathetic hearing when things are running smoothly, so the public is calm enough to think rationally about how to improve on the status quo, and maybe even appreciate how much their favorite scapegoats do for them.

Cititorii pot deduce că ar fi înțelept să voteze pentru candidați care promovează politici care susțin creșterea economică și iau în considerare exemplele de succes din afară (nu doar Singapore sau Hong Kong)