My favorite political columnist, George Will, discusses a new book by Reason magazine writers Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch entitled The Declaration of Independents who, as Will states, believe that not even government, try as it will, can prevent onrushing social improvement. A few highlights are as follows:
The authors say that the most ossified, sclerotic sectors of American life — politics and government — are about to be blown up by new capabilities, especially the Internet, and the public’s wholesome impatience that is encouraged by them.
Since 1970, per pupil real, inflation-adjusted spending has doubled and the teacher-pupil ratio has declined substantially. But math and reading scores are essentially unchanged, so we are spending much more to achieve the same results. America has the shortest school year in the industrial world, an academic calendar — speaking of nostalgia — suited to an America when children were needed on the farms and ranches in the late spring and early autumn. “No other industry,” Gillespie and Welch write, “still adheres to a calendar based on 19th-century agricultural cycles — even agriculture has given up that schedule.”
In the 1950s, A&P supermarkets (remember them? You probably don’t) had a 75 percent market share. What used to be the General Motors Building near Central Park South has an Apple store where the automobile showroom once was. When Kodak loses customers, it withers.
And here’s the kicker—
But when government fails, it expands even faster. This is, Gillespie and Welch say, because “politics is a lagging indicator of change,” a sector of top-down traditions increasingly out of step with today’s “bottom-up business and culture” of: “You want soy with that decaf mocha frappuccino?”
A generation that has grown up with the Internet “has essentially been raised libertarian,” swimming in markets, which are choices among competing alternatives.
And the left weeps. Preaching what has been called nostalgianomics, liberals mourn the passing of the days when there was one phone company, three car companies, three television networks, and an airline cartel, and big labor and big business were cozy with big government.
A nice Sunday read. Enjoy.
July 31st, 2011 at 10:49 am
So when liberals try to preserve our old American model, they are really stopping American competitiveness.
We need to compete well globally against other nations, as we always have, but we need to compete more directly, and among our own citizens.
Big labor and Big government cannot leave America in a surviving scenario. They cost too much.
July 31st, 2011 at 11:09 am
This is a great piece of writing. Love the style. Thanks for pointing to it!
July 31st, 2011 at 11:52 am
Academic Calendar length is a red herring.
Not only do the children in America who perform at the top of the pile attend school for the same length of time as those (When they show up) at the bottom, but some of the highest-scoring nations on Math and Science (The gold standard of educational achievement, or so we’ve been told) attend school for a grand total of two extra weeks or so.
Consider this: The average days-absent number for a student in the Detroit School District (one of the lowest-scoring in the nation) is 46. Does anyone think that:
1) Test scores for the nation as a whole wouldn’t be brought much closer to our foreign competitors if we simply raised the performance of our lowest-achieving districts?
2) We couldn’t raise performance in these disticts if students simply missed less than a day or more a week?
3) It would actually make a difference to these types of students if we told them they were supposed to be in class an extra two months?
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“And the left weeps. Preaching what has been called nostalgianomics, liberals mourn the passing of the days when there was one phone company, three car companies, three television networks, and an airline cartel, and big labor and big business were cozy with big government.”
…and this would be the same time for which Conservatives are nostalgic because people actually looked forward to having children, they got married before they did so, children were able to grow up in two-parent homes, divorce was low, fatherlessness was low, drug use was low, abortion (even illegal abortion) was far more rare than it is [in its legal form] today, and most middle class families had access to modern conveniences on a single income.
Nostalgia for the 1950s and early 1960s is not misplaced.
July 31st, 2011 at 11:59 am
Totally reinforces my long held assertion that ‘progressives’ are in fact regressive.
They haven’t had a new idea since the 1930′s.
July 31st, 2011 at 12:35 pm
This book is on my ‘Need to Read’ list. Unfortunately, that’s a very long list.
I like the idea that the stark contrast between freedom of choice in the marketplace and tight restriction of choice by government might lead to more libertarian thinking. I hope it’s true.
It’s certainly undeniable that both parties are devoted to the idea of big government, and both are firmly in favor of regulating individuals’ lives. They differ only in terms of which individual rights they see as most important to regulate — the Republicans want to regulate sex and drugs, the Democrats want to take away all economic freedom, and tell us how much fat we can eat and how our children should be educated.
July 31st, 2011 at 3:53 pm
I’m no Obama fan, but to his credit he has been proposing Broadband Internet, which would put us into the 21st Century…. but the conservatives don’t want to spend the money…..
The only reason we still adhere to the 19th century spring/Autumn calender so long after the Industrial Revolution made it possible to leave the farm, is because it is the hottest time of the year, it is ingrained in our culture, and it’s the best time to take vacations.