'The Ecole Nationale d’Administration has produced .. very few entrepreneurs.'<blockquote>'Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in essence an extreme leftist (and a very unpleasant man), merely flawed the U.S. constitutional system through his misguided ideas. In France, where intellectuals are taken altogether too seriously, his ideas were far more powerful than those of John Locke, and hence once the Ancien Regime was overthrown in 1789 the moderates such as Mirabeau and Lafayette were helpless against the Rousseauesque force of the Jacobins. The result has been a political system in which, through two Empires, five Republics and a Directory, property rights have never been adequately safeguarded. Only under the two restored monarchies, of Louis XVIII/Charles X (1815-1830) and Louis-Philippe (1830-1848), were property rights largely secure. However the sensible admonition of Louis-Philippe’s minister, the benign Adolphe Thiers: “Enrichissez-vous” proved helpless against the forces of renewed revolution in 1848.
France’s civilization is among the great glories of mankind, its scientific advances are immense and its cuisine is superb, but economically even these great virtues have failed to make the place truly prosperous. The problem is the innate philosophical belief that free markets are an Anglo-Saxon abomination to be regarded with deep suspicion and circumvented wherever possible by government intervention. Government spending of 56% of GDP (compared to Spain’s 45%) leaves little room for the private sector to flourish, while budget deficits every year since 1974 have caused France’s public debt to soar to 89% of GDP in 2012, substantially larger in relation to GDP than Spain’s. The Ecole Nationale d’Administration has produced generations of superbly trained technocrats, far ahead of Britain’s late-blooming business schools, but very few entrepreneurs.
- Martin Hutchinson,
The French Road to Perdition, April 23, 2012</blockquote>
'..Enrique Krauze’s “Redeemers – Ideas and Power in Latin America” suggests strongly that the continent’s sad decline was due to the power of bad ideas.'<blockquote>'According to economic historian Angus Maddison, Latin America had six among the world’s 30 richest economies in 1900. Today the continent’s richest country, by purchasing power parity GDP per capita, is Argentina, at No. 55, according to the International Monetary Fund. Yet the continent is not short of natural resources, not overpopulated, and avoided the catastrophic carnage of World Wars I and II. The Mexican author Enrique Krauze’s “Redeemers – Ideas and Power in Latin America” suggests strongly that the continent’s sad decline was due to the power of bad ideas.'
- Martin Hutchinson,
The Malign Power of Bad Ideas, April 16, 2012</blockquote>
'..millions of students continue to graduate with degrees that have no obvious real-world benefits.'<blockquote>'The common assumption among policymakers is that, in order to maintain its higher living standards against emerging markets competition, the United States must invest more in higher education. To achieve this, the government has instituted a massive student loan guarantee program, with over $1 trillion outstanding and an average of $25,000 in debt for every graduating student with debt. Yet millions of students continue to graduate with degrees that have no obvious real-world benefits. There’s a disconnect here, and it is beginning to appear that the current U.S. obsession with higher education is misguided.'
- Martin Hutchinson,
The Higher Education Money Pit, April 09, 2012</blockquote>
Context<blockquote>
Germany, USA - '..the problems..'CFC Ban Successful - Companies Prepare for a Fossil-Free Future - Germany's Hidden Champions(Nuclear power) - 'We’ve closed that chapter' - Electric is the way ('..an all-electric car..')(Space) - Planetary Resources (asteroid mining) - '..Arkyd Series 100 spacecraft.'</blockquote>