Articles by Arnold Kling
Tribe and State
Lindholm was emphasizing commonalities between the Muslim Middle East and the West..."egalitarianism, individualism, pluralism, competitiveness, calculating rationality, personal inititiative, social mobility, freedom." ...absent from this list, leaving aside Chris
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Inequality and Excess
"Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a cabinet-level poverty czar" --The New York Times, April 5, 2008 "Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton earned a combined $109 million between 2000 and 2007...In 2007 alone, former President Clinton ear
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The Universal Spitzer
"The former New York attorney general never believed normal rules applied to him, and his view was validated time and again by an adoring press." --Kimberly A. Strassel The term "Spitzer" belongs in the dictionary, and its definition should be...
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The Energy Future: Scenarios
"[Electricity from solar power] is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we'll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years." Ray Kurzweil, quoted in Live...
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Splinter States
"Building states in pre-colonial Africa was exceptionally arduous. Imposing taxes or duties on reluctant subjects was hard anywhere. But, where rebelling meant no more than walking away to found a splinter community..." --John Darwin, After Tamerlane, p. 314 (Recen
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Mandates for Change
"The way most goods and services become excellent -- I mean really excellent -- is through competition...How do you think we got from subsistence agriculture to super-cheap food? By mandates?" --Tyler Cowen In November, the United States may take its...
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The Humility Factor
One of my former students is in Egypt on an archaeology project, and we have kept in touch by email. After I gave him my rundown on the political situation, he wrote back saying that it sounded as though I...
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The Benefits of Hegemony
"He carried a golden paiza just as his father and uncle had done on their journeys on behalf of the Mongol empire. This object was a foot long and three inches across...Possessing it meant that Marco was designated as a...
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When Health Care Becomes Personal
"Despite a rapidly growing elderly population, the number of certified geriatricians fell by a third between 1998 and 2004. Applications to training programs in adult primary-care medicine are plummeting, while fields like plastic surgery and radiology receive appl
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A Very Stimulating Crisis
"Saving labor, producing more goods with fewer man-hours, is widely perceived not as progress but as a danger. I call this the make-work bias, a tendency to underestimate the economic benefits of conserving labor. Where noneconomists see the destruction of...
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