Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
The partisans of centralization in Europe are wont to maintain that the Government directs the affairs of each locality better than the citizens could do it for themselves; this may be true when the central power is enlightened, and when the local districts are ignorant; when it is as alert as they are slow; when it is accustomed to act, and they
... See moreAlexis de Tocqueville • Democracy in America, Volume I and II (Optimized for Kindle)
Friedrich Hayek’s book The Fatal Conceit: Errors of Socialism expressed with clarity and authority what I had long felt but was unable to express, namely the unwisdom of powerful intellects, including Albert Einstein, when they believed that a powerful brain can devise a better system and bring about more “social justice” than what historical
... See moreGraham Allison, Ali Wyne, Robert D. Blackwill, Henry A. Kissinger • Lee Kuan Yew
Does this mean that the government has no right whatever of interference in these autonomous spheres of life? Not at all. It possesses the threefold right and duty: 1. Whenever different spheres clash, to compel mutual regard for the boundary-lines of each; 2. To defend individuals and the weak ones, in those spheres, against the abuse of power of
... See moreAbraham Kuyper • Lectures on Calvinism
By placing a hard cap on the total supply of bitcoins, as discussed in Chapter 8, Nakamoto was clearly unpersuaded by the arguments of the standard macroeconomics textbook and more influenced by the Austrian school, which argues that the quantity of money itself is irrelevant, that any supply of money is sufficient to run an economy of any size,
... See moreSaifedean Ammous • The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
“Private capital tends to become concentrated in [a] few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones,” Albert Einstein wrote in 1949 in the Monthly Review in
... See moreChris Hedges • Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
First, government should not be the sole provider of a good or service unless there is a compelling reason to believe that the private sector will fail in that role.
Charles Wheelan • Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (Fully Revised and Updated)
Charles Koch’s mentor, the quasi-anarchist Robert LeFevre, had taught the Kochs that “government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.”
Jane Mayer • Dark Money
but in general the prominent feature of the administration in the United States is its excessive local independence.