Because it is a monopoly, government brings inefficiency and stagnation to most things it runs; government agencies pursue the inflation of their budgets rather than the service of their customers; pressure groups form an unholy alliance with agencies to extract more money from taxpayers for their members. Yet despite all this, most clever people still call for government to run more things and assume that if it did so, it would somehow be more perfect, more selfless, next time.
Matt RidleyLife is a Sisyphean race, run ever faster toward a finish line that is merely the start of the next race
Matt RidleyOur minds have been built by selfish genes, but they have been built to be social, trustworthy and cooperative.
Matt RidleyEcology, like genetics, is not about equilibrium states. It is about change, change and change. Nothing stays the same forever.
Matt RidleyThe average Mexican lives longer now than the average Briton did in 1955. Infant mortality is lower today in Nepal than it was in Italy in 1951. The proportion of Vietnamese living on less than $2 a day has dropped from 90 per cent to 30 per cent in twenty years. The rich have got richer, but the poor have done even better.
Matt Ridley