dimanche 27 mars 2011

Sagesse pré-moderne

The ideal Government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onwards, is one which lets the individual alone – one which barely escapes being no government at all. This ideal, I believe, will be realised in the world twenty or thirty centuries after I have passed from these scenes and taken up my public duties in Hell.

H.L. Mencken (1922)

lundi 14 mars 2011

Différence d'attitude: responsabilité individuelle vs assisté social

Then--and here's the point--somewhere in our 30s, we refuse all further change. The purest coincidence got us to where we live. The merest fluke put us in the present job. Now other parts of the world may beckon, other jobs may offer more. No matter. However capriciously we got to where we are, even if simply because our car broke down, we insist on staying there. Further change has become out of the question, no matter how miserable we are.

This behavior has always mystified me. I'm a fan of capitalism and freedom. Capitalism assumes that if you're unhappy with what you're doing, you'll change.

But that's not how the world works. If people are unhappy with their jobs, they agitate, join a union, go on strike, lobby for political change, maybe blow up the workplace. But most never even consider changing jobs.

Similarly, when the landlord raises the rent, people vote for rent control, or sue, or withhold payment, or seek help from city hall.

But most people never consider moving.

-Paul Terhost

dimanche 13 mars 2011

Sagesse intemporelle

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.

Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War”
(Esquire, September 1935)

mardi 8 mars 2011

La citation du jour

We now have TSA, which couldn’t catch cholera in a sewage outfall in Mumbai, but it has a huge payroll and a degree of corruption that would make the sewage outfall a cause for nostalgia.

-Fred Reed

dimanche 6 mars 2011

Testez vos connaissances immobilières dans le contexte de la bulle Britanno-Colombienne!

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