Month: May 2016

The Weaknesses of a Popular Primary System – The Atlantic

Source: The Weaknesses of a Popular Primary System – The Atlantic

four goals that a [presidential] selection system should ideally be able to achieve:

(1) It should promote candidates with presidential character,

(2) the accession to power should be seen as legitimate,

(3) the executive should have qualifications for the office, and

(4) “highly ambitious” people should be prevented from taking office.

Meet Emma Morano

Source: Wait but Why, on Facebook

Meet Emma Morano, the one human left from the 1800s. Three facts about Emma:

1) When she was born in November 1899, there were about 1.5 billion people on Earth. Now every single one of those 1.5 billion people are gone – except Emma – and there are 7.4 billion entirely new people here.

2) As a baby, Emma could have been held by someone alive during the 1700s, and today, she can hold babies who will be alive in the 2100s (and possibly well beyond), making her the rare person who will interact with a set of people who were alive in five different centuries.

3) When Emma was born, there were no cars yet, and she’s now approaching a time when no one is driving because of self-driving cars – meaning she has witnessed the “people driving cars” era in its entirety.

How the World Works – The Atlantic

Source: How the World Works – The Atlantic

Americans persist in thinking that Adam Smith’s rules for free trade are the only legitimate ones. But today’s fastest-growing economies are using a very different set of rules. Once, we knew them—knew them so well that we played by them, and won. Now we seem to have forgotten

In the long run, [Friedrich List] argued, a society’s well-being and its overall wealth are determined not by what the society can buy but by what it can make. … In strategic terms nations ended up being dependent or independent according to their ability to make things for themselves. … That is, if you buy the ton of steel or cask of wine at bargain rates this year, you are better off, as a consumer, right away. But over ten years, or fifty, you and your children may be stronger as both consumers and producers if you learn how to make the steel and wine yourself.