[-empyre-] Matt Ridley and northern rock

[sdv at krokodile.co.uk]

oh and I should add that this is not an argument for reading Matt 
Ridley, but the opposite it's an argument for NOT reading anything by 
him at all...

steve

sdv at krokodile.co.uk wrote:
> I was highly amused to read this critique of Matt Ridley from George 
> Monbiot this morning.
> 
> Given Judith's discussion of Matt Ridley's work in the text, it's 
> extremely useful  of George to remind us of the libertarian addiction to 
>  neo-liberal economics of Matt Ridley.
> 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2197247,00.html
> 
> I especially enjoyed the following:
> 
> Ridley, who has a DPhil in zoology, is no stranger to good science, and 
> his explorations of our evolutionary history, which are often 
> fascinating and provoking, are based on papers published in 
> peer-reviewed journals. But whenever a conflict arose between his 
> scientific training and the interests of business, he would discard the 
> science. Ignoring hundreds of scientific papers that came to the 
> opposite conclusion, and drawing instead on material presented by a 
> business lobby group called the Institute of Economic Affairs, he argued 
> that global temperatures have scarcely increased, so we should stop 
> worrying about climate change. He suggested that elephants should be 
> hunted for their ivory, planning laws should be scrapped, recycling 
> should be stopped, bosses should be free to choose whether or not their 
> workers get repetitive strain injury and companies, rather than 
> governments, should be allowed to decide whether or not the food they 
> sell is safe. He raged against taxes, subsidies, bailouts and government 
> regulation. Bureaucracy, he argued, is "a self-seeking flea on the backs 
> of the more productive people of this world ... governments do not run 
> countries, they parasitise them".
> 
> Given that his bank is the first the collapse since 1866...
> 
> enjoy
> 
> steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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