[-empyre-] Matt Ridley and northern rock

[Judith Roof]

I concur.  He's probably the most egregious popularizer I've seen.
On Oct 23, 2007, at 8:42 AM, sdv at krokodile.co.uk wrote:

> 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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