Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Classy repartee

Wall Street Journal:

"The fundamental aspect of globalization is urbanization, which is spreading everywhere. There isn't a single country in the world that isn't getting more and more urbanized, even the ones that are already quite urbanized, like this one and America," [Stephen Green, chairman and former CEO of HSBC] says. "Last year was the year when we crossed the point where more than half the world's population is in big cities. By 2050 it will be 80% of people who live in cities."

This is called a "Churchillian defense of markets" by the Journal. Do you know what a Churchillian defense of markets is? It is when you take Winston Churchill's quip about democracy being the worst form of government except for every other kind that's been tried, but attribute the undemocratic character of markets to "democracy." This then becomes your classiest rejoinder in any debate with humanity.

2 comments:

Johnny Sunshine Jackson said...

About urbanization... If you haven't read Mike Davis' Planet of Slums, I recommend it.

JRB said...

Thanks!