APRIL 2017 / NO. 2
TAGS: GOVERNMENTS, CORRUPTION, ARTHUR LAFFER, LAFFER CURVE
Governments are corrupt to the bone
Following the results of the elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany in 2017, we can only agree with the famous economist Dr. Arthur Laffer, that “Governments are corrupt to the bone”
Dr. Arthur Laffer is known for his famous ‘Laffer Curve’. He was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Board and an advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In January 2017, he visited the Netherlands and made statements to the effect that “governments are corrupt to the bone”, and the EU is “a state-run organization where the people don’t have a vote”. Arthur Laffer is correct, but what is of crucial concern is the non-critical attitude of the media and journalists. What we are lacking are investigative journalists who criticize our government and politicians. We list the following seven critical issues:
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Cherry-picking: selecting only that data and information which fits your hypothesis
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Selective windowing: limiting yourself to the headlines in newspapers
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Counter-knowledge: incorrect information is packaged as fact
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Statistics are not facts, but interpretations, dependent on: the way the numbers are collected (by people!), how they are interpreted, and how they are visualized
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Credibility of information: is this confirmed by other sources?
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Reliability of sources: ranging from completely reliable to cannot be judged
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Number of sources: never rely on one single source
Knowledge is a bunch of facts. Possessing much knowledge is not the same as being intelligent, however, we can adopt Leonardo da Vinci’s comment, namely “learn how to see and realize that everything connects to everything else”
“The problem with people is not that they don’t know, but that they know so much that is not true”, Josh Willings
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