Weekend miscellany

> “By advocating a form of radical individualism that denies all mutual, interdependent and differentiated responsibility, they guarantee the failure of every level/sphere/agency other than the agent of last resort. […] If we refuse to be our brother’s keepers, we’re inviting Big Brother to take over the job instead.”

Interesting. I’ll definitely try to take the time to read about Elinor Ostrom. As see it it’s a chicken and egg problem where either big government breeds individualism or the other way around, but I wonder if consumerism might be a confounding factor. Southern European countries are believed to have bigger governments than say the UK or the USA yet also a family nucleus that tends to be stronger (at least longer). Teenagers from say Greece are less likely to own their personal TV/car/PC than their US counterparts, not by choice but by necessity (as caused, for example, by greater unemployment), although the inertia of tradition perhaps mitigates this purely financial consideration. Finally the work culture being not quite as demanding (or rewarding depending on how you want to see it) in the first group (Good luck promoting air travel with “Work hard Fly right”), perhaps due to higher marginal tax rates, leaves plenty of time for family and friends. There again, incentives matter.