Month: September 2020

MRCA

I confess to a digression from the usual here and that I am indeed avoiding writing about that policy question I asked. But give me a break, will you! I promise that I will get to it tomorrow.

Here’s what’s on my mind — MRCA or “Most Recent Common Ancestor.” The question is how recent is the most recent common ancestor to all contemporary humans today? Beyond a certain time in the past, all of us have all our ancestors in common — going back all the way to three or four billion years. The question is restricted to our most recent common ancestor. Continue reading “MRCA”

Sometimes Being Right is Depressing

I’ve been reading the archives of this blog the last couple of weeks. The goal is to extract and aggregate some useful bits to make some ideas accessible to those who don’t have the time to read a random collection of irregularly posted articles. Continue reading “Sometimes Being Right is Depressing”

The George Burns Syndrome

One time I was asked to explain how Israel, despite being a socialist country, was successful in light of the fact that I keep claiming that socialism is a recipe for disaster. My response was this.

Let me tell you about what I call the “George Burns Syndrome.” Continue reading “The George Burns Syndrome”

Problem with the commenting system

A couple of people have attempted to post comments and somehow the comments are not being accepted. Upon investigation, it appears that if you are logged in on a wordpress account, the comment you post disappears.

The workaround for now is to not be logged in to a wordpress account. Use some fake name and email id to post a comment. That comment  will be held for moderation and I will approve it. I guess this problem is transitory and will get fixed soon.

This administratie post will self-destruct in a few days.

Update: It appears that if you use a gmail address in the email field, then wordpress “disappears” the comment. 

A Policy Question

The question is this. What specific policy change would meet the following criteria:

  • It would immediately start the process of unshackling the Indian economy (or even any backward economy) and put it on a path to reaching its potential
  • It would not involve any public expenditure (that is, it would not impose a burden on public finances)
  • It would be popular with the public (meaning it would be not opposed by any significant segment of the population) almost immediately
  • It would not involve the development of any new technologies
  • It would not be adopted by any politician, political party or the government (because it would hurt their narrow, financial interests)

Continue reading “A Policy Question”