Thinking Class
Thinking Class is a weekly long-form interview podcast about history, culture, civilisation, and the moral and political challenges facing Britain and the West. Expect depth and clarity over headlines and hot-takes.
Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, academics, and thinkers including David Starkey, Peter Hitchens, Roy Baumeister, Nigel Biggar, Eric Kaufmann, Robert Tombs, Alan Macfarlane, and others.
Thinking Class
#068 - Lorenzo Warby - Why Economists' Predictions Go Wrong, The Roman Empire Fell, And Why You Should Never Give Bureaucrats Moral Projects
Lorenzo Warby writes the Substack Lorenzo from Oz and he contributes regularly to Helen Dale's Substack, Not on your team, but always fair. He needs little introduction to long time classmates because this is the third time he has appeared on the show. Check out the archives for the other two.
In this episode, Lorenzo and I think out loud about why the term capitalism is misleading and why we should speak about living in a mercantile society instead, the many complexities of commerce and the cultural influences on economic growth, the prevalence of activism in the modern world and its impact on social capital, the implications of bureaucratic moral projects, the challenges of accountability within bureaucracies, the impact of migration policies on democratic processes, the historical context of the fall of empires, particularly the Roman Empire, why effective institutions are more valuable than empires, the importance of local governance and trade in fostering prosperity, and much, much more.
Enjoy the show, Classmates.
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