ECONOMICS FOR REAL PEOPLE: “Democracy & the Tragedy of the Commons”

Here’s the note from our friends at the UoA Economic Group about tonight’s seminar, featuring another guest speaker:

Hello Everyone.

Hope you’re surviving the wintery blast.  Speaking tonight we have David Seymour, a Senior Policy Analyst and Director of the Saskatchewan Office of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.  He will be talking about think-tanks and examining the claims that “Capitalism has failed”—and (as a former resident of one of the coldest places in Canada) answering timely questions on how to survive when the snow is thigh-deep.  Here’s what he plans to cover:

"Two years ago we were told again and again that capitalism had failed.
    “Now it seems that the welfare state is failing in a much more profound way. In the United States, Italy, Greece, and to a lesser extent New Zealand, the political systems produce expectations around taxes and entitlements that do not balance, leading to deficits, debts, and disruption.
    “I will argue that these expectations are the logical consequence of leaving too many decisions up to political process. Drawing on public choice economics, ecology, and the history of collapsed societies, I'll argue that our current democratic process is a case of the tragedy of the commons. Like environmental commons tragedies, the solution is to return more decision making to the private realm."

Sound interesting?  Come along and find out.

Date: Tuesday August 16th
Time: 6pm
Location: UOA Business School.  Case Room 1, Level 0

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