re: #38 The Sanity Inspector

Reminds me of the Irish saying: “If you are a gentleman and I am a gentleman, who will milk the cow?”

Berlin is not dairy country. As the skill set of its citizenry frays, its economy fades. The man in charge of the finances is staring the consequences in the face and pointing them out.

Theodore Dalrymple has had much to say on the topic of the rising tide of ignorance (and crime) in Britain. There, it’s not the immigrants, but the indigenous population, that is leading the way to a dimmer future. He notes that education in Britain has fallen to the point that many cognitively normal adults don’t know their times tables, not even up to 3 times 4.

There are real economic consequences to a sustained and significant downtrend in the educational achievements of a population.

Britain cannot do anything about its problem with immigration policy. Berlin could. Both places might think about whether a welfare culture has anything to do with their trend. It’s something that could be put to a more or less scientific test: do nations and cities that expect more in the way of self-reliance also experience this downtrend? Are there instances of nations and cities that have a long-standing generous welfare state, but that have not experienced such trends?