“It’s much better to live in a place like Switzerland where the problems are complex and the solutions are unclear, rather than North Korea where the problems are simple and the solutions are straightforward.”
The problems in North Korea are not so simple with straightforward solutions, when we look at them from the perspective of the actors involved.
For the average citizen in North Korea, there are no clear avenues to political influence that don’t increase rather than decrease personal risk. For the people in North Korea who do have significant political influence, from a self-serving perspective, there are no “problems” with how North Korea is run.
North Korea’s problems might be simple to solve from the perspective of an altruistic Supreme Leader, but they’re hard as coordination problems. Some of our societal problems in the developed world are also simple from the perspective of an altruistic Supreme Leader, but hard as coordination problems. Some of the more salient differences are that those problems didn’t occur due to the actions of non altruistic or incompetent Supreme Leaders in the first place, and aren’t causing mass subsistence level poverty.
I do think North Korea leaders would prefer a state of affairs where it could educate it’s own elite instead of sending the kids to Switzerland to get a real education.
North Korea’s military would like to have capable engineers that can produce working technology.
On the other hand a simple act like giving the population access to internet might produce a chain reaction that blows up the whole state.
Jang Sung-taek was someone in North Korea with a lot of political power. According to Wikipedia South Korean believed that Jang Sung-taek was the defacto leader of North Korea in 2008.
Last year the North Korean state television announced his execution. His extended family might also have gotten executed.
One of the charges was that he “made no scruple of committing such act of treachery in May last as selling off the land of the Rason economic and trade zone to a foreign country...”
It’s worth noting that Western countries did engage in policies to block Jang Sung-taek efforts to create economic change in North Korea.
That simply means that Switzerland has already solved the easier problems North Korea struggles with. To paraphrase, an absence of low-hanging fruit on a well-tended tree means you’re probably in a garden.
“It’s much better to live in a place like Switzerland where the problems are complex and the solutions are unclear, rather than North Korea where the problems are simple and the solutions are straightforward.”
Scott Sumner, A time for nuance
The problems in North Korea are not so simple with straightforward solutions, when we look at them from the perspective of the actors involved.
For the average citizen in North Korea, there are no clear avenues to political influence that don’t increase rather than decrease personal risk. For the people in North Korea who do have significant political influence, from a self-serving perspective, there are no “problems” with how North Korea is run.
North Korea’s problems might be simple to solve from the perspective of an altruistic Supreme Leader, but they’re hard as coordination problems. Some of our societal problems in the developed world are also simple from the perspective of an altruistic Supreme Leader, but hard as coordination problems. Some of the more salient differences are that those problems didn’t occur due to the actions of non altruistic or incompetent Supreme Leaders in the first place, and aren’t causing mass subsistence level poverty.
I do think North Korea leaders would prefer a state of affairs where it could educate it’s own elite instead of sending the kids to Switzerland to get a real education.
North Korea’s military would like to have capable engineers that can produce working technology.
On the other hand a simple act like giving the population access to internet might produce a chain reaction that blows up the whole state.
Jang Sung-taek was someone in North Korea with a lot of political power. According to Wikipedia South Korean believed that Jang Sung-taek was the defacto leader of North Korea in 2008.
Last year the North Korean state television announced his execution. His extended family might also have gotten executed.
One of the charges was that he “made no scruple of committing such act of treachery in May last as selling off the land of the Rason economic and trade zone to a foreign country...”
It’s worth noting that Western countries did engage in policies to block Jang Sung-taek efforts to create economic change in North Korea.
That simply means that Switzerland has already solved the easier problems North Korea struggles with. To paraphrase, an absence of low-hanging fruit on a well-tended tree means you’re probably in a garden.
Isn’t that the point of the quote?
Maybe, but if so the quote is ineffective at conveying it.