1) Working complicated cooperative institutions are formed from many smaller institutions that work together.
2) People altruistically valuing the same thing can give rise to co-operation on a small scale, but I suspect it isn’t so important at larger scales
3) Co-operation often arises because it is in the selfish interests of the co-operating entities.
4) People are probably genetically pre-disposed to co-operate with what they perceive as their ``tribe″.
5) My immediate reaction to this statement is that it isn’t true: ``The magic that used to enable such cooperative institutions is fading.″
6) I agree that institutional cultures can help foster co-operation (or make it more difficult)
7) Peer pressure is a key factor in maintaining institutional cultures.
8) Government institutions have failed before, current situation doesn’t look unique.
9) It is possible for things to get better.
10) Could the co-operation exhibited by ant colonies be regarded as an ant institution?
11) Maybe something like an institution is inevitable when multiple members of the same species live close to one another?
12) Things that look like an institutional failure from the outside may look like an institutional success from the inside. e.g. the bureaucracy may like expanding the bureaucracy even if no on else does.
13) Political institutions have become more inclusive over the 20th century, e.g. by giving women the vote.
14) At a high level could the entire human species be thought of as an institution?
15) The fall of early civilizations like Rome can be regarded as an early form of institutional failure.
16) Plenty of private sector institutions also fail. Most new companies tend to go bankrupt.
17) Government failings may be bigger/more noticeable than private sector ones because private sector ones tend to go bankrupt at an early stage, whereas the government has a large supply of cash to bail out failed projects.
18)Improvements in communications technologies have mad it easier for institutions to co-operate over larger scales.
19) re ``Most brand names seem to be less regarded than they used to be″ could probably be said at most times during the past.
20) Are subcultures much more difficult to form now, or is it that the ones that are forming are less visible to you?
21) The scale of the largest institutions has increased through time and will probably continue to do so.
22) Large institutions can insulate most of themselves from problems at the top, which limits the damage incompetent leaders can do.
23) Private sector institutions seem to be gaining in importance relative to public sector ones.
24) Governments may force some of the largest private sector institutions (google/amazon) to stop them become more powerful.
25) Multi national institutions will probably become more prevalent and more powerful.
26) We may get interplanetary institutions one day.
27) A pre historic tribe can be thought of as an institution, so in one form or another they have always been with us.
28) Short of going to live as a hermit in a remote location it is probably impossible to avoid being a member of an institution.
29) Relations between different institutions are a key part of what they do, and a major determinant of how successful they are.
30) Humans instinctively divide people into ingroup/outgroup. This probably helps define institutions as distinct entities.
31) Institutions that fail badly tend to cease to exist and be replaced by others. So at any time the existing institutions are the ones which have succeeded in co-operating at least to an extent. So we shouldn’t be surprised that existing institutions tend to co-operate at least moderately well.
32) An institution can’t form, or exist for any length of time without at least some co-operation and stability. So the title could be replaced with ``Where do institutions come from?″
33) Peoples knowledge of how to craft institutional cultures may be more instinctive and sub-conscious than conscious.
34) Perceived self interest is key. Rich and powerful people tend to set up incentives for others mainly because it is in their interest to do so, not out of altruism.
35) Fear of punishment (e.g. prison) for defecting against the institution can help keep them stable.
36) The post talks about trends originating on the West coast of the US, then spreading to the rest of the West, but what about Asia?
37) Asian nations will probably play a stronger role in shaping multi-national institutions in the future than western ones.
38) Maybe sub-cultures are harder to form now because most of the ones there is a need for have already formed?
39) Co-operative institutions are often not intentionally designed in the way they operate.
40) I wouldn’t regard brands such as bitcoin or Amazon as being better regarded.
Mismanagement by government institutions is not limited to America. Some examples from Britain:
41) The government had ``Private Finance Initiatives″ which meant they didn’t have to pay for infrastructure until a later date, and due to accounting tricks didn’t have to be reported as government debt. If they had just borrowed the money up front and used that to pay for the infrastructure it would have cost less overall.
42) In the early part of the 21st century the government significantly increased the health budget to make themselves look good, unfortunately it was increased faster than it could easily absorb it, so a lot of it ended up being wasted on things that didn’t improve health care.
43) Every government IT program seems to be delivered late and over budget. The government had to recently delay some changes to the law on same sex marriages because they couldn’t change their IT systems in time, and they spent 10 billion pounds on an IT system for the health service that didn’t work.
44) Strikes in the winter of 1978-79 disrupted key services such as gravedigging, rubbish collection, and some health services. Things got better after that, so it is possible to recover from failures.
45) In the 1990s Britain stopped building submarines for a while. When we started again loss of key skills meant the program was seriously delayed and went massively over budget, and the Americans had to be asked to help sort out this mess. It was later estimated that it would have been cheaper to build a couple of submarines during the gap to maintain the skill base than what actually happened.
46) Britain’s handling of Covid 19 is an epic fail. The government seems to be reacting against short term pressure with no clear long term plan to handle it.
47) When the British government was building the next generation of air defence destroyers they changed the program so that fewer would be built for more money just because it would keep it within short term budgets.
48) When the British government was negotiating Brexit they gave away their best negotiating cards in the initial round of negotiations without getting anything meaning full in return.
49) The British government spent billions of pounds on a new maritime patrol aircraft, paid the company more money for providing fewer of them at a later date when they screwed up, then scrapped them just as they were about to become operational, then realised a few years later this left a major capability gap, and then decided to buy inferior aircraft from abroad as they no longer had confidence local industry could deliver.
50) A few years ago when a new pay package was being negotiated for some workers in the health system the government agreed to pay them a lot more for doing less just because the unions proposed it.
1) Working complicated cooperative institutions are formed from many smaller institutions that work together.
2) People altruistically valuing the same thing can give rise to co-operation on a small scale, but I suspect it isn’t so important at larger scales
3) Co-operation often arises because it is in the selfish interests of the co-operating entities.
4) People are probably genetically pre-disposed to co-operate with what they perceive as their ``tribe″.
5) My immediate reaction to this statement is that it isn’t true: ``The magic that used to enable such cooperative institutions is fading.″
6) I agree that institutional cultures can help foster co-operation (or make it more difficult)
7) Peer pressure is a key factor in maintaining institutional cultures.
8) Government institutions have failed before, current situation doesn’t look unique.
9) It is possible for things to get better.
10) Could the co-operation exhibited by ant colonies be regarded as an ant institution?
11) Maybe something like an institution is inevitable when multiple members of the same species live close to one another?
12) Things that look like an institutional failure from the outside may look like an institutional success from the inside. e.g. the bureaucracy may like expanding the bureaucracy even if no on else does.
13) Political institutions have become more inclusive over the 20th century, e.g. by giving women the vote.
14) At a high level could the entire human species be thought of as an institution?
15) The fall of early civilizations like Rome can be regarded as an early form of institutional failure.
16) Plenty of private sector institutions also fail. Most new companies tend to go bankrupt.
17) Government failings may be bigger/more noticeable than private sector ones because private sector ones tend to go bankrupt at an early stage, whereas the government has a large supply of cash to bail out failed projects.
18)Improvements in communications technologies have mad it easier for institutions to co-operate over larger scales.
19) re ``Most brand names seem to be less regarded than they used to be″ could probably be said at most times during the past.
20) Are subcultures much more difficult to form now, or is it that the ones that are forming are less visible to you?
21) The scale of the largest institutions has increased through time and will probably continue to do so.
22) Large institutions can insulate most of themselves from problems at the top, which limits the damage incompetent leaders can do.
23) Private sector institutions seem to be gaining in importance relative to public sector ones.
24) Governments may force some of the largest private sector institutions (google/amazon) to stop them become more powerful.
25) Multi national institutions will probably become more prevalent and more powerful.
26) We may get interplanetary institutions one day.
27) A pre historic tribe can be thought of as an institution, so in one form or another they have always been with us.
28) Short of going to live as a hermit in a remote location it is probably impossible to avoid being a member of an institution.
29) Relations between different institutions are a key part of what they do, and a major determinant of how successful they are.
30) Humans instinctively divide people into ingroup/outgroup. This probably helps define institutions as distinct entities.
31) Institutions that fail badly tend to cease to exist and be replaced by others. So at any time the existing institutions are the ones which have succeeded in co-operating at least to an extent. So we shouldn’t be surprised that existing institutions tend to co-operate at least moderately well.
32) An institution can’t form, or exist for any length of time without at least some co-operation and stability. So the title could be replaced with ``Where do institutions come from?″
33) Peoples knowledge of how to craft institutional cultures may be more instinctive and sub-conscious than conscious.
34) Perceived self interest is key. Rich and powerful people tend to set up incentives for others mainly because it is in their interest to do so, not out of altruism.
35) Fear of punishment (e.g. prison) for defecting against the institution can help keep them stable.
36) The post talks about trends originating on the West coast of the US, then spreading to the rest of the West, but what about Asia?
37) Asian nations will probably play a stronger role in shaping multi-national institutions in the future than western ones.
38) Maybe sub-cultures are harder to form now because most of the ones there is a need for have already formed?
39) Co-operative institutions are often not intentionally designed in the way they operate.
40) I wouldn’t regard brands such as bitcoin or Amazon as being better regarded.
Mismanagement by government institutions is not limited to America. Some examples from Britain:
41) The government had ``Private Finance Initiatives″ which meant they didn’t have to pay for infrastructure until a later date, and due to accounting tricks didn’t have to be reported as government debt. If they had just borrowed the money up front and used that to pay for the infrastructure it would have cost less overall.
42) In the early part of the 21st century the government significantly increased the health budget to make themselves look good, unfortunately it was increased faster than it could easily absorb it, so a lot of it ended up being wasted on things that didn’t improve health care.
43) Every government IT program seems to be delivered late and over budget. The government had to recently delay some changes to the law on same sex marriages because they couldn’t change their IT systems in time, and they spent 10 billion pounds on an IT system for the health service that didn’t work.
44) Strikes in the winter of 1978-79 disrupted key services such as gravedigging, rubbish collection, and some health services. Things got better after that, so it is possible to recover from failures.
45) In the 1990s Britain stopped building submarines for a while. When we started again loss of key skills meant the program was seriously delayed and went massively over budget, and the Americans had to be asked to help sort out this mess. It was later estimated that it would have been cheaper to build a couple of submarines during the gap to maintain the skill base than what actually happened.
46) Britain’s handling of Covid 19 is an epic fail. The government seems to be reacting against short term pressure with no clear long term plan to handle it.
47) When the British government was building the next generation of air defence destroyers they changed the program so that fewer would be built for more money just because it would keep it within short term budgets.
48) When the British government was negotiating Brexit they gave away their best negotiating cards in the initial round of negotiations without getting anything meaning full in return.
49) The British government spent billions of pounds on a new maritime patrol aircraft, paid the company more money for providing fewer of them at a later date when they screwed up, then scrapped them just as they were about to become operational, then realised a few years later this left a major capability gap, and then decided to buy inferior aircraft from abroad as they no longer had confidence local industry could deliver.
50) A few years ago when a new pay package was being negotiated for some workers in the health system the government agreed to pay them a lot more for doing less just because the unions proposed it.