Authoritarianism threatens as long as SA remains one of the worst countries at trickle-down economics A recent Business Day editorial spoke of an “unacceptably high level of youth unemployment” and how it “is now probably the biggest threat to SA’s stability” (“President must assemble a wartime cabinet”, February 7). Since then Stats SA’s labour force figures…Continue reading How foreign policy kills prospects of the jobless

The Godfather trilogy spotlighted issues and answers we should freshly consider. How it informed American audiences about political protection of the mob in Las Vegas is particularly relevant. Domination by gangsters didn’t make Las Vegas of the 1940s, 50s and 60s comparable to South Africa of the last three decades. Those mobsters included builders with vision. …Continue reading Las Vegas solutions for SA

If irrefutable evidence showed the world would benefit from permanently exempting Elon Musk from paying taxes, would you be ok with that?  If the US granted Musk a life-time exemption from paying taxes while shifting NASA’s mandate away from building rockets, it seems quite likely that US taxpayers and space exploration would both benefit. Space…Continue reading When solutions are blocked by social justice spin

Asking ChatGPT to identify the most profound change of the last 200 years yields a lengthy response about the Industrial Revolution. An AI-styled political correctness seems to preclude a simple reference, such as the decline in farm work from 80% of all jobs to 2%. Whereas the industrial era spurred a massive migration away from…Continue reading Can AI help SA?

Who would be better at ending the Russo-Ukrainian war, a Kissinger type of negotiator or someone with a Mandela-like leadership style? Why is this relevant to South Africa’s political and economic malaise? Mandela personified morally resplendent leadership. His courage, conviction and magnanimity encouraged us to indulge aspirational values. It is natural to admire a role-model…Continue reading Mandela’s style versus Kissinger’s 

The Covid pandemic freshly queried how we define ‘freedom’ and ‘to live’. Meanwhile, political actors sought to shape and exploit such views. A year ago China’s high command could smugly presume its Covid policies evidenced superior leadership. As their recent reversal leaves only one country, North Korea, still relying on a zero-Covid strategy, we should…Continue reading Purging politically induced learning blockages

The ANC’s policies, and antics, are so frequently counterproductive that its opponents confidently presume they can do better. Yet, as its rivals lack plans to surge employment, our feckless ruling party still gets away with framing issues around inequities. While Donald Trump is very different from the ANC’s leadership in countless ways, both are elites…Continue reading How the ANC’s playbook resembles Donald Trump’s

Now is the time, and South Africa the place, to understand why Africa has been such an economic laggard. Scars remain from nearly all of Africa having been aggressively colonised. Greed mixed with racism to crush long-standing social structures while looting resource wealth.  However, many of today’s most dynamic economies are former colonies. Their impressive…Continue reading Why does Africa continue to underperform?

SA’s approach to energy generation is as out of sync with evolving global norms as the previous regime’s race-based voting criteria were. Localisation policies preclude our integration into the global economy, which is required to increase job creation while boosting our capacity to repay the enormous debt load necessary to transition towards cleaner energy sources.…Continue reading Energy, poverty and gold SA’s approach to energy generation is as out of sync with evolving global norms

Is social justice to economic development what physics is to engineering? No. Social justice mixes ethics with believing in a false utopia. Economic development, like physics and engineering, is science-based. Historians like Yuval Noah Hariri and Tom Holland support the view that a diverse  society needs a shared set of faith-based beliefs to bond around…Continue reading The next twist in SA’s social justice saga