Comments on: FastForward Radio

By: Karl Hallowell

Karl Hallowell — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:20:27 +0000

I still disagree with Peters’ criteria 4, “The extended family or clan as the basic unit of social organization.” Looking at US businesses, a lot of family businesses are quite successful. They often maintain a focus and long term planning not present in many of the publically traded companies.

As I see it, the real problem comes when the clan is also responsible for such things as law enforcement or other common public goods/services.

By: Harvey

Harvey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:09:47 +0000

“National success is eccentric”; is the part that caught my eye in Peter’s article. I’d like to hear some Speculist action about that! You see, I think the best form of nation hasn’t been invented, but suspect it includes some greatest hits of previous attempts. I invented one called the “The Maslow and Liberty Then Some Capitalism” nation. For that, people attack me with memes at parties.

By: Stephen Gordon

Stephen Gordon — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:59:37 +0000

One of the reasons I’m a big believer in Peter’s analysis is that it seems to predict failure so well.

It should be noted that – as judged by Peters’ criteria – no country is perfect. No, not even the most successful industrialized nations are perfect.

These are seven sliding scales. If a country does poorly enough on several scales, or terrible on just one – that country might be headed for collapse.

By: Phil Bowermaster

Phil Bowermaster — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:01:37 +0000

Zimbabwe would appear to be a good (that is, tragic) example of a country in collapse per Peters' or Orlov's criteria. To cite just one statistic, in the past two decades life expectancy has dropped from about 63 years to about 37.