Glenn L. Carle:

Americans like to imagine that history progresses, and that as a society, little by little, we become more enlightened, more knowledgeable, and better. In reality, sadly, our failings and our gifts as humans remain more or less constant, and we can regress easily without knowing it.

Paul Graham:

If you think something's supposed to hurt, you're less likely to notice if you're doing it wrong.

David Runciman:

A widespread attempt to achieve leaner and more efficient government has only succeeded in bloating it and making it more bureaucratically oppressive.

Evgeny Morozov:

The broader problem with these optimistic, utopian tales is that they rationalize the pathologies of the current political and economic system, presenting them as our conscious lifestyle choices.

There's no denying that the sharing economy can -- and probably does -- make the consequences of the current financial crisis more bearable. However, in tackling the consequences, it does nothing to address the causes. It's true that, thanks to advances in the information technology, some of us can finally get by with less -- chiefly, by relying on more effective distribution of existing resources. But there's nothing to celebrate here: it's like handing everybody earplugs to deal with intolerable street noise instead of doing something about the noise itself.

Nolan McCarty:

The Dodd-Frank strategy failed. There is no reason to believe that it will not fail in the big picture as well. It is time to rethink the whole system.

Evan Osnos:

When I lived in Beijing, the Chinese often complained that their government was riddled with corruption, and they asked me if America had similar problems. I usually replied that though our government has its crooks, the naked exchange of favors for money is minimized by the rule of law and a free press. Now I'm not so sure.