Here we encounter the paradox of specialization. Every specialist has his own special doomsday theory on which the cautionary principle justifies any expenditure of money, loss of freedom, or imposition of regulatory power. The paradox is that one specialist can have his way and do good in a limited domain. But if all have their way, the doomsday they are trying to stop becomes inevitable. If it is not a pandemic, it’s an incoming meteor or bioterror menace, or rise of foreign terrestrial, space-based or naval power, or threat to the power grid, or rise of coastal waters, or electromagnetic pulse (EMP), or the San Andreas fault, or genetically modified crops, or carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), or 5G microwaves, or asbestos fibers. I could go on and on, but every threat has specialists devoted to it, and lawyers litigating it, and doomsday Adventist experts determined that no measures are too extreme to combat it. Some of the threats are actually real. But all are urgent and demand dictatorial power and huge expenditures to overcome. At any time in history a projection of the dangers and impending scarcities would have shown the human enterprise untenable. It is an essentially religious faith that the world makes sense that underlies all scientific and technological progress and entrepreneurial creativity. As I wrote in Wealth and Poverty some 40 years ago, “modern civilization is hopelessly contingent and problematical, subject to destruction any day by possible climatic reversals, astrophysical mishaps, meteors, mutations, genetic plagues, nuclear conflicts, geological convulsions and atmospheric transformations — all conceivable catastrophes originating beyond the ken of plausible remedy or control.” Today’s Prophecy If we try to battle all these threats at once, we will end up wasting all our wealth on windmills, strewing them across the environment, or tilting with them like Don Quixote. We will resort to ever more stifling controls that will suppress the unexpected boons of creativity that have always been the source of our prosperity and success. We will invest in problems rather than in opportunities and end up without either wealth or freedom. The human race has prevailed against the plagues and scarcities of its past, not through regulation or lockdown but through creativity and faith. State planning killed close to a billion people in the 20th century. Led by the banning of DDT, the resurgence of malaria, the suppression of nuclear power, and the retardation of global growth, environmentalist excesses have already killed more people than environmental pollution ever did. Now the expert response to the coronavirus is on track to exceed even environmentalism in its vast damage of our civilization. Now in the name of fighting COVID-19, we are destroying the monetary underpinnings of capitalist markets with untold trillions of dollars of wanton spending and crony bailouts. We are closing down much of the economy for months on end. We are jeopardizing food supplies and other medical services. We are giving up world leadership in technology to Communists in China. We are condoning a devastating blow to the economies of Third World countries that unlike the US cannot merely print dollars and expect people to take them. This is President Trump’s moment. Either he stops this catastrophe, or he becomes complicit in the barbarism. Regards, George Gilder Editor, Gilder's Daily Prophecy P.S. While most Americans weren’t looking, President Trump signed H.R. 2881, thereby making it law. In case you don’t know, H.R. 2881 is also known as the “Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020.” Between remote work, the lockdown and all the time we’re spending online… the timing couldn’t be better. But here’s the thing… since the signing of this law was overlooked by many, most investors think this new law will trigger another surge in 5G stocks. I disagree There is something I call “15G,” and the companies behind it could offer triple the profit potential. Click here to watch this video of my publisher Doug, one of our top analysts and me talk more about this opportunity. |
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