FLG'd Be Pissed If He Were Jim Manzi

Manzi's interlocutors seem to be engaging disingenuously, and his response here is far more reasonable than FLG's would be.

And FLG can't believe that people who know economics, like, dunno, Paul Krugman, could argue with a straight face that social democracy, with its disincentives toward work, increased regulation, and discretionary taxes, etc, doesn't inhibit growth. FLG thinks a compelling case could be made that what Manzi calls social cohesion brings non-economic benefits that aren't measured in standard GDP. This might be why the EU releases videos downplaying the importance of GDP growth

This doesn't mean, and FLG doesn't read Manzi implying in anyway, that social democracies are somehow terrible places to live. Just that there is a trade-off between growth and cohesion.

There's something very childish about the responses he been receiving. They either nitpik data in a way that has no real relevance to the point he was making or simply reject that societies face choices and can't have it both ways.