cargo cult economics
n.— «With a new year ahead, what do we see as our future? How much of our growth and progress is real, and how much is what I call “Cargo Cult Economics,” where we end up holding sacks of straw? At the end of World War II, villagers from the Pacific islands and New Guinea had been used to seeing an endless flow of aeroplanes flying in with huge quantities of goods and material for the armies fighting Japan. Then suddenly it all stopped. A number of movements started which attempted to stimulate this flow again. Villagers built mock airports with control towers made of timber and straw; they built dummy aeroplanes and radios and the modern paraphernalia associated with an advanced economy. What they did not understand is that these things do not appear by magic.» —“Fortune doesn’t fall from the sky” by Ray Beatty Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) Jan. 4, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...