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81 " never really experiencing the true costs of its mistakes—until now. America is successful enough never to collapse, but it could slowly edge downward, "
― Fareed Zakaria , Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
82 " America needs to learn from the world. And what it most needs to learn about is government—not big or small but good government. "
83 " Just 10% of China’s population attended some college and yet virtually every member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee has—99% as of 2016. Ironically, this makes the Chinese Communist Party in some ways the world’s most elitist organization.) "
84 " to demand collective sacrifice you must offer a social contract that benefits everyone.” But, it continued, “today’s crisis is laying bare how far many rich societies fall short of this ideal.” It declared a need for “radical reforms—reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades. "
85 " Looking at the shape of international politics in the future, it’s clear—bipolarity is inevitable. A cold war is a choice. "
86 " For many people, “advice from experts” is part of a larger strategy of domination by the new ruling class—the meritocrats. All advanced countries are now run by a meritocracy. Schools admit applicants based largely on their test scores, and companies hire and promote people based mostly on credentials of one sort or another. "
87 " In America and the European Union, around a third of the public have college degrees. An even smaller share get postgraduate education, barely 13% in the United States. And yet most of the leadership positions in Western societies are held by people who have at least a college education and usually some postgraduate training. In other words, about two thirds of people stand by and watch as the other third run everything. (In large Asian countries, which have a smaller share of college graduates, the divide is arguably much greater. Just 10% of China’s population attended some college and yet virtually every member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee has—99% as of 2016. "
88 " The greatest moral failing of meritocracy is the belief that your success, your higher perch in society, makes you superior in any fundamental sense. After all, in democracies, at least, the people’s wishes are the ultimate source of authority. So, let’s be clear, as we navigate this pandemic and future crises, people need to listen to the experts. But the experts also need to listen to the people. "
89 " The new work model might be one in which people do much of their day-to-day work remotely, and come into the office only for meetings, presentations, and brainstorming sessions. Routine "
90 " concluded that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history.” It noted that 75% of all land has been “severely altered” by human actions, as has 66% of the world’s ocean area. Ecosystems are collapsing, and biodiversity is disappearing. As many as 1 million plant and animal species "
91 " The same is true of Canada. In other words, some of the countries that beat the virus had big governments, while others had small ones. What was the common element? A competent, well-functioning, trusted state—the quality of government. "
92 " Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist, provides the most useful definition of populism: an ideology “that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups: ‘the pure people’ and ‘the corrupt elite,’ and argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people. "
93 " months. Various studies estimate that somewhere between 70 million and 430 million people will be pushed back into extreme poverty over the next few years. "
94 " even the staunchly conservative National Review published an essay that concluded, “What is clear is that in at least one regard American mobility is exceptional . . . where we stand out is in our limited upward mobility from the bottom. "
95 " warriors and statesmen who survived believed that they had a duty to create a world that did not lapse back into nihilistic competition. "
96 " For the twentieth century, the great political debate was about the size and role of government in the economy—the quantity of government. But what seems to have mattered most in this crisis was the quality of government. "
97 " That raises the most serious threat to the liberal international order—which is not China’s expansionism but America’s abdication. The architect of this system is rapidly losing interest in its own creation. "
98 " What, then, is the best course for the real experts? To help the public understand how their field works, in particular how science works. "
99 " The issue is not the issue,” meaning the real conflict is not over any particular matter or dispute. “The issue is power. "
100 " generics produced in India, which itself gets two-thirds of pharmaceutical ingredients from China. "