Comments on: Law and Institutional Capital http://madisonian.net/2008/08/13/law-and-institutional-capital/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Thu, 10 May 2012 20:32:56 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Frank http://madisonian.net/2008/08/13/law-and-institutional-capital/comment-page-1/#comment-257507 Frank Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:11:59 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=1468#comment-257507 I like Wendell Berry's distinction between "settlers" and "colonizers," described in The Unsettling of America. The former actually develop a place, whereas the latter extract all the resources they can and then move on. But I'm afraid that Berry-an social thought has been elbowed aside by economists' colonization of the legal (among other) academies. Coming from Buffalo, and having lived in struggling parts of DC and Jersey City, I see your point here. I am often frustrated by economists' verdicts that we should just let certain regions decline: http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/03/from_gradgrind.html I like Wendell Berry’s distinction between “settlers” and “colonizers,” described in The Unsettling of America. The former actually develop a place, whereas the latter extract all the resources they can and then move on. But I’m afraid that Berry-an social thought has been elbowed aside by economists’ colonization of the legal (among other) academies.

Coming from Buffalo, and having lived in struggling parts of DC and Jersey City, I see your point here. I am often frustrated by economists’ verdicts that we should just let certain regions decline:
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/03/from_gradgrind.html

]]> By: Jeff Lipshaw http://madisonian.net/2008/08/13/law-and-institutional-capital/comment-page-1/#comment-257494 Jeff Lipshaw Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:39:20 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=1468#comment-257494 Great post. I'm from Detroit, lived seven years in Indianapolis, and taught for a year in New Orleans, so I know whereof you speak. Isn't this the great frustration of every economic development agency trying to replicate Silicon Valley? Indeed, Silicon Valley arose serendipitously and organically, as did the Detroit of 1915. There IS a critical mass or tipping point, but culling the data to find it in order to develop a predictive mechanism of replication is either (a) impossible because there is something irreducible in there, or (b) so complex that it might as well be irreducible. Great post. I’m from Detroit, lived seven years in Indianapolis, and taught for a year in New Orleans, so I know whereof you speak.

Isn’t this the great frustration of every economic development agency trying to replicate Silicon Valley? Indeed, Silicon Valley arose serendipitously and organically, as did the Detroit of 1915. There IS a critical mass or tipping point, but culling the data to find it in order to develop a predictive mechanism of replication is either (a) impossible because there is something irreducible in there, or (b) so complex that it might as well be irreducible.

]]> By: Joe Miller http://madisonian.net/2008/08/13/law-and-institutional-capital/comment-page-1/#comment-257425 Joe Miller Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:26:44 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=1468#comment-257425 Beautiful. Beautiful.

]]>