For Australia, the question of why Treasurer Jim “Chicken” Chalmers is so destructive has gone beyond the theoretical.
We have an academic treasurer who makes answering the question a national interest priority:
The answer to the question may lie in “Doctor” Jim Chamler’s academic exposure.
One might expect a theoretician to be rigid in pursuit of his/her test tube economics. We see this from time to time in the eggheads that occupy the Reserve Bank.
This misses a larger point.
The academically trained are also so withdrawn from real life that exposure to it is very often a challenge to their personal values.
Academics are not strong human beings. By the nature of their cosseted existence, they tend to be personally feeble, unable to translate the theoretical into the practical.
Thus, when exposed to the exigencies of real life, the academically trained lose their bearings.
Rather than imposing overly rigid solutions to policy problems, they become overly flexible as their judgement is impaired.
Academics are susceptible to temptation because they lack an empirical moral core to deal with the deadly sins of power.
Amoral chaos is the result.
This tendency towards sin is why no serious business should employ an academic as its CEO.
Nor should a country promote an academic to an unfettered position of power.
