Ilya Somin Quotes

Ilya Somin is a law professor at George Mason University, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a blogger for the Volokh Conspiracy, and a former co-editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review . His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and the study of popular political participation and its implications for constitutional democracy.He is the author of Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter, and A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case . A revised and expanded second edition of Democracy and Political Ignorance came out in June 2016. He is also the author of two books about property rights and eminent domain: The Grasping Hand: "Kelo v. City of New London" and the Limits of Eminent Domain , a book on the topic of eminent domain, takings and the US Supreme Court's controversial decision in Kelo v. City of New London, and Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective . Wikipedia  

✵ 1973
Ilya Somin: 1   quote 0   likes

Ilya Somin Quotes

“Widespread public ignorance is a type of pollution that infects the political system rather than our physical environment.”

Source: Democracy and Political ignorance: Why smaller government is better (2013), p. 6
Context: In the same way, it is not necessarily paternalistic to advocate the restriction of air pollution. Individual citizens and firms may produce more air pollution than any of them actually want because they know that there is little to be gained from uncoordinated individual restraint. If I avoid driving a gas-guzzling car, the impact on the overall level of air pollution w ill be utterly insignificant. So I have no incentive to take it into account in making my driving decisions even if I care greatly about reducing air pollution. Widespread public ignorance is a type of pollution that infects the political system rather than our physical environment.

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