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R. James Breiding

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To reform the most important aspects of the social contract such as education, health care, environment and pensions, requires boldness and steadfastness. It takes a generation to determine whether reforms have been successful so government policy must hold its course despite changes in prime ministers and control of parliament.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
In an increasingly knowledge-based world, the nations which can attract and hold the most knowledgeable workers will be the most successful.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Much of the current debate focuses not on success but on failure. There is a shelf-load of books discussing flawed states such as ‘Why Nations Fail?’, ‘Is Democracy Dying?’ and ‘What’s Killing Liberalism?’. But as Harvard University’s Steven Pinker reminds us, ‘There are so many more ways for things to go wrong than to go right’, making success far more valuable to explain than failure.



Have we not heard enough about failure? After all, history shows that unlike lotteries, progress is usually a matter of finding something which works and reverse-engineering it.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Nations do not spontaneously organize themselves to achieve higher Human Development Index rankings or PISA scores, lower CO2 emissions. Food does not fall on their plates, clothes on their backs or roofs over their heads. Well being and progress towards it, is what begs a better explanation.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
At the same time, we face unprecedented problems such as pandemics, global warming, aging populations and information distortion caused by social media. These are common problems and thus require shared solutions.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Blackrock, the world’s largest manager and custodian of Index ETFs, is now the most important owner of multinational companies. Bizarrely, our capital market system, based on wide ownership of joint stock companies, has evolved to confer ownership on a group of fund managers with no intention, incentive or mandate to act in a responsible manner.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
The cost of conflict almost always outweigh the benefit of what is being fought over.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Given the predominance of bad news in the media arising from large nations, many might be surprised that some small, nimble, outperforming countries are doing exceptionally well. Nine of the top ten top ten positions in the United Nations Human Development Index are countries with populations of less than 20 million and seventeen of the top twenty. They took nine out of the top ten spots in IMD’s most recent Global Competitiveness Report. Nine of the ten happiest countries are small, successful nations.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Across the globe, these and other small nations are driving a quiet revolution towards progress. As such, they are the laboratories of the world, arriving at the future first.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Widespread distrust imposes a kind of tax on all forms of economic activity It constricts and raises the cost of transactions.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
New, experimental forms of multilateral organisations are required to come up with novel solutions. Traditional institutions driven by large nations are hamstrung due to: difficulties at home, heavy emphasis on self interest, unwieldy size and sclerotic bureaucracy.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
It is important that Children grow up embracing meritocracy and egalitarianism, not privilege and elitism. That they learn at an early age to place more value on the community than the individual, on collaboration rather than rivalry and on social norms rather than regulation.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
A society where everybody is paddling the same boat at a decent pace will move quicker and more effortlessly than one with a few speedsters and many laggards.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Since smaller nations are exposed to exogenous forces, they have greater incentive to experiment and innovate. Since they are better able to intermediate a political consensus the pathway from knowing to doing is more expedient.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Lack of entitlement drives small nation’s success: they expect to adapt to outside forces, so they do.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Success in smaller nations tend to be hidden because they lie off piste from the traditional corridor of information traffic stretching from Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Gaining sway over the world’s treasures is no longer a matter of giant armies and navies but of winning trade battles and global contests for professional talent.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Education experts emphasise the importance of PISA scores; of reading and mathematics. It is also important how a nation educates its children to become good citizens. There is no measure for this, despite its immense value to a well-functioning democracy.

For centuries great thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith have argued that greed and self-interest drive economic progress. But new evidence show that citizens of smaller nations place less value on money for its own sake than their counterparts in larger nations.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
To reform the most important aspects of the social contract such as education, health care, environment and pensions, requires boldness and steadfastness. It takes a generation to determine whether reforms have been successful so government policy must hold its course despite changes in prime ministers and control of parliament.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
In an increasingly knowledge-based world, the nations which can attract and hold the most knowledgeable workers will be the most successful.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Much of the current debate focuses not on success but on failure. There is a shelf-load of books discussing flawed states such as ‘Why Nations Fail?’, ‘Is Democracy Dying?’ and ‘What’s Killing Liberalism?’. But as Harvard University’s Steven Pinker reminds us, ‘There are so many more ways for things to go wrong than to go right’, making success far more valuable to explain than failure.



Have we not heard enough about failure? After all, history shows that unlike lotteries, progress is usually a matter of finding something which works and reverse-engineering it.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Nations do not spontaneously organize themselves to achieve higher Human Development Index rankings or PISA scores, lower CO2 emissions. Food does not fall on their plates, clothes on their backs or roofs over their heads. Well being and progress towards it, is what begs a better explanation.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
At the same time, we face unprecedented problems such as pandemics, global warming, aging populations and information distortion caused by social media. These are common problems and thus require shared solutions.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Blackrock, the world’s largest manager and custodian of Index ETFs, is now the most important owner of multinational companies. Bizarrely, our capital market system, based on wide ownership of joint stock companies, has evolved to confer ownership on a group of fund managers with no intention, incentive or mandate to act in a responsible manner.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
The cost of conflict almost always outweigh the benefit of what is being fought over.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Given the predominance of bad news in the media arising from large nations, many might be surprised that some small, nimble, outperforming countries are doing exceptionally well. Nine of the top ten top ten positions in the United Nations Human Development Index are countries with populations of less than 20 million and seventeen of the top twenty. They took nine out of the top ten spots in IMD’s most recent Global Competitiveness Report. Nine of the ten happiest countries are small, successful nations.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Across the globe, these and other small nations are driving a quiet revolution towards progress. As such, they are the laboratories of the world, arriving at the future first.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Widespread distrust imposes a kind of tax on all forms of economic activity It constricts and raises the cost of transactions.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
New, experimental forms of multilateral organisations are required to come up with novel solutions. Traditional institutions driven by large nations are hamstrung due to: difficulties at home, heavy emphasis on self interest, unwieldy size and sclerotic bureaucracy.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
It is important that Children grow up embracing meritocracy and egalitarianism, not privilege and elitism. That they learn at an early age to place more value on the community than the individual, on collaboration rather than rivalry and on social norms rather than regulation.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
A society where everybody is paddling the same boat at a decent pace will move quicker and more effortlessly than one with a few speedsters and many laggards.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Since smaller nations are exposed to exogenous forces, they have greater incentive to experiment and innovate. Since they are better able to intermediate a political consensus the pathway from knowing to doing is more expedient.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Lack of entitlement drives small nation’s success: they expect to adapt to outside forces, so they do.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Success in smaller nations tend to be hidden because they lie off piste from the traditional corridor of information traffic stretching from Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Gaining sway over the world’s treasures is no longer a matter of giant armies and navies but of winning trade battles and global contests for professional talent.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Education experts emphasise the importance of PISA scores; of reading and mathematics. It is also important how a nation educates its children to become good citizens. There is no measure for this, despite its immense value to a well-functioning democracy.

For centuries great thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith have argued that greed and self-interest drive economic progress. But new evidence show that citizens of smaller nations place less value on money for its own sake than their counterparts in larger nations.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
To reform the most important aspects of the social contract such as education, health care, environment and pensions, requires boldness and steadfastness. It takes a generation to determine whether reforms have been successful so government policy must hold its course despite changes in prime ministers and control of parliament.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
In an increasingly knowledge-based world, the nations which can attract and hold the most knowledgeable workers will be the most successful.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Much of the current debate focuses not on success but on failure. There is a shelf-load of books discussing flawed states such as ‘Why Nations Fail?’, ‘Is Democracy Dying?’ and ‘What’s Killing Liberalism?’. But as Harvard University’s Steven Pinker reminds us, ‘There are so many more ways for things to go wrong than to go right’, making success far more valuable to explain than failure.



Have we not heard enough about failure? After all, history shows that unlike lotteries, progress is usually a matter of finding something which works and reverse-engineering it.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Nations do not spontaneously organize themselves to achieve higher Human Development Index rankings or PISA scores, lower CO2 emissions. Food does not fall on their plates, clothes on their backs or roofs over their heads. Well being and progress towards it, is what begs a better explanation.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
At the same time, we face unprecedented problems such as pandemics, global warming, aging populations and information distortion caused by social media. These are common problems and thus require shared solutions.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Blackrock, the world’s largest manager and custodian of Index ETFs, is now the most important owner of multinational companies. Bizarrely, our capital market system, based on wide ownership of joint stock companies, has evolved to confer ownership on a group of fund managers with no intention, incentive or mandate to act in a responsible manner.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
The cost of conflict almost always outweigh the benefit of what is being fought over.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Given the predominance of bad news in the media arising from large nations, many might be surprised that some small, nimble, outperforming countries are doing exceptionally well. Nine of the top ten top ten positions in the United Nations Human Development Index are countries with populations of less than 20 million and seventeen of the top twenty. They took nine out of the top ten spots in IMD’s most recent Global Competitiveness Report. Nine of the ten happiest countries are small, successful nations.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Across the globe, these and other small nations are driving a quiet revolution towards progress. As such, they are the laboratories of the world, arriving at the future first.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Widespread distrust imposes a kind of tax on all forms of economic activity It constricts and raises the cost of transactions.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
New, experimental forms of multilateral organisations are required to come up with novel solutions. Traditional institutions driven by large nations are hamstrung due to: difficulties at home, heavy emphasis on self interest, unwieldy size and sclerotic bureaucracy.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
It is important that Children grow up embracing meritocracy and egalitarianism, not privilege and elitism. That they learn at an early age to place more value on the community than the individual, on collaboration rather than rivalry and on social norms rather than regulation.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
A society where everybody is paddling the same boat at a decent pace will move quicker and more effortlessly than one with a few speedsters and many laggards.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Since smaller nations are exposed to exogenous forces, they have greater incentive to experiment and innovate. Since they are better able to intermediate a political consensus the pathway from knowing to doing is more expedient.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Lack of entitlement drives small nation’s success: they expect to adapt to outside forces, so they do.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Success in smaller nations tend to be hidden because they lie off piste from the traditional corridor of information traffic stretching from Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Gaining sway over the world’s treasures is no longer a matter of giant armies and navies but of winning trade battles and global contests for professional talent.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Education experts emphasise the importance of PISA scores; of reading and mathematics. It is also important how a nation educates its children to become good citizens. There is no measure for this, despite its immense value to a well-functioning democracy.

For centuries great thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith have argued that greed and self-interest drive economic progress. But new evidence show that citizens of smaller nations place less value on money for its own sake than their counterparts in larger nations.
From Too Small to Fail: Why Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education