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No, I didn’t. The Khmer Rouge killed 2 million people in 4 years, fully 1/4 of the population. The preferred weapon of execution for much of that time was the pickax. It’s a disgusting comparison to make, and I don’t like Larry Summers at all.


Pop quiz, if you had to go would you pick a pick axe or starvation?


There are two major things wrong with this line of argument. It is a bad way to judge moral actions. It is in arguable that ordering the murder of 2 million people is a worse moral action than arguing for bad economic policy. The second is that I don't think there's a very good line from Summers' policies to any mass starvation/famine. Every famine since 1990 except in North Korea has been the result of a war.




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