Why governments' attempts to pick winners produce more losers than winners.
The Tree Council is calling for historic trees to be awarded "blue plaques" like historic buildings, concerned that "historic trees are left to wither and die".
Are blue plaques (or something equivalent) supposed to stop trees from withering and dieing? Can the Tree Council hold back the forces of nature?
The joy of protecting buildings is that owners are prevented from carrying out many essential improvements. Now owners of properties on which "historic trees" are located are to be faced with the same constraints.
"'We need some economist to give us a plan' said Marina [PJ's Intourist guide in "post-communist" Ukraine].
'You had that already,' I said."
Give War a Chance (1992)