Prediction markets have the Republican nomination for President of the USA going to billionaire reality TV host and megalomaniac Donald Trump. On the other side of the aisle, self-described socialist Sanders is making Hillary Clinton’s campaign sweat. This isn’t “politics as usual” for anyone except the writers of The Simpsons. According to the party decides theory (or at least my interpretation of Nate Silver’s interpretation) the party, as a loose coalition of opinion forming individuals, can heavily weigh in on who gets nominated.
In September, images of anti-riot police in a standoff with desperate migrants were shown on television, inspiring many people to volunteer and even more people to chatter about the situation. Yet the problem with our handling of crises is that we often wait for one to happen before doing anything (even just notice something is amiss). Humans are vulnerable to overlooking gradual phenomena with no easily distinguishable onset. There is an ongoing global demographic transition and it will influence most shifts in the next 25 years, be it in politics, business or international relations.
Startling new data show that emigration out of Hungary is at a 20-year record high and that many more Hungarians have seriously considered leaving Hungary to live, work, or study in another member state of the EU. But instead of speaking ominously about the potentially catastrophic consequences of such emigration trends for Hungary, it is useful to think of this increased mobility as a potentially positive phenomenon.
Geographic mobility is often an indicator of social mobility.