Herman Kahn Quotes
A healthy and fully functioning society must allocate its resources among a variety of competing interests, all of which are more or less valid but none of which should take precedence over national security.
Kahn, Herman. Thinking About the Unthinkable in the 1980s. Simon and Schuster, 1984, p. 138.
Announcing a large gift to the United Negro College Fund:
The President as proposed in the Constitution
In most communities, social services are actually performed by local organizations and companies working under grants and contracts awarded by Federal, State or local government agencies. But often these grant recipients or contractors go off and do what they want to do rather than what is actually needed.
Colman’s view that business failures contributing to society may be more important than the contributions of the wealthy and successful has been a common theme where failed business men make great politicians (Truman) or failed politicians are appreciated as great philosophers (Paine). This seems to be the first American argument that a failed economic enterprise can have a very beneficial short and/or long term effect on economic development. The failed business could start an entire industry which succeeds later when technology or capital becomes more readily available, or even if implemented by a better manager. Arguably, the California gold rush miners never made any significant money, but their presence changed the economic fact of California. The American airline industry has made little or no money in its history but has enabled development throughout the nation. And the dot com bubble may well have been an economic debacle of the end of the 20th century, but it spurred economic development that has benefited the entire globe.
In any significant change of public policy including public investments, some will benefit more than others, and some interests will be harmed. Unless the politician is willing to face this reality there will be little or no progress. Bloomberg invested a great deal in improving air quality of the city, but there were some companies who had to pay more to reduce their pollution.
Herman Kahn was a founder of the Hudson Institute and one of the preeminent futurists of the latter part of the twentieth century. He originally came to prominence as a military strategist and systems theorist while employed at the RAND Corporation. He became known for analyzing the likely consequences of nuclear war and recommending ways to improve survivability, making him one of the historical inspirations for the title character of Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy film satire Dr. Strangelove.
