'A classic' - Simon Kuper Financial Times The five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid
people can and do rule the world. Since time immemorial a powerful dark force has hindered the
growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It
has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful
boardrooms to your local pub. This is the immensely powerful force of human stupidity. Seeing
the shambolic state of human affairs and sensing the dark force at work behind it Carlo M.
Cipolla the late noted professor of economic history at the University of California
Berkeley created a vitally important economic model that would allow us to detect know and
neutralise this threat: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. If you've ever found yourself
despairing at the ubiquity of stupidity among even the most 'intellectual' of people then this
hilarious timely and slightly alarming little book is for you. Arm yourself in the face of
baffling political realities unreasonable colleagues or the unbridled misery of Christmas day
with the in-laws with the first and only economic model for stupidity.
