Governments around the world are full of hot air, ambitious…

Governments around the world are full of hot air, ambitious schemers, and people who treat power like a religion.
This isn't anything new.
From ancient Rome to today, those chasing power have often preferred the spotlight over those creating value.
That said, one thing has struck me deeply over these years.
When I delved into the backgrounds of some Chinese and other national leaders, I found that many of them didn't start out in capital offices spouting grand theories.
They'd worked in the provinces.
Managed counties, cities, provinces.
Dealt with floods, harvests, infrastructure, budgets, factories, food supplies, and all sorts of real-world problems.
They know what farmland looks like.
Know why roads break down.
Know that behind the statistics are living, breathing people.
This matters a great deal.
Because so many people spend their lives talking about the economy without ever creating anything.
Talking about agriculture without ever planting a thing.
Talking about business without ever running one.
Talking about labor without ever truly laboring.
Their grasp of reality comes from reports.
Not from reality itself.
I often joke that in my own research, I "play farmer."
In fact, I do just that.
I plant crops, study irrigation, calculate yields, observe the weather, manage pests.
Not because I need to grow a few pumpkins to feed myself.
But because if you want to understand institutions, economics, incentives, and resource allocation, it's useful now and then to step away from books and conference rooms.
The land doesn't care about your ideology.
Plants don't read your papers.
The weather won't shift because of your political stance.
The real world has a refreshing kind of honesty.
It gives no one special treatment.
And that's precisely the teacher that so many career politicians lack most.
Written by S. Tominaga