When I read "ask whether you'd trust them to look after your children" I didn't chortle or chuckle, I just went "well, yeah." When said out loud, it's kind of obvious. And the sort of person who would be suitable to care for your children, are the sort who would have a long-run mindset, an at-least minimally compatible values framework, and a sense of protectiveness sufficient to that task (or you wouldn't so-trust them). That sort of person you trust to make choices on your behalf, trusting that those will be in your long-run best interest. If there were anyone you wanted in a "natural elite" it would be that, I should think.
Speaking of Hoppe, I think this is where (some) Hoppeans mess up time-preference. They think of it as "low == better" but that's not accurate. Too low time preference and you don't make best consumptive decisions. Too high and you spend too flagrantly and don't plan for the long-run. What you want is someone who is looking at "long run best interest" which involves short-term action AND long term action. Time preference, I think, is often used as a stand-in for this broader set of wise thinking, because lower-than-our-present-culture time-preference is one important ingredient in it. But I think all of the ingredients (which I did not, I'm sure, exhaustively list) that go into "I would trust that person with my child" are important, not just time-preference.
That said, extremely short-run thinking, and extremely consumptive thinking (and our children are being consumed, to be sure) is definitely a feature of the present crop of society's elites.
It is curious that they do not use Dennis Hastert as a bludgeon as you say. Maybe they are also guilty and don't want to draw attention to such activities?
When I read "ask whether you'd trust them to look after your children" I didn't chortle or chuckle, I just went "well, yeah." When said out loud, it's kind of obvious. And the sort of person who would be suitable to care for your children, are the sort who would have a long-run mindset, an at-least minimally compatible values framework, and a sense of protectiveness sufficient to that task (or you wouldn't so-trust them). That sort of person you trust to make choices on your behalf, trusting that those will be in your long-run best interest. If there were anyone you wanted in a "natural elite" it would be that, I should think.
Speaking of Hoppe, I think this is where (some) Hoppeans mess up time-preference. They think of it as "low == better" but that's not accurate. Too low time preference and you don't make best consumptive decisions. Too high and you spend too flagrantly and don't plan for the long-run. What you want is someone who is looking at "long run best interest" which involves short-term action AND long term action. Time preference, I think, is often used as a stand-in for this broader set of wise thinking, because lower-than-our-present-culture time-preference is one important ingredient in it. But I think all of the ingredients (which I did not, I'm sure, exhaustively list) that go into "I would trust that person with my child" are important, not just time-preference.
That said, extremely short-run thinking, and extremely consumptive thinking (and our children are being consumed, to be sure) is definitely a feature of the present crop of society's elites.
There you go, bringing nuance into it ;)
It is curious that they do not use Dennis Hastert as a bludgeon as you say. Maybe they are also guilty and don't want to draw attention to such activities?