So, the video is definitely trying to be informative and somewhat evenhanded rather than a purely persuasive advertisement for charter cities.
If this is your goal, I’m afraid to say you have not succeeded. I apologise if the following sounds harsh, but you have a platform and a commensurate responsibility towards accuracy.
Ask yourself the question: “Is the viewer coming away from this video with a broadly accurate picture of the facts and the most relevant expert opinions on this topic”? I think the answer is a clear no. If an audience member is persuaded by your citation of “Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Romer”, and then later finds out that Paul Romer no longer supports the idea, they are going to feel deceived and betrayed, and no longer trust your channel. Similarly, it is wrong to leave out discussion of charter city projects that have been tried and failed.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to have the opinion “charter cities are good”, and to argue persuasively for that opinion, nor that you have to exhaustively list every single critique of the concept. But you should engage with major criticisms if they exist (and are in the realm of reason). By doing so, you both increase the knowledge of the audience, and even strengthen your own argument, so it doesn’t wither away the first time someone does a google search.
@MvK and @titotal , here is the new section about political tractability:
“A bigger problem is political feasibility. The whole concept of giving a city the ability to write its own rules is to make reform easier, but in order to get that ball rolling, you first need to find a nation willing to give away lots of their own regulation-writing authority in order to enable your charter city project. This isn’t completely unheard of—in many ways, charter cities are just a bigger and bolder version of “Special Economic Zones”, where a port might be granted lower tarrifs or streamlined permitting for the sake of spurring industrial development. Nevertheless, asking for broad autonomy to create an entire city is a tall order.
Indeed, Paul Romer was originally involved in efforts to create charter cities in Madagascar and Honduras, but later abandoned both projects. Despite being invited by each country’s president, the idea became politically controversial in both nations, and the project in Madagascar fell apart when the president’s party was voted out of power. In Honduras, a law authorizing charter cities was passed after years of political wrangling, but Paul Romer distanced himself from the result, saying that Honduran corporate special interests had corrupted his original vision.”
Yes, in response to MvK’s comment, I am reworking the script to add a section (in-between “objection: why whole new cities?” and “wider benefits”) about political feasibility, where I will talk about how Paul Romer abandoned the idea after delays and failed projects in Honduras and Madagascar. I’ll add another comment here when I update this Forum post with the new draft.
Do you have any suggestions as to which parts of the draft could be cut or made shorter? The current post is already getting a little long compared to our ideal video length of 10-15 mins.
If this is your goal, I’m afraid to say you have not succeeded. I apologise if the following sounds harsh, but you have a platform and a commensurate responsibility towards accuracy.
Ask yourself the question: “Is the viewer coming away from this video with a broadly accurate picture of the facts and the most relevant expert opinions on this topic”? I think the answer is a clear no. If an audience member is persuaded by your citation of “Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Romer”, and then later finds out that Paul Romer no longer supports the idea, they are going to feel deceived and betrayed, and no longer trust your channel. Similarly, it is wrong to leave out discussion of charter city projects that have been tried and failed.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to have the opinion “charter cities are good”, and to argue persuasively for that opinion, nor that you have to exhaustively list every single critique of the concept. But you should engage with major criticisms if they exist (and are in the realm of reason). By doing so, you both increase the knowledge of the audience, and even strengthen your own argument, so it doesn’t wither away the first time someone does a google search.
@MvK and @titotal , here is the new section about political tractability:
(With footnotes going to https://nationalpost.com/news/year-in-ideas-professor-touts-special-economic-zones-known-as-charter-cities and https://devpolicy.org/why-charter-cities-have-failed-20190716/ )
I’m still thinking about what from the existing draft could be cut or condensed, if you have any suggestions!
Yes, in response to MvK’s comment, I am reworking the script to add a section (in-between “objection: why whole new cities?” and “wider benefits”) about political feasibility, where I will talk about how Paul Romer abandoned the idea after delays and failed projects in Honduras and Madagascar. I’ll add another comment here when I update this Forum post with the new draft.
Do you have any suggestions as to which parts of the draft could be cut or made shorter? The current post is already getting a little long compared to our ideal video length of 10-15 mins.