Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Dec 21st, 2020
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening By Robert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Dec 17th, 2020
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment on Dec 17th, 2020
Here is some of the advice on how we can spread Christmas Cheer in a sustainable way: (their suggestions indented). Give creatively, thinking beyond material things (e.g. dance lessons, concert tickets, massage therapy, donations towards a cause etc.) Because things like dance lessons do not require studios, transportation to the facilities, and materials and emissions. […]
Posted in Adaptation, Environment, Innovation on Dec 12th, 2020
The “experts” tell us we have only a few decades. Many of the climate models, for what it’s worth (such as RCP8.5) do not assume much adaptation. Here is a glimpse of the challenge: Seoul, South Korea 1960 vs. Seoul, South Korea today:
Posted in Central Planning, Economic Illiteracy, ethical foundations, Government Thuggery, Inequality, Socialism on Dec 12th, 2020
I am just finishing up the absolutely gut-wrenching book from Frank Dikotter, Mao’s Great Famine. Words cannot do it justice. Just as the Hiroshima story and the Auschwitz story and the slavery story must be told and retold and taught to our children, it would be unconscionable for all of us not to be very well […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment on Dec 8th, 2020
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Nov 29th, 2020
Read the entire thing: The way forward must therefore involve bolstering an emotionally compelling narrative of freedom which foregrounds the threats emanating from a politics of psychic redistribution. Government has an important role to play here, balancing the teaching of minoritarian narratives of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Holocaust with an equivalent appreciation of the […]
Posted in Central Planning, Dynamism - Not, Extended Order, Humans on Nov 23rd, 2020
There is a presumption in the planning vs. markets discussion that has gone back at least to the debates with Abba Lerner and Oscar Lange that it was simply a matter of computing power before we would be able to plan an economy. Well, that is a gross simplification, but if you think about the […]
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, Environment on Nov 11th, 2020
There is a drumbeat of support for the idea that we can and should all live simpler lives. I actually try to do that, at least a bit. And when we sit back and think about it, from a material standpoint, we really do not need very much in order to live a comfortable and […]
Posted in Environment, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jul 28th, 2020
OK, if the scientific method is a tool of western cis-white-privilege, how will the case to fight global warming be made? And wouldn’t proposed solutions therefore be thinly veiled ways to further ensconce that privilege? Throttling economic development, localism, banning of gas and conventional fuels, etc. will all hurt people who have yet to experience […]