Economics

A collection of 72 posts

Coronavirus

"Socialism Is Evil"; Yeah, Not a Good Time to Be a Libertarian...

Socialism is evil! Venezuela! Communism! CORONAVIRUS... Government, please bail us out! Please help us! Let's work together to make sure of this and of that... Let's nationalise private healthcare provision in the short term... Let's...Let's... I've heard assaults democratic

Economics

On Campaign Finance Reform

This comment was from Cajun Exile, on this thread here in response to this video. I'll post it and then reply interlinearly. It received a torrent of upvotes from people, back at whatever forum this guy came from, who piled in with their groupthink upvoting - a very

AGW

Climate Change Denialist Funders' Leaked Report Absolutely Confirms Climate Change

I meant to write this weeks ago but got waylaid. This, in my opinion, is massive. A report has recently been leaked from bank JP Morgan who themselves have spent decades funding organisations seeking to spread denial and disinformation regarding climate change. They are the world's largest financier

Economics

On Defending Billionaires

In the recent UK general election and in previous and present US political discourse, there has been a propensity to defend billionaires by those who aren't billionaires. In fact, those who defend them are far, far closer to poverty and bankruptcy than to being a billionaire. By a

Economics

Intergenerational Wealth

Discuss.

Economics

Regulation, Negative Externalities & Vacuum Cleaners. Again.

I've written on this exact subject before, but there's nothing like repeating myself! Regulation is often seen as contrary to libertarian or conservative principles and against economic flourishing in providing barriers to trade, erected by interfering governments. But, as I have mentioned before, the free market

Brexit

Poll: Tory Party Members Would Rather Trash UK Than Remain In EU

This latest YouGov survey is an absolute shocker. It really is. And I can verify these stats with the last two party members I have spoken to (in my extended family). It has got to the point where political stubbornness has led to these extreme positions. We really are looking

Economics

Skewed Data from Massive Inequality in the US

Here is something well worth knowing. What many people do with America is take averages, say of income, earnings etc. However, this skews data. Because the US has the highest inequality, and the rich are super fricking rich, those super super rich raise the average considerably to make the average

Economics

NYT: Trump, Taxes and Being A Rubbish Businessman

The New York Times report on trump taxes have been all the talk of the news today on the American side of the pond. And rightly so. The reports comment IRS tax transcript show that Donald Trump lost $1.17bn  from 1985 to 1994. That's not very good

Economics

Sapolsky: The Negatives of Income Inequality

Returning to Robert Sapolsky Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst [UK], I thought this following excerpt plays nicely into the piece I posted on countries with the highest wellbeing and peace. It's a good fit [Chapter 9]: STRATIFIED VERSUS EGALITARIAN CULTURES A nother meaningful

Economics

Big Pharma, Universal Healthcare and My Experiences

Here is a bit of a magnum opus I have just written to some MS forums that should be of pretty universal interest here. I will end it with some comment specific stuff to those who have cast their naive opinions here. Although you might think this overly personal, please

Economics

"Socialism Always Fails"?

[This is a guest post from J Enigma - enjoy]. The other week I was engaged with an individual on Facebook arguing the merits of employing a universal healthcare system (why yes, I am American. How did you guess?) Normally this is a waste of time, but I wasn’t

Economics

Tucker Carlson Gets Owned by Bregman

There is nothing particularly unusual about Tucker Carlson getting owned but this video is pretty fabulous. It never got aired, precisely because Carlson gets real pushback from Bregman. Luckily for us, Bregman recorded the exchange. You may recognise Bregman from his now viral outburst at the Davos conference. I will

Economics

Trump and the Real Motivation for Wars

Modern wars for the arguably imperialistic United States have, according to many cynics, been about money. Yes, they cost a lot, but to offset the monetary costs of war (and the massive human tragedy they inflict), the possibility of bountiful spoils is truly influential. Indeed, the spoils of oil appear

Economics

Ocasio-Cortez, Hannity and Tax

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), in the news for shaking up the Democrats and Washington's political landscape, was interviewed recently by Stephen Colbert. She talks a little about how she has successfully used social media, including how she has helped some of her Democratic Congressional colleagues improve their understanding of

Comedy

Left- vs Right-Wing Comedy: Why so Left? Punching up and down

This is the second part in this brace of posts, the first part is here, where I set the scene and looked at Christian comedy. There undoubtedly appears to be a prevalence on TV and in the media in general of left-leaning comedy, and a dearth of right-wing, conservative comedy

Economics

Smoking Is Beneficial to Society...?

This is something I have thought for a long time, but have not got around to writing about or even checking whether the stats back it up, but it seems pretty reasonable. First of all, in the name of full disclosure, I am a non-smoker who is ostensibly anti-smoking. My

Economics

Trump and Doubling Down

I know, there is a general obsession with Trump and politics at the moment. I guess it's that kind of time in the four-year cycle. I just want to point out that Trump's response to, in what is appearing to be more of a blue wave

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders, the Tax Cut, The Deficit and Medicare

Bernie Sanders can see into the future. He predicted exactly what is happening. Watch this. It is a facebook video that I cannot find on YouTube, but turn off your facebook blockers and check the prescience. https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/316817502451200/ Republicans, once fiscal conservatives, used to attack

Crime & Punishment

The Armed Forces and Their Remit, Corporations, and Morality

As many of you know, my self-declared remit here is quite wide. I post on many topics from philosophy of religion through to the social and psychological aspects of religion, from philosophy in general through to politics, economics, morality and beyond. Hopefully, this makes reading the blog a wide and

Economics

Colin Kaepernick and Nike

So, America, this was big news: Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt pic.twitter.com/SRWkMIDdaO— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) September 3, 2018 It appears to have resulted in a lot of white Americans who have probably never bought a pair of Nike trainers declaring that Nike

Brexit

My Current View on the Brexit Debate

I just gave a summary elsewhere on the internet to my views on Brexit. See what you think, if you care: Here is how I see the debate. There are five main reasons for voting Leave or Remain: (1) the economy. I cannot see the Leavers can winning this argument.

Demographics of Religion

Secularisation Is Good for Your Bank Balance

There are many correlations in the world between religion or lack of religion and any other given thing, whether it be moral behaviour, happiness, wellbeing, or some other aspect of life. Now, there is evidence to suggest that secularisation precedes economic growth. Whilst over time, studies have revealed a clear

Economics

Wikipedia, the Free Market and Libertarianism

This is perhaps one of my favourite quotes from a libertarian free marketeer when I originally posted my articles critiquing free market economics. It's an awesome quote, so I thought I would repost it: Copy and paste this into your web browser, what comes up? Wikipedia. Knew it!

capitalism

On Free Market Economics: Free Market Success Stories

Buckle up, this is another sizeable piece... (my series conclusion is below too, so don't miss that). In this series looking skeptically at libertarian claims of free market capitalism being the holy grail of all of reality, I have come to the section where I cast a skeptical