via http://www.sciencedump.com/content/are-you-visual-thinker and http://www.buzzfeed.com/generalelectric/are-you-a-visual-thinker#.fymP8PgPb
” Google glass ” 1960s.
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in technological progress Tags: creative destruction, innovation, technology diffusion
Sorry, Conservatives—Basic Economics Has a Liberal Bias By Matthew Yglesias
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought, occupational regulation Tags: academic bias, political bias
…here are some ideas that I’ve seen in most of the introductory economics textbooks I’ve looked at:
- Governments (typically through central banks) need to manage the demand level of national economies to prevent catastrophic recessions and mass unemployment.
- Absent carbon pricing, a market economy will massively overproduce greenhouse gases.
- Many industries, such as broadband Internet, are “natural monopolies” where an unregulated market will lead to higher prices and less investment than is socially optimal.
- Due to asymmetrical information, consumers in a market economy will be unable to bargain effectively with doctors and other providers of health care services.
- Due to adverse selection, consumers in a market economy will be unable to effectively insure themselves against health risks.
- Due to the declining marginal utility of money, taking $100 from a rich person and giving it to a poor one will increase human welfare.
- Increasing the number of immigrants, raising taxes on the rich, and making Social Security benefits more generous will make almost everyone better off.
I could go on like this. But suffice it to say that one of the main reasons that so many economists are Democrats is that on a whole lot of issues the basic econ 101 view supports the liberal position.
via Economics is liberal: Chris House on conservative economics..
Because we know your life better than you
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics
Today’s news brought one of those amazing statements by a person who just can’t stand to see other people having fun.
Stuff reports that the average New Zealander drank 115 liters of sugary drinks last year, “despite constant lobbying against sugary soft drinks”.
Anyone who believes people can think for themselves would conclude that consumers had seen the lobbying, considered the health costs and reached their own conclusions, which add up to around one tall glass of fruit juice a day. Unfortunately the lobby group in question doesn’t see things that way (emphasis added):
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Eamonn Butler on how economical with the truth Oxfam was on global inequality
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, liberalism Tags: evidence-based policy, Leftover Left, Oxfam, top 1%
The War Nerd: More proof the US defense industry has nothing to do with defending America
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics
Organic yield gap shrinking? Study actually shows it’s less sustainable than conventional agriculture
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, health economics, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: activists, Anti-Science left, food snobs, Leftover Left, organic farming, Quacks
Chapple and Boston on the extent of welfare benefit fraud in New Zealand
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, law and economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, crime and punishment, deterrence, Jonathan Boston, Simon Chapple, welfare fraud, welfare reform
What is more surprising about this honest disclosure of welfare fraud to the Household Labour Force Survey of Statistics New Zealand in 2011 is these welfare beneficiaries were so upfront about their criminal fraud.
These estimates must underestimate the extent of welfare fraud because some of these criminals would be aware that they should be slightly discreet in the company of any government official when discussing their eligibility for welfare benefits and any false information supplied in their claims for welfare benefits.
Some welfare cheats are alert to this basic criminal skill and do not claim their benefit if called in to the welfare benefits office for a reassessment of their eligibility. They don’t have the front to go near a government official while defrauding the taxpayer.
Yes, welfare fraud is a crime so people who perpetrated these crimes by obtaining welfare benefits under false pretences are criminals. If these criminals are caught, they are prosecuted for a crime and sometimes sent to prison.
HT: Muriel Newman
Global Warming Was Worth It
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, climate change, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism Tags: modernity, The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
- Higher incomes that allow people to make livings that afford them more than merely survival or avoiding starvation.
- A low poverty rate.
- High quality and diversity of employment opportunities. Rather than the choice of being a farmer or being a blacksmith, the average citizen should have an array of careers to choose from, and the ability to be industrious and take risks for profit.
- The availability of housing. On an average night in the United States, a country with a population of somewhere around 350 million, fewer than one million people are homeless.
- Consistent GDP growth.
- Access to quality health care.
- The availability of quality education. (I suppose we could quibble over the word “quality,” but certainly there is widespread free education availability.)
- High life expectancy. Worldwide life expectancy has more than doubled from 1750 to 2007.
- Low frequency of deadly disease.
- Affordable goods and services.
- Infrastructure that bolsters economic growth.
- Political stability.
- Air conditioning.
- Freedom from slavery, torture and discrimination.
- Freedom of movement, religion and thought.
- The presumption of innocence under the law.
- Equality under the law regardless of gender or race.
- The right to have a family – as large as one can support. Maybe even larger.
- The right to enjoy the fruits of labor without government – or anyone else – stealing it.
Raw politics of climate change in the U.S.
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics
by Judith Curry
President Obama’s State of the Union address, and the reactions from opposing politicians and the media, illustrate the raw politics of climate change in the U.S.
View original post 1,746 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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