Infrastructure investment and economic development strategies in Shanghai and Rio de Janeiro
28 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
What is the precariat?
24 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, rentseeking, technological progress, Uncategorized Tags: Leftover Left, precariat, The Great Act, The Great Enrichment, The withering away the proletariat
With the withering away of the proletariat because of the great enrichment, the Left over Left coined the word precariat.
The precariat is a social class formed by people suffering from precarity: a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare as well as being a member of a proletariat class of industrial workers who lack their own means of production and hence sell their labour to live. Specifically, it is applied to the condition of lack of job security, in other words intermittent employment or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence. The term is a portmanteau obtained by merging precarious with proletariat.
Very similar to the Karl Marx’s Lumpenproletariat: the layer of the working class that is unlikely ever to achieve class consciousness and is therefore lost to socially useful production, of no use to the revolutionary struggle, and perhaps even an impediment to the realization of a classless society.
One of the drawbacks of the precariat is they are inconveniently happier than Left over Left are willing to give them credit. For example, a lot of women in part-time jobs are happier than those in full-time jobs because of the greater worklife balance. Casual and seasonal jobs pay more too.
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Deirdre McCloskey – Equality vs. Lifting Up the Poor
21 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, constitutional political economy, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism Tags: Deirdre McCloskey, poverty versus inequality, The Age of Enlightenment, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
HT: deirdremccloskey via cafehayek
The Industrial Revolution started when people stopped looking at innovation as a reason for a witch-hunt
20 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
Deirdre McCloskey: inequality is an ugly word – it frightens
20 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, liberalism Tags: Deirdre McCloskey, poverty versus inequality, The Great Escape The Age of Enlightenment, The Great Fact
HT: deirdremccloskey via cafehayek
Bootleggers and Baptists alert: Mexican cannabis output falls in wake of legalisation
19 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economics of regulation Tags: black markets, bootleggers and baptists, decriminalisation of marijuana
Farmers in the storied “Golden Triangle” region of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, which has produced the country’s most notorious gangsters and biggest marijuana harvests, say they are no longer planting the crop.
Its wholesale price has collapsed in the past five years, from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.
“It’s not worth it anymore,” said Rodrigo Silla, 50, a lifelong cannabis farmer who said he couldn’t remember the last time his family and others in their tiny hamlet gave up growing mota. “I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.”
Zealots cannot countenance trade-offs and diminishing returns – Thomas Sowell
13 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
Ending child labour can only be through expanding family opportunities
11 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, human capital, labour economics, technological progress Tags: Ben Powell, child labour
Ebola and you
01 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, health economics Tags: Ebola, media panic, The Great Escape
How do people become infected with the virus?
Ebola is transmitted through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa infection in humans has happened as a result of contact with chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead in the rainforest.
The Ebola virus is fatal in 90 per cent of cases and there is no vaccine and no known cure.
Who is most at risk?
Those at risk during an outbreak include:
- health workers
- family members or others in close contact with infected people
- mourners with direct contact with the bodies of deceased victims
- hunters in contact with dead animals
What are the typical signs and symptoms?
Sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. That is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function and internal and external bleeding.
The incubation period is between two and 21 days.
A person will become contagious once they start to show symptoms. Once a person becomes infected, the virus can spread through contact with a sufferer’s blood, urine, saliva, stools and semen.
When should you seek medical care?
If a person is in an area affected by the outbreak, or has been in contact with a person known or suspected to have Ebola, they should seek medical help immediately.
What is the treatment?
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. They need intravenous fluids to rehydrate them. There is currently no specific treatment for the disease. Some patients will recover with the appropriate care.
Can Ebola be prevented?
Currently there is no licensed vaccine for Ebola. Several are being tested but are not available for clinical use.
Source: World Health Organisation via dailymail
Institutions matter
18 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, law and economics, property rights Tags: border effects, property rights
Rwanda has better institutions than the congo.
Haiti and the dominican republic share the same island but not the same property rights.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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