Does social media worsen mental health for young people, especially young women? It has become an article of faith for many that it does. And there is bountiful anecdotal and research evidence that supports the view. Take, for example, the furore that erupted back in 2021 around Frances Haugen’s leaking of internal Facebook research showing the negative…
Jonathan Haidt and Candice Odgers debate the relationship between social media and mental health
Jonathan Haidt and Candice Odgers debate the relationship between social media and mental health
02 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture
Two Videos from a “Liberal” licking a Red Pill
28 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
If you thought the political cartoons from earlier today were funny you’re going to love the next two videos. Just don’t kid yourself that libertine comedian Bill Maher is going to vote GOP in this year’s election, let alone for Donald Trump. He’s not red-pilled yet, merely rolling it around on his tongue to see […]
Two Videos from a “Liberal” licking a Red Pill
For the woke
28 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
“Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live”: Columbia Student Leader Under Fire for Violent Rhetoric
27 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
A student leader at Columbia is under fire this week over a newly-resurfaced video declaring that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” Khymani James has been one of the leaders at the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia and featured prominently by media outlets. He is reportedly the spokesperson for Columbia’s anti-Israel student group Apartheid Divest James embodies the type of radical […]
“Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live”: Columbia Student Leader Under Fire for Violent Rhetoric
Hiring discrimination sentences to ponder
23 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, implicit bias, racial discrimination, sex discrimination
Several common measures — like employing a chief diversity officer, offering diversity training or having a diverse board — were not correlated with decreased discrimination in entry-level hiring, the researchers found. But one thing strongly predicted less discrimination: a centralized H.R. operation. The researchers recorded the voice mail messages that the fake applicants received. When a company’s […]
Hiring discrimination sentences to ponder
Peak Woke at GMU: A Belated Critique
17 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
In late 2020, George Mason University publicly released this statement on behalf of the Presidential Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence. (Archived here in case GMU tries to flush it down the memory hole). When I first received the statement via email, I was stunned. I’d long known that the GMU administration leaned left.…
Peak Woke at GMU: A Belated Critique
A wonderful bit of prose
17 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, movies
I’ve described in these pages what I consider to be the finest prose written in English; it includes the beginning of The Raj Quartet, by Paul Scott; the ending of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (but there’s also great stuff in Tender is the Night); much of Thomas Wolfe (especially “The Child by Tiger“, […]
A wonderful bit of prose
Diverse MBA teams perform worse
14 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of education, entrepreneurship, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
From “Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams” (SSRN): Among the randomly-assigned teams [of MBA students], greater diversity along the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity significantly reduced performance. However, the negative effect of this diversity is alleviated … [when teams can choose their teammates]…teams with more female members perform substantially better when their faculty section leader was also…
Diverse MBA teams perform worse
UCLA goes bonkers, hires unhinged “activist in residence” to give a lecture mandatory for all entering med-school students, who are forced to pray for “mama Earth” and chant pro-Palestinian slogans
14 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
The last time I posted something about an article by Georgetown University Law Professor Jonathan Turley, I believe someone beefed because Turley was a conservative, implying that his articles couldn’t be trusted. Well, I deplore the attitude that you can judge the veracity of claims using the ideology, race, or gender of someone who reports […]
UCLA goes bonkers, hires unhinged “activist in residence” to give a lecture mandatory for all entering med-school students, who are forced to pray for “mama Earth” and chant pro-Palestinian slogans
Something important: the curious death of the School Strike 4 Climate Movement
12 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of education, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: climate activists, free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
The Christchurch Mosque Massacres, Covid-19, deep political disillusionment, and the jealous cruelty of the intersectionists: all had a part to play in causing School Strike 4 Climate’s bright bubble of hope and passion to burst. But, while it floated above us, it was something that mattered. Something Important. Chris Trotter writes – […]
Something important: the curious death of the School Strike 4 Climate Movement
12 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, health economics Tags: cranks
Dawkins and Sokal on the dumb ideological ploy maintaining that human sex is “assigned at birth”
10 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, labour economics, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
What a pair! The renowned biologist and the hoax-exposer/mathematician, teamed up to attack the medical profession’s new and woke tendency to deny the existence of biological sex as a reality. (Yes, all animals have exactly two sexes, which are not made up by society.) This eloquent op-ed is in the Boston Globe, and you can […]
Dawkins and Sokal on the dumb ideological ploy maintaining that human sex is “assigned at birth”
A Conversation with Gary Becker
10 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, Gary Becker, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality
Harris’ Major Malfunction
09 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, health economics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: behavioural genetics
Judith Harris’ The Nurture Assumption was a huge influence on me, and the top inspiration for my Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. Her book’s first main lesson is that family resemblance, defined in the broadest possible way to include physical, psychological, and social outcomes, is mostly driven by genetics rather than upbringing. Her book’s…
Harris’ Major Malfunction
An enigmatic statement by George Orwell
07 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics
Years ago I read this statement by George Orwell in his collected essays, and from time to time, especially when I suffer a reversal, I think about the second sentence. “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any […]
An enigmatic statement by George Orwell
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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