What the jihadists who bought “Islam for Dummies” tell us about radicalisation
10 Sep 2014 1 Comment
in economics, economics of crime, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: economics of oppositional identities, Jihadists, Terrorism is an occupational choice
Sarwar and Ahmed, who pleaded guilty to terrorism offences, purchased Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies. MI5’s behavioural science unit found that
“far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could . . . be regarded as religious novices.” The analysts concluded that “a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation”
Most evidence point to moral outrage, disaffection, peer pressure, the search for a new identity, for a sense of belonging and purpose as drivers of radicalisation. Anthropologist Scott Atran pointed out in testimony to the US Senate in March 2010:
“. . . what inspires the most lethal terrorists in the world today is not so much the Quran or religious teachings as a thrilling cause and call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, and through friends, eternal respect and remembrance in the wider world”. He described wannabe jihadists as “bored, underemployed, overqualified and underwhelmed” young men for whom “jihad is an egalitarian, equal-opportunity employer . . . thrilling, glorious and cool”.
Chris Morris, the writer and director of the 2010 black comedy Four Lions – which satirised the ignorance, incompetence and sheer banality of British Muslim jihadists – said:
Terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about berks.
Safety warning gone mad
10 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in health and safety Tags: nanny state
HT: Tortylicious via Cato Institute
The impact of unemployment insurance eligibility extensions on long-term unemployment rates
06 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
Much-needed gender analysis of median earnings growth since 1947
06 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics Tags: gender analysis, median earnings growth by gender, myths and reality
Source: Council of Economic Advisors.
Are men just getting their comeuppance for decades of discrimination against women?
Much is made of the stagnation of median earnings over the last few decades. There is no such stagnation for women
The personnel economics of putting up election billboards
04 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, theory of the firm Tags: 2014 New Zealand election, agent principal problems, labour economics, moral hazard, New Zealand politics, paid versus unpaid labour, personnel economics
I’ve been out of late, helping put up election billboards. Maybe I should get a life, but I noticed that the quality of effort by volunteers was much better than that by the contractors hired by the Internet – Mana party. Everybody in that party appears to be paid including the leader for $140K year. She is not yet in Parliament.
The Internet-Mana party election billboards are very heavy, solid wooden signs and obviously pre-manufactured and must be driven around in a truck. They are certainly too heavy to be put on the back of a trailer behind a private car.
Our signs are constructed on site from a dozen pieces of wood of various sizes. The only pre-prepared part is the billboard itself with fits on the back of a trailer.
What first took my interest is the contractors hired by the Internet – Mana party signs seem to pay not all that much regard to the traffic flow. Some of their signs are parallel with the traffic so hardly anybody can see them. They are all one sided signs.
When we are putting up a election billboard, we squabble like a bunch of old women over the exact angle each sign should face the traffic to capture the most number of passing cars and buses. Everybody has an opinion including those doing it for the first time.
We then squabble about whether the sign should be one-sided or two sided depending upon how well it can be viewed from the other side by traffic coming the other way.
We also squabble about its positioning and height to maximise the number of views by the passing traffic relative to the positioning all the other signs.
There is also a lot of vandalism of these signs by rather naive people who don’t understand that the passing motorist looks at the vandalised signs first.
It takes a whole lot of hatred to vandalised a sign in this way. Photos of the above sign immediately went viral. For some reason, the National party has repaired that sign. I don’t know why.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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