Food snobs alert: organic food discriminates against diabetics
27 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in health economics, liberalism Tags: diabetes, food snobs, killer green technologies, organic cola, organic food
I arrived at an isolated Auckland cafe on Monday, thirsty as can be, and discovered much to my horror that it only sold organic food. This meant no Diet Coke, no Coke Zero, to quench my thirst quickly.
There was was only a light organic cola that was 40% less sugar. For diabetics such as me that is 60% too much sugar.
To add fuel the fire, the common symptom of diabetes, you can be thirsty all the time.
Organic food is not healthy if is unhealthy for people with chronic illnesses to eat or drink it for most basic functions of life such as quenching your thirst.
With diabetes, it is not wise to drink sweet things on a one-off basis such as this because you might remember how nice they are to drinking and lose discipline in your diet.
Out of 4.3 million New Zealanders, about 210, 000 people are affected with diabetes.
Brandolini’s law of BS Asymmetry
26 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: conjecture and refutation
HT: Neumark’s Door
Helmut Schoeck on what a miserable sin is envy
23 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: distributive justice, envy, Helmut Schoeck, social justice
HT: Cafe Hayek
Inequality and Web Search Trends – NYTimes.com
21 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - USA, population economics
Henry Hazlitt on wise bureaucrats and farsighted politicians
21 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, entrepreneurship, liberalism, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: fatal conceit, Henry Hazlitt, pretence to knowledge
Should everyone get a trophy in sports or just the winners
21 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, entrepreneurship, liberalism Tags: distributive justice, entitlement theory of justice, expressive voting, just deserts, The mirage of social justice
via 57 Percent of Americans Say Only Kids Who Win Should Get Trophies – Reason-Rupe Surveys : Reason.com.
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
Great British Class Survey finds seven social classes in UK | Society | The Guardian
20 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, liberalism, political change, politics Tags: new class
Sitcom guide to the new classes
Elite: General Melchett from Blackadder Goes Fourth. Braying, bellowing, incompetent and utterly contemptuous of the lower orders, Melchett would naturally expect to find himself at the top of the pecking order.
Established middle class: Margot and Jerry Leadbetter from The Good Life. As the establishment pillars of comfortable and conservative 1970s suburban society, the couple existed in pointed contrast to their more free-thinking neighbours Tom and Barbara Good.
Technical middle class: David Brent from The Office. Despite his supposedly rock’n’roll past, Ricky Gervais’s fist-gnawingly embarrassing general manager was resolutely middle class.
New affluent workers: Miranda from Miranda. Miranda Hart herself may be established middle class, but the heroine of her eponymous sitcom sits comfortably in a slightly lower category.
Traditional working class: Jim Royle from The Royle Family. Could Ricky Tomlinson’s armchair-bound, TV-addicted patriarch be anything other than proudly working class? My arse!
Emergent service workers: Maurice Moss from the IT Crowd. Young, nerdish and living at home with his mum, Moss could fit the emergent service worker class but probably needs a little work to increase his social and cultural capital levels.
Precariat: Rab C Nesbitt. Gregor Fisher’s much-loved and enduring sitcom creation has assumed the status of folk hero despite his resolutely unglamorous life.
The Full class topology is:
- Elite – the most privileged group in the UK, distinct from the other six classes through its wealth. This group has the highest levels of all three capitals
- Established middle class – the second wealthiest, scoring highly on all three capitals. The largest and most gregarious group, scoring second highest for cultural capital
- Technical middle class – a small, distinctive new class group which is prosperous but scores low for social and cultural capital. Distinguished by its social isolation and cultural apathy
- New affluent workers – a young class group which is socially and culturally active, with middling levels of economic capital
- Traditional working class – scores low on all forms of capital, but is not completely deprived. Its members have reasonably high house values, explained by this group having the oldest average age at 66
- Emergent service workers – a new, young, urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital
- Precariat, or precarious proletariat – the poorest, most deprived class, scoring low for social and cultural capital
via Great British Class Survey finds seven social classes in UK | Society | The Guardian.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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