Proctologists from outer space alert: what would you do if you had just travelled many light years to visit Earth?
04 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
Film review – Elysium
03 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, P.T. Bauer, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, Rawls and Nozick, technological progress Tags: democracies, movies, rule of law, The Great Enrichment
Elysium was on TV. When I saw it on the big screen, no one told me it was a depiction of contemporary capitalism and the class war.
I read it as a contrast between third world countries lacking the rule of law and capitalist democracies.
The ships shooting up to the space station reminded me of Cubans trying to cross into the USA by boat to Florida.
Sorry, but I am just a simple country boy from the back blocks of Tasmania.
The World’s Most Corrupt Diplomats, As Told Through Parking Tickets
30 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of crime, growth disasters, growth miracles, law and economics, liberalism Tags: crime and punishment, diplomatic corruption, diplomatic parking tickets, official corruption
Kuwait tops the list, with 246 violations per diplomat, followed by Egypt (under Mubarack), Chad, Sudan and Bulgaria. At the bottom, with no violations, are 21 diverse countries including not just the ever-polite U.K., Japan and Canada.
Most U.N. diplomats have improved their parking behaviour since 2002 when the U.S. began withholding parking fines from foreign aid payments: violations fell by 90% immediately after the measure was passed.
The British High Commissioner to New Zealand, plate DC1, nearly ran me over at pedestrian crossing yesterday outside the Wellington library, so this is not an unbiased post.
He was travelling too fast to stop in the central business district, where the speed limit is 30 kilometres per hour. You should not speed near pedestrian crossings because people are trying to walk out onto it.
Trade, investment and economic interdependence promote peace alert: Russian economic ties with Europe
30 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
Pro-free enterprise does not mean pro-business
28 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of religion, liberalism, Milton Friedman, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Milton Friedman
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.
Recent Comments