HT: deirdremccloskey via cafehayek
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
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.
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
Booker T Washington (1856 – 1915) on grievance industries
15 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: The Age of the Enlightenment
Marvellously simple explanation of the beauty and power of the market process
15 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
The criminally large difference between leaks to the media and hacking
14 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: espionage, media leaks, phone hacking
There is a difference between hacking and leaks.
For example, Julian Assange is unlikely to face charges under American espionage laws because the FBI would have too pop down and arrest everybody at the New York Times and Washington Post and the U.S. offices of the Guardian and more than a few famous book authors.
U.S. media organizations could be prosecuted for printing leaked classified information under US espionage legislation, but that prospect is unlikely because of official aversion to running afoul of the First Amendment.
If the government were to prosecute the recipient of classified information – as opposed to the individual who leaked it from within the government such as Bradley Manning – mainstream media would fear that they could face prosecution for reporting information they routinely receive from government sources. There is no way to prosecute Assange for publishing information without the same theory being applied to journalists.
Assigned is in criminal law trouble only if he assisted Bradley Manning to leak the information as distinct from simply receive it from him. An example might be advising Manning on how to get around computer security at his Defence Department workplace.
Hacking involves breaking into someone else’s place in the full knowledge that this is prohibited under computer crimes laws. Heavy penalties apply in the same way as physically braking in and stealing the documents. There is no moral or legal distinction.
The outrage against the phone hacking scandal in the UK was based upon breaches of computer crime law and corruption of public officials through bribes. The moral outrage in that scandal was topped up by the glee which some papers had at the fall from grace of their commercial and ideological rivals.
Legality of marijuana in the US
14 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: decriminalisation of marijuana
The legalisation of marijuana in the USA is picking up speed at a great rate. Of course, at the Federal level it’s still illegal.
What matters is it is becoming increasingly safe for jelly backed middle-of-the-road politicians to do the right thing.
HT: Whale Oil
The blame everybody else sociology of the vision of the anointed – Thomas Sowell
14 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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