Mendicant NZ artist denounces neoliberalism and tall poppy syndrome in same breath
28 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - New Zealand, rentseeking Tags: corporate welfare, green hypocrisy, Left-wing hypocrisy, neoliberalism, rent seeking, starving artists, tall poppy syndrome, Yes Prime Minister
Man Booker Prize author Eleanor Catton from New Zealand managed in the same interview in India to denounce the neoliberalism of New Zealand’s current government and then denounce the tall poppy syndrome that cuts down artistic elites such as herself down to size when they become successful.
At the moment, New Zealand, like Australia and Canada, (is dominated by) these neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture
This is tremendous a hypocrisy: to denounce a neoliberal philosophy that supposedly favours the elite over the working class and then complain about members of the elite such as herself are not supported sufficiently from the taxpayers’ tough:
We have this strange cultural phenomenon called “tall poppy syndrome”; if you stand out, you will be cut down…
If you get success overseas then very often the local population can suddenly be very hard on you. Or the other problem is that the local population can take ownership of that success in a way that is strangely proprietal.
Catton manages to denounce neoliberalism and the capitalist competition that entails but then gets quite annoyed over the fact the successful people aren’t rewarded and recognised by the country.
What hypocrisy. She denounces neoliberalism and then complains about been cut down because of her success. If you’re an opponent of neoliberalism, there is some obligation on you to argue for a levelling of income and wealth, including your own.
It betrays an attitude towards individual achievement which is very, uncomfortable. It has to belong to everybody or the country really doesn’t want to know about it…
I’ve really struggled with my identity as a New Zealand writer. I feel uncomfortable being an ambassador for my country when my country is not doing as much as it could, especially for the intellectual world.
Catton is particularly upset over the fact that New Zealand is expected to share her fame with them some way. Obviously, Catton believes in private profits, private fame at social losses and public subsidies for the arts. Having to share what she earns is not part of her opposition to neoliberalism.
From each in accordance with their ability, to each in according to their need is the heart of the anti-neoliberal philosophy, or is it Robert Nozick’s capitalistic acts between consenting adults where it is from each as they choose, to each as they are chosen, especially if you’re a successful artist.
Such is the price neoliberalism is Eleanor Catton, like every other able-bodied adult, is expected to earn a living for themselves by producing something that someone wants a profitable global for them rather than expect a hand-out from the government simply because of the desire of the recipients to receive the money. In her case, her claim for government hand-outs is because she happens to be artistic.
Jim Hacker: “So they insult me and then expect me to give them more money?”
Sir Humphrey: “Yes, I must say it’s a rather undignified posture. But it is what artists always do: crawling towards the government on their knees, shaking their fists.”
Jim Hacker: “Beating me over the head with their begging bowls.”
Bernard Woolley: “Oh, I am sorry to be pedantic, Prime Minister, but they can’t beat you over the head if they’re on their knees. Unless of course they’ve got very long arms.”
Saving Civilization: 2009 vs 2015
27 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: activists, climate ala, climate alarmism, do gooders, expressive voting, green rent seeking, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
An absolutely excellent collection of climate alarmist statements by hacks whose jobs depended on fermenting confusion and moral panic
Five years ago, we were told that the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was the last chance to save civilization. As the 2015 Paris summit approaches, the same sort of fear mongering is ramping up.
Earlier this week, a climate declaration published as a full-page ad in the international edition of New York Times tried to frighten us. It told us that:
the UN Climate Summit in Paris in December 2015 may be the last chance to agree a treaty capable of saving civilization; [bold added]
The declaration insisted that global warming may “cause the very fabric of civilization to crash.” It said charitable foundations should therefore divert resources away from other projects – presumably building hospitals and schools, preventing blindness and malaria, ensuring basic sanitation – in order to “save civilization” from the climate scourge.
Problem is, we’ve heard this before. Not so very long ago, the British Prime…
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Is the Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act 2010 invalid as submitted today in the High Court?
27 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
Every 20 years we worry about losing jobs to technology
26 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, technological progress Tags: creative destruction, search and matching, technological unemployment
Every generation has its moral panic about technological change in creative destruction.
For young people, it’s that overweening conceit about the problems they are attempting to solve are new.
For the middle-aged and older, rather than suggest that they are policy hustlers, it’s more like you they simply forgot that these debates were had 20 years ago and the scaremongers lost the same reason they lost 20 years before that, and so on.
HT: https://twitter.com/JamesBessen/status/498435714322014208
Double standards on terrorism
26 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Hamas, Israel, Leftover Left, Osama bin Laden, war on terror
Evidence that the Left over Left are narrow-minded and personally nasty to people who disagree with them
26 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: activists, expressive voting, Greens, Leftover Left, political psychology, progressive left
The UK Green’s election signs are not in any way fluffy like those in New Zealand
26 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - New Zealand Tags: expressive voting, Greens, Leftover Left, Uk Greens
Obviously, the UK Greens are not as fluffy as their down-under compatriots if you have a look at this somewhat confrontational sign of theirs.
The New Zealand Greens have election campaign signs from which I can neither discern their message, nor easily work out that it is a Green sign because their logo is so small in the bottom right hand corner when driving by a car.
Maybe the Greens are not after car-owner votes, only bicyclists and public transport users – the middle-class on the way to their jobs in the city.
The sign of the UK Greens borders on hate speech. The UK Greens also do not have female and male co-leaders, as is the case for the New Zealand Greens, from what I can see – where is their gender balance?
Charles Krauthammer on what conservatives and liberals think of each other
25 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Charles Krauthammer, expressive voting, Leftover Left, media bias, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
The Doomsday Clock is seriously awry
24 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
Things are worse than in the 1980s. What nonsense.
Hsieh and Moretti on Allocations across Cities
23 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, geography, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: agglomeration, green rent seeking, land supply, zoning
the implied cost of housing restrictions across the whole U.S., and Chang and Enrico find that aggregate output is lower by about 10-14% because of them.
Last post on the NBER growth session. Chang-Tai Hsieh (Chicago) and Enrico Moretti (Berkeley) presented a paper on wage dispersion across cities in the U.S. Wage dispersion (New Yorkers earn more than people in Cleveland) either represents compensation for living costs (housing in New York is more expensive than in Cleveland), a real difference in productivity (New Yorkers are more productive than Clevelanders), or some combination of the two.
What Chang and Enrico find is that the increase in wage dispersion across cities in the U.S. over the last thirty-ish years is due almost entirely to rising house prices in six cities: NY, DC, Boston, San Fran, San Jose, and Seattle. Wages have gone up rapidly in those cities, but that is basically just compensating their citizens for the higher costs of living.
Now, given the costs of living, the allocation of population across cities in the U.S. is…
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Hayek on why he got his key prediction right in the Road to Serfdom
23 Jan 2015 1 Comment
in Austrian economics, constitutional political economy, F.A. Hayek, liberalism, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), Monday Conference, Road to Serfdom
This summary by Hayek of the contemporary meaning of socialism in the 1930s and 1940s was relatively accurate.
You must remember that clause 4 of the British Labour Party’s manifesto committing that party to the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange was only dropped relatively recently at the impetus of Tony Blair.
The Australian Labor Party still includes the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange as one of its objectives.
There were stronger divisions in the inter-war labour parties in Britain, Australia and New Zealand about whether the party should be committed to full socialism, Christian socialism or social democracy. It has been forgotten that the labour parties of Britain, Australia and New Zealand had many fall on the socialists within that party.
The Labour Party of Michael Foot in the 1983 British general election ran on a hard left manifesto, with Tony Benn and the Trotskyist entryist group Militant Tendency, which had several MPs, wanting a full socialist agenda in 1980s Britain.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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