Why did global warming become climate change?
29 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, expressive voting, global warming, green rent seeking, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
The different types of authoritarian personalities
28 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: antiforeign bias, antimarket bias, economics of personality traits, expressive voting, Leftover Left, makework bias, political psychology, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
Donald Trump explained
27 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in international economic law, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2016 presidential election, antiforeign bias, antimarket bias, crony capitalism, Donald Trump, expressive voting, left-wing populists, populists, right-wing populists
Greenpeace protesters no longer have fire in their bellies
26 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - New Zealand Tags: climate alarmism, expressive politics, expressive voting, global warming, Greenpeace, Leftover Left, nonviolent direct action, peaceful protests
More heat than light in the recent inequality debate
26 Jun 2015 1 Comment
The rise in articles about inequality in NZ sure doesn't match the data on inequality.
youtube.com/watch?v=uCT7aE… http://t.co/z2eWKgXJiL—
Eric Crampton (@EricCrampton) June 26, 2015
More minimum wage job replacement units spotted
26 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, survivor principle, unions Tags: antimarket bias, creative destruction, expressive voting, technological unemployment
Millennials’ Political Views Don’t Make Any Sense
22 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of information, economics of media and culture, income redistribution, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: antiforeign bias, antimarket bias, expressive voting, make-work bias, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, voter demographics
Millennial politics is simple, really. Young people support big government, unless it costs any more money. They’re for smaller government, unless budget cuts scratch a program they’ve heard of. They’d like Washington to fix everything, just so long as it doesn’t run anything.
Young people lean way left on issues like gay marriage, pot, and immigration. On abortion and gun control, they swim closer to the rest of the electorate.
But on economics, they’re all over the map. You get the sense, reading the Reason Foundation and Pew studies, that a savvy pollster could trick a young person into supporting basically any economic policy in the world with the right combination of triggers. Conservative and liberal partisans can cherry-pick this survey to paint Millennials as whatever ideology they want.
On spending:
Conservatives can say: 65 percent of Millennials would like to cut spending.
Liberals can say: 62 percent would like to spend more on infrastructure and jobs.On taxes:
Conservatives can say: 58 percent of Millennials want to cut taxes overall.
Liberals can say: 66 percent want to raise taxes on the wealthy.On government’s role in our lives:
Conservatives can say: 66 percent of Millennials say that “when something is funded by the government, it is usually inefficient and wasteful.”
Liberals can say: More than two-thirds think the government should guarantee food, shelter, and a living wage.On government size:
Conservatives can say: 57 percent want smaller government with fewer services (if you mention the magic word “taxes”).
Liberals can say: 54 percent want larger government with more services (if you don’t mention “taxes”).
via Millennials’ Political Views Don’t Make Any Sense – The Atlantic and This poll proves that millennials have totally incoherent political views – Vox.
Green parties score 2/3 on this test?
21 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, technological progress Tags: 9/11, anti-vaccination movement, antiscience left, conspiracy theories, expressive voting, GMOs, inspiriting theorists, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, risk risk trade-offs, vaccines
The GMO food die-hard GMO opponents love (and oppose a label for)
20 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, environmental economics, health economics, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: antiscience left, expressive voting, food labelling, GMOs, product labelling, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
Ben Elton on the fraying of the Left
19 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Ben Elton, expressive voting, Green Left, Leftover Left, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Many forget how expensive the moon program was in the 60s and that it wasn’t popular!
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, politics - USA Tags: expressive voting, moon, NASA, public R&D, R&D, space program
NASA's budget as a percentage of Federal spending. Wish this chart went up. =( buff.ly/1FygxQ7 http://t.co/dEczs1QNoi—
Tyler Vigen (@TylerVigen) May 26, 2015
…many people believe that Project Apollo was popular, probably because it garnered significant media attention, but the polls do not support a contention that Americans embraced the lunar landing mission.
Consistently throughout the 1960s a majority of Americans did not believe Apollo was worth the cost, with the one exception to this a poll taken at the time of the Apollo 11 lunar landing in July 1969.
And consistently throughout the decade 45-60 percent of Americans believed that the government was spending too much on space, indicative of a lack of commitment to the spaceflight agenda. These data do not support a contention that most people approved of Apollo and thought it important to explore space.
HT: Moondoggle: The Forgotten Opposition to the Apollo Program – The Atlantic.
The opportunity cost of expressive politics: fossil fuels disinvestment versus actually doing something that might help
17 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: cap and trade, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate alarmism, expressive voting, fossil fuel disinvestment, global warming, rational irrationality, Robert Stavins
Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, Micro-aggressions, and other Fruits of Campus Feminism
17 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - USA Tags: Christina Hoff Sommers, expressive politics, expressive voting, feminism, identity politics, political correctness
Every 20 years we worry about losing jobs to technology
17 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: antimarket bias, creative distraction, expressive voting, make-work bias, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, technological unemployment
Every 20 years we worry about losing jobs to tech. books.google.com/ngrams/graph?c… http://t.co/KW47Iwzsp9—
James Bessen (@JamesBessen) August 10, 2014
Mises on why economics analysis is so unpopular
14 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, Ludwig von Mises, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: antiforeign bias, antimarket bias, expressive voting, green rent seeking, makework bias, NIMBYs, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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