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To start the year on a positive note
01 Jan 2017 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles Tags: pessimism bias, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
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Pessimism bias runs deep
03 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture Tags: pessimism bias
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Best defence of Employment Contracts Act is a @FairnessNZ graphic
24 Jul 2016 1 Comment
in economic growth, economic history, labour economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, unions Tags: economic reform, Employment Contracts Act, employment protection laws, employment regulation, Leftover Left, neoliberalism, pessimism bias
Source: Low Wage Economy | New Zealand Council of Trade Unions – Te Kauae Kaimahi, with extra annotations by this blogger.
#DavidAislabie shares @MaxRashbrooke’s boy’s own view of pre-1984 NZ as an egalitarian paradise
23 Jul 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, liberalism, politics - New Zealand Tags: Leftover Left, pessimism bias, Twitter left
David Aislabie yesterday in the Wanganui Chronicle went beyond Max Rashbrooke’s boy’s own view of the 1970s New Zealand is an egalitarian paradise. Aislabie said
The post-war New Zealand I grew up in was the envy of the world — an egalitarian paradise and a great place to bring up children.
It is a sad irony that the baby boomers who benefited from the welfare state they inherited from their parents’ generation should be responsible for snatching those benefits away from subsequent generations.
At least last year, Max Rashbrooke was good enough to qualify his pre-economic reform egalitarian paradise to not include women and Maori
New Zealand up until the 1980s was fairly egalitarian, apart from Maori and women, our increasing income gap started in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” says Rashbrooke. “These young club members are the first generation to grow up in a New Zealand really starkly divided by income.
Leaving out a good 60% of the population from the pre-1984 New Zealand egalitarian paradise is a bit of a stretch on any paradise.
Pre-1984 was no paradise to sing that you were glad to be gay; you could have been thrown in jail and many were.
NZ top income earners as lazy as ever @MaxRashbrooke @CloserTogether
17 Jul 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality Tags: Leftover Left, pessimism bias, top 1%, top incomes, Twitter left
Max Rashbrooke was good enough to remind us that the 2013 update of New Zealand top income shares came online a few days ago.
As is well known to everyone except those obsessed with top income shares, New Zealand top income shares have not changed much since the late 1980s. They are now no higher than in the good old days when New Zealand was an egalitarian paradise in their eyes.
Source: The World Wealth and Income Database.
Why did voters vote to Leave or Remain? @JulieAnneGenter @Income_Equality
28 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, international economic law, international economics, International law, Public Choice Tags: British economy, British politics, Common market, European Union, pessimism bias, single market, Twitter left, voter demographics
There were few difference across the political spectrum as to why voters voted to Remain or Leave. This is according to Lord Ashcroft’s survey on referendum day of over 12,000 voters.
Source: How the United Kingdom voted on Thursday… and why – Lord Ashcroft Polls
Labour and Tory voters voted to leave to regain control over immigration and sovereignty.
Labour and Tory voters who wanted to remain thought the EU and its single market was a good deal not worth putting at risk. It is all about identity politics, not inequality.
Vote Leave voters are a grumpy lot who think things have been getting worse for 30 years:
Leavers see more threats than opportunities to their standard of living from the way the economy and society are changing, by 71% to 29% – more than twice the margin among remainers…
By large majorities, voters who saw multiculturalism, feminism, the Green movement, globalisation and immigration as forces for good voted to remain in the EU; those who saw them as a force for ill voted by even larger majorities to leave.
Stossel – The Good New Days
23 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history Tags: pessimism bias, The Great Enrichment
What is a Luddite?
14 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: Luddites, pessimism bias, technological unemployment
Most things are getting cheaper
11 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history Tags: living standards, pessimism bias
#feelthebern will raise your taxes
09 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics, entrepreneurship, health economics, labour economics, minimum wage, politics - USA, public economics Tags: 2016 presidential election, antimarket bias, expressive voting, living wage, Old Left, pessimism bias, rational irrationality
#FeeltheBern? There’s a Cure.
09 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, health economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: 2016 presidential election, antimarket bias, crony capitalism, living wage, pessimism bias, top 1%
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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