Thousands of TWEETS, Posts, Articles, Pages, chapters, Notes, Diagrams, drafts, sketches and Quotes from 2009 to present
Fashion Is Signaling – Of Course ‘Best Dressed’ Means ‘Most Influential’, Not ‘Most Beautiful’.
Vanessa Friedman of the Financial Times writes about her frustration that the ‘Best Dressed Lists’ actually contain the ‘most influential people’, not the best dressed. See Is Kate Middleton best-dressed or best-addressed? So anyone want to join me in a campaign to change “Best Dressed List” to “Fashion’s Most Influential”? It would unquestionably bring some…
Krugman Watch: Austerity Class? Or is it a Starve-The-Beast Class?
Paul Krugman Quotes Ari Berman today: The central paradox in American politics over the past two years: how, in the midst of a massive unemployment crisis—when it’s painfully obvious that not enough jobs are being created and the public overwhelmingly wants policy-makers to focus on creating them—did the deficit emerge as the most pressing issue…
Religions Establish The Terms By Which The Population Consents To Be Ruled
In practical terms, Religions establish the terms by which the population consents to be ruled. Religions differ from systems of ethics, in that they are far harder to alter in response to fashion – ethical systems have a predictable and known life cycle that ends in skepticism and abandonment of the necessary self sacrifice that…
Why I’m Harping On Karl Smith
There are only two people who make rational arguments on the ‘left’. They’re you and Krugman. We all know he’s a political shill. I’m in the camp that says you’re a moral man, and just missing the point of it all. But if you don’t understand the disastrous externalities created by our statism (re: Nial…
Debating Means Of Stimulus – Tradeoffs Between Goods And Bads
Karl Smith (correctly) suggests that we could make drastic tax cuts to fund stimulus, and borrow the money cheaply. I think he misses the point of the entire political debate going on in the country today (people don’t trust the government at all, and with the south re-engaging the republican party, both parties are increasingly…
Karl Smith Says The Boom Wasnt All That Big, But The Bust Has Been Huge
Karl Smith wants us to push money into the economy through redistribution. That’s his hammer and everything looks like a nail. In today’s posting, he finds another nail: This is a theme I talk about it a lot so I can go into it more but the boom in housing construction was not actually that…
Karl Smith Says He’s Wearing A Label He Didn’t Ask For
Karl Smith at Modeled Behavior says. Doing the rounds on Mises circuit I am usually identified as a liberal or a person from the left. I don’t really much care so I take that ID. Karl. ??? Why is that important (other than by engaging the Misesians, that you position yourself well). The Rothbardian wing…
If You Can’t Grasp The Status Signal Economy Then You Have No Place Commenting On Macro
From Will Wilkinson by way of NEWMARK’S DOOR. Behavioral econ offers policymakers an added dimension of evasion. A government can make a big hullabaloo of caring about energy consumption and climate change by sending folks mail detailing in vivid color their energy use relative to social norms instead of making themselves unpopular by making voters…
Libertarians are smarter than liberals
Libertarians are smarter than liberals. Republicans are smarter than democrats. Libertarians the thought leadership of the conservative movement. Liberals and progressives have the space on the curve below libertarians and below conservatives. In other words, liberals are the thought leadership for the proles and the working class, and libertarians and classical liberal conservatives are the…
Envy
Out of envy, under the false flag of equality, the proletariat west spends it’s ancient aristocratic inheritance. No man is a hero to his debtors.
Another Example of Pareto
The Ideological Tipping Point: If an idea becomes strongly held by ten percent of the population, it will become universal to the population. Libertarians only need to reach ten percent. And we’re getting there.
Whether Or Not To Pay For Free Museum Entry As An Example Of Status Acqusition
Adam Ozimet quotes Felix Salmon when discussing why people pay for entry into a museum even if it’s free. But here’s the thing about freeloaders: if they value what they’re getting, a lot of them will end up paying anyway. What happened when the Indianapolis Museum of Art moved to a free-admission policy? Its paid…
Emotions Are Universally A Reaction To Changes In Property – An Austrian Criticism Of Immigration
Karl Smith quotes Eli Dourado It is perhaps unsurprising that those who think they benefit from the current system wish to keep it. They trot out all kinds of practical-sounding excuses for why we cannot completely open the border. All of these reasons have analogs in the system of class-based privilege. Most of us, I…
Well, The World May or May Not Be Overpopulated – But It’s Energy Production Not Geography That Determines Population Limits.
I love Don Boudreaux. But as a conservative, this post troubled me. It troubled me because while I agree with the conclusion, that conclusion isn’t based upon sound reasoning, and would lead to policy that increased fragility. The World is UNDERpopulated by DON BOUDREAUX … While many myths compete with “the-world-is-over-populated-with-humans” myth for the honor…
Walter Russel Meade Falsely Calls Me A Racist And A Troll
Comments were shut down on Walther Russell Meade’s site, and they called me a Racist and a Troll. I get called every name in the book. I’m a frequent critic of opposing viewpoints, more than a popularizer of existing libertarian ideas. So I interject opposing viewpoints into all sorts of silly online discussions. And in…
Mark Thoma Asks A Fallacy Of False Choice With “Which Tax Is Preferable?”
On Economists View, Mark asks: Is it important for taxes to be progressive? Or is progressivity in the net benefits the only important consideration? In this context: In Europe, the VAT is used extensively. VATs are regressive, but they’re an important source of revenue for the highly progressive tax-and-transfer systems in Europe. That is, although…
A Letter To James Hanley
James, Most commenters on your site, and you yourself, frequently argue against the positions of that subset of libertarians called Rothbardian Anarchists and in the process smear the rest of the libertarian movement. Rothbardian anarchists have attempted to appropriate the term “libertarian” as well as the term “austrian economics” in order to gain legitimacy and…
American Conservatism Is Not An Ideology
The purpose of an ideology is to assist a group or class in obtaining political power. The purpose of American Conservatism is to prevent groups or classes from obtaining political power. It’s that simple.
Understanding Libertarianism As A Technical Philosophy
Over On “League of Ordinary Gentlemen” there is a very long thread fitfully attempting to be critical of Libertarianism. It’s interesting how almost no one on the thread understands anything other than what they’ve read in the popular press about libertarianism. Which is common, because like any doctrine, people adopt it because of the appeal…
We Don’t Disagree On Objectives
On Modeled Behavior, Karl posts that Unemployment is ‘Awful’. And he posts a chart illustrating that losing a job is a serious emotional experience. But, the most obvious conclusion from the data in that chart is that “separation from your social and familial group” – separation from your tribe – is what troubles human beings…