Sounds like a really interesting book! I read the synopsis and the mainstream is sorely in need of a approach that acknowledges the extreme complexity and heterogeneity of an economy. Nothing irks me more than to see…
Your instincts are not wrong, believe it or not. Unfortunately most economists fall short of the current state of their science. The first thing one needs to understand about economics is how rife it is with special…
The truth will out, complicated character-assassination plots notwithstanding.
The existence of central planning anywhere in Western financial systems is even more insulting. After watching the examples of our good neighbors to the East you'd think we would have learned our lesson by now.
The latter half of the 19th century up to WW1 was the USA's longest sustained period of high growth and high economic mobility. No central bank. Moderate deflation was the norm. According to the likes of Paul Krugman…
Well, one satirical short story and actual historical socialism's mountains of corpses.
Like maybe don't put a Soviet-style central committee in charge of the money supply? It's depressing to me that modern economies like the US and Europe can be so shot through with central planning, and then when they…
Past experience makes me pretty confident of what I'll find this time.
Point taken, and I'm glad you see the merit in the discussion about what things the state has any right to do. After all, sometimes trespassing is the right thing to do. I certainly hope the fire department doesn't wait…
> "Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up" I'm a big believer in Chesterton's Fence too, but what do you do about fences put up by someone who had no right to put it there? If someone…
You're probably right. For example: Even though you can buy a Thinkpad directly from Lenovo, Best Buy still exists.
There are some interesting comments in here about how tough the struggle is for car dealerships, but I don't think that necessarily justifies their existence or mitigates the point of this article. If what the…
Oh not this again. First of all, Friedman advocated a negative income tax as a replacement to the ad-hoc mess of redistributive taxes, grants and welfare programs that exist now. Add a UBI to food stamps, unemployment…
Please elaborate. Is that a reason to dismiss the argument? Is it not obvious that tax payers are naturally at odds with tax eaters?
Is it not an option to just stop visiting these sites?
I suppose they should be commended for the effort, but the other issue is that the experimental group is unlikely to represent what things would be like under a truly universal basic income. Incentives throughout the…
The Friedman negative income tax would surely be better than the complicated patchwork of taxes and welfare programs modern countries have today, if only for its simplicity. I would not mind seeing an experiment in…
Economic experiments can never really have a control group, so what the Dutch government learns from this will depend greatly on the theory they already have when interpreting the data.
At least they have avoided giving it an Orwellian name including the phrase "free trade". Free trade can be described in a few sentences. These voluminous inter-governmental managed trade agreements are just…
> You've built up this imaginary view of the world where every woman is just waiting to catch you out. You've really got to stop doing that. I've already explained this isn't about women in particular. This is about a…
> Treating that person the same as anyone else is your group is what is appropriate. Are you sure? It seems quite likely to me that this sensitive person would lodge exactly the same complaint for totally different…
Sure, that's pretty much my point. It's all about the incentives. When the job description and rewards say "take people's stuff," then that's what they'll do.
I'd argue that the profit motive is fine, private security works without this problem. The issue with asset forfeiture laws is that they create an incentive to violate the fourth amendment. The funny thing about this…
Exactly. If economic growth was just like microbe growth in a petri dish, sure, a simple equation would suffice. But people choose and act based on their own thoughts, opinions, and goals, and they are always…
I don't know if that is a serious suggestion, but the delta V required to hit the sun is enormous. That is about the most expensive technique imaginable for disposing of anything.
Sounds like a really interesting book! I read the synopsis and the mainstream is sorely in need of a approach that acknowledges the extreme complexity and heterogeneity of an economy. Nothing irks me more than to see…
Your instincts are not wrong, believe it or not. Unfortunately most economists fall short of the current state of their science. The first thing one needs to understand about economics is how rife it is with special…
The truth will out, complicated character-assassination plots notwithstanding.
The existence of central planning anywhere in Western financial systems is even more insulting. After watching the examples of our good neighbors to the East you'd think we would have learned our lesson by now.
The latter half of the 19th century up to WW1 was the USA's longest sustained period of high growth and high economic mobility. No central bank. Moderate deflation was the norm. According to the likes of Paul Krugman…
Well, one satirical short story and actual historical socialism's mountains of corpses.
Like maybe don't put a Soviet-style central committee in charge of the money supply? It's depressing to me that modern economies like the US and Europe can be so shot through with central planning, and then when they…
Past experience makes me pretty confident of what I'll find this time.
Point taken, and I'm glad you see the merit in the discussion about what things the state has any right to do. After all, sometimes trespassing is the right thing to do. I certainly hope the fire department doesn't wait…
> "Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up" I'm a big believer in Chesterton's Fence too, but what do you do about fences put up by someone who had no right to put it there? If someone…
You're probably right. For example: Even though you can buy a Thinkpad directly from Lenovo, Best Buy still exists.
There are some interesting comments in here about how tough the struggle is for car dealerships, but I don't think that necessarily justifies their existence or mitigates the point of this article. If what the…
Oh not this again. First of all, Friedman advocated a negative income tax as a replacement to the ad-hoc mess of redistributive taxes, grants and welfare programs that exist now. Add a UBI to food stamps, unemployment…
Please elaborate. Is that a reason to dismiss the argument? Is it not obvious that tax payers are naturally at odds with tax eaters?
Is it not an option to just stop visiting these sites?
I suppose they should be commended for the effort, but the other issue is that the experimental group is unlikely to represent what things would be like under a truly universal basic income. Incentives throughout the…
The Friedman negative income tax would surely be better than the complicated patchwork of taxes and welfare programs modern countries have today, if only for its simplicity. I would not mind seeing an experiment in…
Economic experiments can never really have a control group, so what the Dutch government learns from this will depend greatly on the theory they already have when interpreting the data.
At least they have avoided giving it an Orwellian name including the phrase "free trade". Free trade can be described in a few sentences. These voluminous inter-governmental managed trade agreements are just…
> You've built up this imaginary view of the world where every woman is just waiting to catch you out. You've really got to stop doing that. I've already explained this isn't about women in particular. This is about a…
> Treating that person the same as anyone else is your group is what is appropriate. Are you sure? It seems quite likely to me that this sensitive person would lodge exactly the same complaint for totally different…
Sure, that's pretty much my point. It's all about the incentives. When the job description and rewards say "take people's stuff," then that's what they'll do.
I'd argue that the profit motive is fine, private security works without this problem. The issue with asset forfeiture laws is that they create an incentive to violate the fourth amendment. The funny thing about this…
Exactly. If economic growth was just like microbe growth in a petri dish, sure, a simple equation would suffice. But people choose and act based on their own thoughts, opinions, and goals, and they are always…
I don't know if that is a serious suggestion, but the delta V required to hit the sun is enormous. That is about the most expensive technique imaginable for disposing of anything.