The crux of his argument is that communism is superior to free markets, because the latter necessitates the forcible migration of people, thus dissolving families, nations, and communities. For example, if a Mexican in Mexico earns $10/hour to build a house and an American earns $30/hour, under globalization and free trade it’s advantageous for the… Continue reading Is Free Trade worse than Communism?
The Permanent Ascendance of the Status Quo
By The Money Illusion: One by one, the anti-EMH arguments collapse This is a really great article and agrees with everything I have been trying to convey for the past six or so years. It’s too bad it’s marred by the last paragraph that detracts from the article. In the context of the article, the… Continue reading The Permanent Ascendance of the Status Quo
The importance of IQ
From Vox Day, published in 2012 The importance of IQ: For some reason, the discussion of IQ differences makes people uncomfortable; it doesn’t matter how obviously intelligent one is, people still find it offensive in a way that they never find a tall man being straightforward about his height is. This is strange, because one… Continue reading The importance of IQ
Stuck in the quicksand of philosophy
The System that Wasn’t There: Ayn Rand’s Failed Philosophy (and why it matters) -Nicholas McGinnis Unsurprisingly, the politicians and businessmen who admire Rand focus on such policy recommendations and are rather less familiar with, for instance, her grounds for rejecting the analytic-synthetic distinction. There’s a radical disconnect between the impact her political thought and the… Continue reading Stuck in the quicksand of philosophy
System-based rationalism, part 2
The systems-based approach to rationalism could not have foreseen Trump’s win (and neither could the behaviorist approach), but it predicts that policy, despite the pretense of populism, will resemble something similar to neoconservatism.
The Atomic Bomb as a Hungarian High School Science Fair Project? Hardly
Scott’s latest article, The Atomic Bomb Considered as Hungarian High School Science Fair Project, went viral, as most of his articles do. It’s as interesting dissecting why an article goes viral, than studying the content of the article itself. The title and the premise invokes mental imagery of a renegade band of Hungarian scientists working… Continue reading The Atomic Bomb as a Hungarian High School Science Fair Project? Hardly
A systems-based approach to rationalism
Most discussions of rationalism involve the study of cognitive biases, personality, and human behavior, but, imho, a ‘systems/logical’ approach to rationalism is more propitious than understanding cognitive biases and human behavior. I believe that rationalism is to choose the optimal choice of all available options. Once one acquires an understanding of the fundamentals of an… Continue reading A systems-based approach to rationalism
How the GOP ‘Establishment’ Lost Its Way
It’s hard to believe that just four and a half years ago, the GOP nominee was Mitt Romney, who is the polar opposite of Trump, whom no one saw coming. In 2015-2016, there was Pepe, 4chan pol memes, the alt-right, and frog Twitter. In 2012? Nothing. But what was the turning point? What was the… Continue reading How the GOP ‘Establishment’ Lost Its Way
Bryan Caplan and Dave Rubin: Anarcho-Capitalism, Economics, and Immigration (Full Interview)
I wanted to like this video more, but there is too much hand waving. It’s all based on assumptions. He doesn’t cite any studies/data except for a “1930’s charity”. Maybe he is right, maybe he is wrong. Who knows. Free markets produce improvements, but other times not. Yahoo Finance is still awful and has gotten… Continue reading Bryan Caplan and Dave Rubin: Anarcho-Capitalism, Economics, and Immigration (Full Interview)
The Inescapable Pull of Biology
This story is going hugely viral: In ‘Enormous Success,’ Scientists Tie 52 Genes to Human Intelligence This comment stood out: Ive known people who were related to certain very famous physicists and their intelligence was obviously much higher than most people. As in very conspicuous. There is no doubt thay intelligence is purely genetic. The… Continue reading The Inescapable Pull of Biology