In the ongoing online economics debate over technology, jobs, and automation, the Luddite Fallacy and Lump of Labor fallacies are often invoked. However, the there is a point of common confusion, which is if the goal of technology is to replace labor, then over the long-term labor cannot compete with technology. I believe technology will… Continue reading The Economics Debate: Jobs and Automation
Tag: economics
Why Do The Rich Need So Much Money?
(This post was cut from an earlier post and made into a separate blog post, with some additional editing) Another argument you’ll commonly hear is, why do the rich need so much money? Couldn’t it be spent better elsewhere? Even leaving aside rich using their status to solidify their position, consider this: are the policies… Continue reading Why Do The Rich Need So Much Money?
The Economic Calm
Lately there have been a lot of ‘weird’ posts on this blog – stuff about IQ, signaling, and intellectualism, and the like. If you go to the archives, back in 2011-2013, not once did I mention IQ (maybe one time in 2013 I think) and no mentions of SJW, Social Darwinism, or HBD either. It… Continue reading The Economic Calm
RE: How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization
From Medium: How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization he show ended in 2004. The same year that Facebook began, the year that George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term, the year that reality television became a dominant force in pop culture, with American Idol starting an eight-year reign of… Continue reading RE: How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization
The Wealth Inequality Obsession
There have been more articles than usual about social science issues such as wealth inequality, ‘the 1%’, student loans, offshoring wealth, and so on. I counted ten such articles on Hacker News in the past week alone, all of them viral: Wealth doesn’t trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals (2012) The 1%… Continue reading The Wealth Inequality Obsession
Post-2008 Themes
Lately there has been a plethora of these ‘how-world-is-changing’ type articles on social news sites, and they seem to do well, as measured by comments, interactions, and shares, so here is another one: The Crisis of the Blue Model Within a decade … between a third and a half of the current employees in finance… Continue reading Post-2008 Themes
Universal Basic Income – Why It Can’t Work in America
From Bloomberg: A Basic Income Is Smarter Than a Minimum Wage The Universal Basic Income (UBI) is one those economic debate topics that will never be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction, unlike Newtonian gravity, for example, which with the exception of possible quantum gravity, has long been long settled. That’s the problem with the social sciences.… Continue reading Universal Basic Income – Why It Can’t Work in America
The Minimum Wage Debate
From Bloomberg: The $15 Minimum Wage Will Kill Jobs. Should You Care? I use to care much more, and then I realized that since most predictions by pundits are wrong, it probably doesn’t matter that much. The economy will adapt either way, although there may be some unintended consequences of higher wages, as the article… Continue reading The Minimum Wage Debate
Not Smart Enough to Succeed: IQ Inequality = Income Inequality
From the Atlantic: Total Inequality Total Inequality is not merely income inequality (although it matters) nor merely wealth inequality (although that matters, too). Total Inequality would refer to the sum of the financial, psychological, and cultural disadvantages that come with poverty. It’s not that the poverty causes psychological and cultural imbalance but rather the poverty… Continue reading Not Smart Enough to Succeed: IQ Inequality = Income Inequality
Against the Elite
It should be fairly obvious to readers that I’m not not a populist nor do I have ‘solidarity’ with populist/collectivist causes, whether it be organized religion, organized labor, political parties, or the ‘middle class’. Individualism within a ‘state‘ and enforcement of ‘rule of law’ (the minarchist approach) is my ‘interpretation’ of ‘Reaction’. Yours may differ.… Continue reading Against the Elite