Tag: libertarianism
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Political imagination
For the public benefit, I shall elucidate some actual and hypothesized political systems in terms of (a) our ability to imagine them, and (b) their actual likelihood of existence. First, the status quo — a sleazy and mildly corrupt but largely representative democracy. Nobody really believes that this is actually how things are, because we’re all too…
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The price of opinion
Gina Rinehart, for all that she inspires consternation, does not strike me as a particularly deep thinker. The poetry is a giveaway. We laugh, but it does tell us something serious about the person who wrote it. For instance, consider this extract: Is our future threatened with massive debts run up by political hacks Who…
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Help! Help! I’m being regulated
The Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation by Ray Finkelstein (which I shall henceforth refer to as RIIMMR, more enthusiastically had it come in holographic form) was released about 3 weeks ago [1]I’m a bit late to the party, but the wheels of government do turn rather slowly.. One of its more…
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The economics of insanity
I learnt a new phrase today – “lexicographic preference” – courtesy of economics professor J. Bradford DeLong. Before I tell you what it means, let me show you what kind of thinking it produces (not on DeLong’s part, but on those he ridicules). Here are two quotes (don’t look at the links just yet). First:…