#fatal conceit

[equilibriumbound]

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that most of the people who believe governments can and ought to manage economies also happen to believe that multiple governmental and nongovernmental bodies can and ought to manage the planet’s climate. All ideals aside, you’d think that the disastrous results of the former would dissuade climate alarmists from advocating the latter, if for no other reason than the logistical nightmare of such a grandiose project. I’m not sure which is more utopian, the belief in humans subduing the climate or the belief that the largest and most corrupt bureaucracies on the planet can cooperate, in the public interest no less!

[fatal-conceit]

A phenomenal lecture entitled "Morality is not the Result of our Reason."

[fatal-conceit]

Good intentions do not necessarily lead to good results: Hayek noted that socialism was “inspired by good intentions”. Likewise foreign interventions are often driven by benevolent intentions as well. For example, foreign interventions often aim to help the poorest societies in the world. Despite these benevolent intentions, Hayek noted that socialism “endangers the standard of living and the life itself of a large proportion of our existing population”. Foreign interventions, like socialism, have largely failed to generate the desired results and in many cases have caused more harm than good in the form of negative unintended consequences.

Christopher Coyne, The New Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Foreign Intervention

Lessons everyone should heed going into Iraq.

[jimrosenz]

William Easterly: Freedom as a Solution to Poverty

[jimrosenz]

Many people are far too smart to save for their retirements

Many people are far too smart to save for their retirements

Which is better? Save for your retirement through the share market or save to own your own home and then present yourself at the local social security office to collect your taxpayer funded old-age pension?

Under this fine game of bluff, you bleed the taxpayer in your old age and then pass on your debt-free home to your children.

This strategy is rational for the less well-paid. The family home…

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[jimrosenz]

The living wage caper

The living wage caper

Why not just increase the family tax credit?

  That would increase the incomes of poor families with putting their jobs at particular greater risk.

Milton Friedman provides some critically clarifying truthiness on the living wage:

Do-Gooders believe passing a law saying nobody shall get less than [a minimum wage] is helping poor people (who need the money).

You’re doing nothing of the kind.

What…

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[iamnoeconomist-blog]

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Friedrich von Hayek; The Fatal Conceit (1988)