G as in Good H as in Happy

Lifetime Student of the Market Force

March 28, 2006

Almost missed this WSJ interview with Thomas Sowell. Glad we didn't.

Via Sobering Thoughts

Ways of Thinking

Plenty of people, including all three readers of this blog, will testify that they have read Arnold Kling, and that I, ["Madam"], am no Arnold Kling.

The Church of Big Cocoa?

Though it is often said that the glitches in Europe's policies and politics can mostly be explained by their experience of war after war, Claire Berlinski (the daughter of our underlined-in-neon non-fiction idol David Berlinski), locates the common factor in something else:

Do they think that jobs just fall from the sky?

March 26, 2006

Claire Berlinski on France's permanent employment law, and its portents for economic disaster.

If the CPE is enacted, said one young woman, "You'll get a job knowing that you've got to do every single thing they ask you to do because otherwise you may get sacked."

Imagine that.

The horror. The horror!

Wombats in Life and Rhetoric

March 25, 2006

We mostly enjoy Assistant Village Idiot when he comments on the psychol-blogs like Dr. Sanity and Shrinkwrapped.  Like so many lazy habits of ours, when we forget to take a regular look at his blog, we're only hurting ourselves.

Here, simply as an example, is a pitch-perfect profile of "causes."

Nigel or Fiona develops a vision of what the world should look like, or even better, what it shouldn’t look like but is sure as hell going to if the conservatives have their way.

There's more. The wombat union will protest.

It appears the Assistant's R&D on the wadical ewadicator proceeds apace.

Health Care, from Feverishly Stupid to 98.6

March 20, 2006

Will Wilkinson, call the RAND Corporation. Stat.

Comparison

March 19, 2006

"...The comparison is not to some ideal world where everything was hunky-dory."

The restored Betsy's Page surfaces the key corrective to many complaints.  If I compare myself to a life in which I would have everything I have now, my friends and education, plus Paris Hilton's dog and Bill Gates' stock portfolio, the emotional outcome is assured --

I will feel miserable, and deprived.

If I think about the actualities and imponderables from which I have been spared -- Paris Hilton's education and Bill Gates' wardrobe --

life looks quite rich.

Let our accountings be approximate, and realistic. Surprisingly, reality-orientation produces less red ink and many more optimistic & grateful footnotes of anticipated future profit.

Strangely Reassuring Slapdown of Making It Up As I Go

March 9, 2006

The in-house RC critic Diogenes acknowledges The Wisdom of Crowds.

If you spread...

March 7, 2006
...Around more money
It may have
Results that're "funny."

Is the point to "DO SOMETHING!", or is it to help the poor?...There is a real possibility that the minimum wage is a subsidy to affluent workers at the expense of the poor workers it is supposed to help.

Jane Galt looks closely, and as much as possible without bias, at the minimum wage. Does it target improvement in the lives of the working poor? Or is it a group signifier strategy tinged with nostalgia for Burma-Shave signs, two-lane country vacations and mama in the kitchen with Cool Whip?

P.S. Danger, Will Robinson! Comment points out global outsourcing may lie ahead behind the Taco Bell microphone.

In fact, the comments discussion is almost always worthwhile at Jane's Economics Salon.

Update: Group signifiers and the identity connection should always be a serious consideration in any analysis.

Cooperative Surplus

Will Wilkinson rambles today, and though we're not 100% on board, his thesis on morality -- which we maintain also has elements of beauty, psychological utility, and devotion -- certainly chimes with our obsession for added value.