The economic analysis of politics goes by many names: political economy, rational choice theory, formal political theory, social choice, economics of governance, endogenous policy theory, and public choice. Each of these labels picks out a subtly different intellectual tradition. Each tradition expands our understanding of the world. My favorite, though, remains public choice.
Tag: class
School is Weird
My nine-year old daughter started attending some once a week homeschool classes. After the first week, I asked how she liked it. She said, “It’s OK. It’s fun to see people and I like lunch and recess. But the rest is weird.”
Food Delivery Rape, Protectionism, Government Murder, & Monopoly (28m) – Episode 379
Episode 379 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: his superhuman ability to not savagely rape the attractive women he encounters while delivering food; how every businesses and economic regulation by government is just a form of protectionism on behalf of some special interest; why democide and genocide doesn’t justify the few and far between government innovations that have benefited humanity; the missing incentives and market pressures of lowering prices and increasing quality from industries that are more or less monopolized by a single provider, including government; and more.
Everything is Change & Avoiding the Crowd (21m) – Episode 025
Episode 025 looks at two Stoic topics: the first from Marcus Aurelius who wrote, “Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river’s unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still.”; and the second from r/Stoicism, a post by kolbi01 who started off with, “The young character, which cannot hold fast to righteousness, must be rescued from the mob; it is too easy to side with the majority – Thoughts on Seneca’s letter VII”.
Peter Gray: The Role of Play in the Development of Social and Emotional Competence (43m)
This episode features a lecture by evolutionary psychologist, research professor, and author Peter Gray from 2012 on the role of play on human child development among hunter-gatherers, 1950s America, and today. Gray also looks at the rise of emotional and social disorders as a result of the decline of play.
Killing COVID-19, Rules of Engagement, Politicized Sports, Zoom School, & Jeopardy (33m) – Episode 378
Episode 378 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics from r/blackpeopletwitter and r/whitepeopletwitter: America adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic instead of behaving autocratically and “eliminating” it completely; AIER.org article on Federal Court ruling pandemic orders unconstitutional; soldiers having better rules of engagement than American police officers; assumptions about booing at the Kansas City Chiefs home opening and the politicization of sports; realizing the school is about control and punishment instead of education; and the novel idea that one of the presidential debates should be a round of Jeopardy with relevant answer topics.
Black Cooperative City, Texas Cop Assoc. Billboards, Jailing Priests, & Sickle Cell Cured (36m) – Episode 377
Episode 377 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following news stories: from CNN, “19 families buy nearly 97 acres of land in Georgia to create a city safe for Black people”; from CBS News, “Texas police group puts up billboard warning “enter at your own risk,” saying Austin defunded police”; from the ABC (Australia), “Queensland passes law to jail priests for not reporting confessions of child sexual abuse”; and from 4WWL, “Indianapolis boy cured of sickle cell disease after stem cell transplant”.
Latinx, Caring, Bridezillas, Awfulness Complicity, & College Degrees (33m) – Episode 376
Episode 376 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/unpopularopinion: Omnitree7 writes, “I really hate the term Latinx”; Zaroo77 writes, “People need to stop expecting others to care about everything”; caboose365 writes, “Brides & expecting mothers are given a pass by society to be terrible people and it needs to stop.”; Raspberry-Rare writes, “We should stop telling children ‘They can be whatever they want to be.’ They can’t.”; PianoMan1925 writes, “If you say things like ‘fuck the government, fuck the system’ but do absolutely nothing to try to change it, including not exercising your right to vote you are complicit in said system being awful”; edgyusername123 writes, “Beauty pageants should be illegal for anyone under 16. Maybe 18 even.”; and billyoceanfan writes, “Employers need to stop requiring college degrees for jobs that don’t need it”.
Spurious Causation & Not-Invented-Here Syndrome (21m) – Episode 024
Episode 024 looks at the logical fallacy Spurious Causation and the cognitive bias Not-Invented-Here Syndrome.
Chris J. Returns, Utah Windstorm, Sci-Fi Favorites, & Root Issues (1h15m) – Episode 375
Episode 375 welcomes back Chris Jenkins to chat with Skyler on the following topics: Utah windstorm fallout; California wildfires; Dune trailer; hero’s journey and Disney; sci-fi television; Star Trek movies; British comedy; Netflix’s Lost in Space; 13 year old Autistic boy shot by police in Salt Lake City; Rob Hustle’s “Call the Cops” music video; the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty and what they’ve done to the black community; University of Utah’s economics and humanities departments; Ben Swann on the Moderna vaccine; politician pedophile rings; their line in the sand for leaving the United States for greener pastures; American secessionary movements in their lifetime; and more.