The US government is basically the guy who took out a huge home mortgage, then kept refinancing and borrowing against equity, while trading in his car for a new one (and a larger payment) every two years, and now finds himself visiting car title and payday lenders every week just to keep himself in groceries.
Tag: markets
Encouragement as Bad as Discouragement
In our society, we commonly and appropriately demonize discouragement because we see it as someone interjecting themselves into this exploration. Discouragement is a tool to distort the exploration of a child in favor of the insecurities and self-interest of the discourager. It is a means of the adult trying to live through their child. Discouragement is someone trying to tip and distort the scales within the ecosystem of a child’s discovery process. The last paragraph also perfectly describes the problems of encouragement.
The Law of the Instrument
What is your favorite tool? Is it so familiar or compelling that you are tempted to employ it in all contexts? The law of the instrument illustrates this tendency.
Markets aren’t Miraculous; God Bless the World
I was wrong to ever describe anything the market does as a miracle or as miraculous. Why? Because the positive effects of markets broadly described above do not depend on any sort of divine intervention, and its totally ridiculous to say that they do. Rather, they are the natural result of individuals and groups engaging in market action. No divine explanation necessary.
What if Software Ate it?
I think we’re still at the beginning of the software takeover of the world. A good question for your interests and vocations is, “What would this look like eaten by software?” Some things, like fantasy football, are pretty close already. Some, like banking, are halfway there. Others, like buying a house or going out to…
People of Color, Benefits of Wealth, & the Ruling Class (34m) – Editor’s Break 079
Editor’s Break 079 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: libertarianism and “people of color”; the benefits of being wealthy and how this either benefits or harms others; the essence of the ruling class; and more.
Early Customers Are Heroic
Every transaction has two sides. Every business is based on transactions. That means for every awesome business success that grew from nothing, there are two parties that made it possible.
The Power of Disassociation
If someone treats you poorly in a free market, the best option is to disassociate and share the information you acquired with other people (if you wish). However, our emotional ecosystem still wants to use mechanisms from evolution where disassociation isn’t an option … tit for tat, anger, retribution, “Justice”, revenge, etc. Emotionally, we are the same as our historical relatives and it is difficult to adapt to a radically new incentive structure.
Entirely Meaningless and Wholly Unproblematic
Many social and economic problems have no solution. At best, we can only make continuing trade-offs and thereby move to an improved, yet still troublesome, situation. But one problem — at least, many pundits and politicians affect to regard it as a problem — has a complete and easy solution that can be seized at any time. I speak, of course, of the problem of the so-called trade deficit in international commerce.
Think Twice about Bringing Back U.S. Manufacturing Jobs
We hear a lot of lamentations about the loss of American jobs in manufacturing (notwithstanding that U.S. manufacturing output has never been greater). People purport to want to bring back jobs in factories. I’m not sure a lot of thought goes into these views.