Climate change kills 200 species every day. Contrary to voices like Naomi Klein calling for complex solutions to a complex problem, a carbon tax is the most effective and parsimonious solution to global warming. All the democratic and widespread media talk does is induce a bystander effect whereby no worldwide solution is enacted. When the… [Read more]
Category: Economics
The term ‘development’ implies betterment through change. Some aspects of development – like clean drinking water and reduced child mortality – are inarguable. The tasks of mitigating poverty and reducing violent corruption in developing countries are also admirable. The implication of betterment, however, becomes problematic when basic necessitates are met and pains relieved. When the… [Read more]
The type of rationality assumed in economics is limited. One can generate solutions to theoretical problems, but the actual human behaviour is far messier. Each human has limits. Limits around what information is available, their own mind in processing that information, and the amount of time they have to think it through. Herbert Simon coined… [Read more]
Politics and economics are sometimes called ‘social science’ or ‘political science’ by higher education institutions even, but as the economist and, World Bank Adviser, Ha-Joon Chang says, the rules of these are value-judgments mostly based on precedent. The value of screen digits, for example, which can be deleted or bills that can be burned does… [Read more]
The Singularity is the exciting term for when artificial intelligence rivals human intelligence. It is used in dystopian fictions time again as a source of entertainment, but it is a possible, many argue a probable, reality. Indeed, the most basic artificial intelligence runs the online web and stock markets. The development of more intelligent artificial… [Read more]
As machines outperform their human counterparts and take their jobs unemployment will rise to such an extent that solutions, like universal basic income or universal basic services, will become a necessity. In Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Charlie’s father loses his job to a toothpaste machine but happily becomes the engineer to fix… [Read more]
Post-truth scares me. The arguments that there is an after-point where truth and validity are not considered primary just seem like self-refutation, even nonsense. Of course the fragility of our knowledge and lack of objectivity for how the world works is important to know: there is no right way of doing things by default, but… [Read more]
Economics in The West and UK is dominantly neoclassical. Other schools of economics are ignored to such a degree that they are comparably unknown to the voting public – who too often generalise economics as merely The City and services because that is their exposure. Economic alternatives are rare even among education courses – often… [Read more]
