Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Month: March 2010

  • Delight and Abject Dismay on Richard Dawkins’ Birthday

    Another of those convergences: I just joined the Richard Dawkins group on Facebook, and discovered that today is his birthday. (Happy birthday sir!) It’s a convergence because over the last week I’ve been horribly dismayed. After decades of near hero-worship on my part, I’ve discovered that he is not acting as the man I’ve always…

  • For those of you who were beginning to wonder…

    “As debate over the dimensions of Obama’s package snaked through the House…” Source. Related posts: Gaming McCain’s Game Economist Readers: Obama Landslide This Time Mankiw’s Just Plain Lying. And He Knows It. Why Did Edwards Quit? Red-State Teat-Sucking Rendered Invisible. Conservatives Howl Tyranny.

  • The Brain-Dead 29%

    What do you think, is this the same 29% that were still Bush-boosters in 2008? AFTER HEARING THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE PROPOSED [FINANCIAL] REFORMS, VOTER SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATION INCREASED At the start of the survey, 29% opposed reform, and 40% supported it. After details were explained and arguments for and against reform described,…

  • Can John Gottman Predict Divorce? (Probably Not.)

    Update: Instead of saying “Probably Not” in the title, I probably should have said “We have no idea.” Being a Seattle parent with kids in private schools, I’ve been assailed for years by pronouncements and lectures by and about the Seattle-based Gottman Institute (tagline: “Researching and Restoring Relationships”). Their most widely known claim is their…

  • Is Altruism Inevitable?

    In one of those wonderful confluences, two items just came together for me. I read The Social Atom by Mark Buchanan, and my friend Steve posted a link to an Economist piece on evolution, fairness, markets, and religion. It all circulates around a central conundrum that evolutionists (including Darwin) have been worrying at since Darwin:…

  • Do Moral Intuitions Change in Different Situations?

    In response the Jonathan Haidt’s comment on Bryan’s post: One of my biggest questions about Haidt’s work: are people’s moral intuitions consistent across different situations? We know that behavior is often not generalized across situations. i.e. interventions in children’s homes/families have little or no effect on their behavior at school. I wonder if survey choices…

  • Just to Be Really Clear: Why I Hate Avatar

    Jonathan Haidt asks on his blog: “Can anyone understand Avatar who lacks all intuitions of purity/sanctity?” He’s talking about the sanctity of nature, and of spirituality, as against corporate, consumerist, and militarist values. My answer is “Yes.” I (a devoted liberal with a “Liberal Purity” score of 1.0–compared to Libs’ 2.7 and Cons’ 2.1) understand…

  • Is Honesty a Conservative Moral Value?

    I mean cap-C Conservative. Do Conservatives and Republicans value honesty? I ask in the context of Jonathan Haidt’s research into moral spheres, and which spheres are important to different political groups. (Blogged here and here.) In response to Haidt’s $1,000 challenge for people to come up with additions to his five spheres, Tim Dean proposes…

  • Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats: New Findings on Morality, Empathy, and Sympathy

    Will Wilkinson returns me to a subject of fascination to me — the different moral weightings employed by Republicans and Democrats — and points out new findings about the moral weightings of Libertarians. To recap a previous post on research by Jonathan Haidt, as recounted in an article by Steven Pinker: Republicans care equally about…

  • Recessions Make Americans Lazy!

    People are obviously unemployed because they want to be. The Big Picture » Blog Archive » An Epidemic of Laziness?. Update: More data here. Related posts: Getting In and Out of Unemployment: 1967 to 2011 Meritocratic Opportunity: On the Decline Do You See a Pattern Here? Tea Partiers and OWSers: Who Needs to Get a…

  • The Party of Prosperity? The Seven Reasons that Democrats’ Policies are More Economically Efficient

    Or: The Seven Habits of Highly Efficient Economies Republican economic policies are widely perceived (especially by Republicans) as being pro-growth and pro-prosperity, even though All. The. Evidence. Demonstrates. The. Opposite. (How dare they call themselves “conservatives”?) Even the rich get richer under Democrats — though not at the expense of the poor and the middle…

  • Can Rich People Provide all the Necessary Demand?

    If an increasing number of people in America are not capable of doing economically viable work (because they don’t have the “knowledge skills” or the wherewithal to acquire them)–and as a result can’t contribute to the log-rolling exercise that is our economy by spending and providing demand for producers–is it a problem? Can rich people…

  • Do Parents Matter? Does it Matter?

    I can’t believe I’ve never posted about Judith Rich Harris, who undoubtedly ranks as at least a significant demigod in my personal pantheon. Judy–a largely uncredentialed indy in her house in suburban New Jersey–pretty much single-handedly obliterated the notion that parenting is what causes us to be fxxxed up, and that parents in fact have…

  • Robin Hanson’s Reply to the Luddites

    Update: I am an idiot. (You could have found that out by asking my daughters.) Curt Gardner is nice enough to point out in the comments that “the book you link to is not Robin Hansen’s, but that of his GMU colleague Tyler Cowen.” I do get the two confused at times, this being a…

  • Is Swiss Health Care a Good Model for Ours?

    While perusing Arnold Kling’s post for my previous, I came across the following, which simply cannot go unchallenged: …why not try single-payer in one part of the country and radical deregulation in another? Switzerland, which is about the size of Maryland, has different health care systems in each of its 20-odd cantons, which are about…

  • Want to Spread the Power? Spread the Wealth.

    You’re forever hearing Republicans and conservatives saying that they want to put decision-making–political power–in the hands of states and localities. This post by Arnold Kling is a good example out of thousands. The reasoning is not crazy (though it is contestable): Wisdom of the crowds. More people trying different policies results in succesful policies winning,…

  • Are Machines Replacing Humans? Or: Am I a Luddite?

    Update: You can find a followup post including some brief answers from Robin Hanson (and my commentary on same) here. My gentle readers will undoubtedly remember a question I’ve asked repeatedly: as technology steadily increases productivity, will we (have we) come to a point where a large portion of workers can’t do “valuable” enough work…

  • ‘Pubs Love Catastrophic Coverage. Too Bad the Free Market Doesn’t Provide It

    Perhaps with very good reason, free-marketeers believe that catastrophic health coverage produces the best market efficiencies. People pay for everyday health care out of their own pockets, which gets them to shop for services and ask what the cost is, pushing costs down. They have an inexpensive insurance plan with a high deductible to cover…

  • Deficits Don’t Matter? The (Supposed) Experts Speak

    Dick Cheney famously said, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” I’ve argued elsewhere that this was a political, not an economic statement. People love to complain puritanically about debts and deficits, but they vote for politicians who promise to cut their taxes. Hence the 30-year hegemony of Reaganomics. But do deficits mattter (economically)? In particular,…