There is a point to keep in mind following the state of the union address in the USA. We may believe that more redistribution is required to meet/maintain our social contract. That is fine. We may believe that more redistribution is “morally right”. That is fine. But lifting taxes in of itself isn’t redistribution. The …
Category Archive: Government Policy
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/01/25/a-note-on-redistribution/
Jan
17
2012
The sustainability of meat
There is an excellent post over at Offsetting Behaviour discussing the reasons why people go vegetarian, and discussing the separation of moral and allocative issues that lead to this choice. The way I see it, there are three main reasons why a person may go vegetarian – these can be mixed and matched of course, …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/01/17/the-sustainability-of-meat/
Nov
03
2011
The Economist on ‘job creation’ in the energy sector
A very timely opinion piece in The Economist here on how energy policy should not be confused as with job creation. Too often investment in the energy sector, especially around low-carbon energy, is held up as a way to ‘create’ jobs for the economy. This article dispels the myth: At the risk of being obvious: …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/11/03/the-economist-on-job-creation-in-the-energy-sector/
Nov
02
2011
Have you read the PREFU yet?
Below is an excellent guest post from Andrew Coleman on the PREFU – pointing out one of the weird assumptions that the government is relying on to “balance the books”. “Have you read the PREFU yet?” bellowed one of my colleagues as he sauntered down the corridor at Otago University last week. “Of course not …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/11/02/have-you-read-the-prefu-yet/
Aug
30
2011
Robots, uber richness, unemployment: Points to keep in mind
I think the statement “points to keep” in mind is currently my favourite thing around … however, I digress and I haven’t actually started the post yet. Over at the Dim Post Danyl has an interesting point, derived from this post: If some future entrepreneur invents a labour saving device that makes them a multi-trillionaire …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/08/30/robots-uber-richness-unemployment-points-to-keep-in-mind/
Aug
23
2011
Strawman at the centre of the discussion of economics
In an article in the Herald it is suggested that the separation of economics from moral philosophy is morally abhorrent, and as a result we should ignore what economists say about tax. I will put the tl;dr up first: Economic theory is “descriptive” – which in turn allows us to discuss how economic theory is …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/08/23/strawman-at-the-centre-of-the-discussion-of-economics/
Recent Comments