Random links

 

“’As Labour proceeds with its “Future of Work” process, it would be wise to have the humility to understand it will be almost completely wrong about how the world will be, not just a quarter century from now but even five years hence when it might be taking office. In fact, the tendency for change to accelerate means any specific forecasts about the future made in 2016 will almost certainly be even more embarrassingly wrong than those made in 1993.’”
Hooton on the Future of Work – KIWIBLOG

“Most of the time, I'm lauding how New Zealand gets things right that Canada messes up. … But Canada has something important to teach us on refugees.”
Learning from Canada: Refugee edition – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“The system would be costly and would leave the worst off worse off. If the worst off are left worse off, political pressure for layering welfare programmes on top of a basic income scheme would not be small. And hiking tax rates from 33% to 55% would be rather damaging. This was not the tax rate that Treasury thought would apply only to rich people – it would apply to everyone.”
Universal Basic Income: It sounds nice, but… – Eric Crampton, THE SPINOFF

More evidence Russel Norman’s “smart green economy” still isn’t any one of those things.
SunEdison faces 'substantial risk' of bankruptcy – USA TODAY
Renewables are useless: The Evidence is Overwhelming – Eric Worrall, UTOPIA …

I scored 61. So apparently I don’t. Sue Moroney on the other hand . . .
Do you live in a bubble? A quiz – Charles Murray, PBS Newshour
House owners feel vilified by Moroney – KIWIBLOG

Drug Prohibition has failed : ‘I agree entirely,’ says Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne. ‘It has failed, and we've been saying that from New Zealand's perspective for some time now.’
But he won't stop prohibiting drugs.
Govt [still] won't decriminalise cannabis – NEWSHUB
Saving post shops one referendum at a time: Let’s vote on everything, starting with a good, honest drug – Raybon Kan, HERALD

Why do the 1% earn so much?  Because they predemonatly work in government protected industries, that’s why.
Make elites compete: Why the 1% earn so much and what to do about it – BROOKINGS

“In the midst of vastly inflated and combustible financial markets, the all-powerful Fed is being led by a Keynesian school marm stumbling around in an explosives vest. She apparently has no idea that a 38 bps money market rate is not a pump toggle on some giant bathtub of GDP; it’s an ignition fuse that is fueling the greatest speculative mania in modern history.”
Janet Yellen: Monetary Arsonist——–Armed, Dangerous And Lost – David Stockman, CONTRA CORNER

“Why is it that statists and progressives never seem to learn anything about government? They see almost any shortcoming in the marketplace as a reason for government to get bigger, but they rarely see any shortcoming in government as a reason for it to get smaller.”
An Open Letter to Statists Everywhere – Lawrence Reed, FEE

“’What I have seen in the socialist country of Caracas, Venezuela,’ Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange wrote following his recent trip to the country, ‘has really rocked me to my core.’”
"Capitalism Leads Us Straight to Hell" – LAISSEX FAIRE TODAY

Despite many untutored claims to the contrary, vastly more of the latter than the former.
Nietzsche and Rand: 96 Similarities and Differences – STEPHEN HICKS

The anatomy of compromise:

Science.
People who curse a lot have better vocabularies than those who don't, study finds – SCIENCE ALERT

It has never been about the climate.
Another Climate Alarmist Admits Real Motive Behind Warming Scare – INVESTORS.COM
Climate Change: The Greatest-Ever Conspiracy Against The Taxpayer – James Delingpole, BREITBART

“It has become well-known, though not well-known enough, that the resource depletion predictions were wrong, but why, exactly, were they wrong? The most direct reason is that there are far more fossil fuel raw materials and far more human ingenuity to get them than Ehrlich and Holdren expected. But there is a deeper error here, an error at the root of the whole concept of sustainability. The error is a backward understanding of resources.”
The Truth About Sustainability – Alex Epstein, FORBES

“Philosopher and Communist defector [the no-just-departed] Tibor Machan relates the fascinating tale of his life from communist Hungary to Austria, and later the U.S.” Filimed on October 3, 2015

More tributes to the late great Tibor Machan:

• Tibor Machan on the Questions that Matter: A great philosopher and journalist has died – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE
• Tibor Machan, RIP – David Henderson, ECON LOG
• Tibor Machan, a Founding Editor of Reason, RIP – REASON
• Tibor Machan, RIP – David Gordon, MISES WIRE

“’What if a child is starving on the street, and no one voluntarily feeds him?’
“‘What if someone just can't find a job?’
“If you're a libertarian, you face what-ifs like this all the time.  The point, normally, is to make you say, ‘Tough luck’ and look like a monster.  What puzzles me, though, is why libertarians rarely ask analogous questions.  Like … “
Tough Luck – Brian Caplan, ECON LOG

Men atop the Chrysler Gargoyle. Grace under no pressure at all:

 

[Hat tips and quips ex Riko S., David Henderson, Angel Muñiz Arquitecto, Stephen Berry, Berend de Boer, Michael Neibel, George Evans Light, For New Intellectuals, Nelson Brackin]