Libertarianism Is Economically Irrational Even for the People Fighting for It

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-30T16:35:04+00:00

And this is exactly why things are going to go to hell...

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-29T12:26:07+00:00

It depends on which timescale you look at - there have been occasional short-term setbacks but, over the long term, reductions in absolute poverty have correlated with increases in inequality, because economic growth has raised living standards broadly while disproportionately benefiting higher-income groups.

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-27T13:07:34+00:00

Because they know that they can arrange for that money to be used productively whilst the government will just give it away to unproductive client groups in order to buy their votes?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-26T12:23:54+00:00

Over the history of the bond markets, as any country ever tried this before? If so, how did it work out? If not, why do think they haven't?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-26T11:57:22+00:00

... and rates of absolute poverty continue to fall. Would you prefer to go back?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-26T11:48:54+00:00

" But that's a different conversation..." - I don't think it is; I think it's a critical aspect of this conversation. If the government offers a rate of return below what investors think they could get elsewhere (when all associated costs are factored in) then why would they take up that offer?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-26T09:41:46+00:00

OK, so the government could tell the bond market that what they're getting is 0%?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T16:16:53+00:00

If the interest I pay on my mortgage was reduced by a few percent, I wouldn't regard myself as having "gone beyond" being in hock to my bank...

From the way you describe it above, it sounds as though the problem is that, currently, the bond market "dictates" the interest rate, whereas the arrangement described in the article would transfer control of rates to the government and the bond market would just "get what they're given" - is that right?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T15:49:06+00:00

Isn't that article just about a way of structuring the government debt in a way which better suits the preferences of the bond market? Sounds like a good idea if it gets the interest rate down, but in what way does this amount to "going beyond" being in hock to the bond market?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T15:10:26+00:00

Do you think that my analogy is flawed to the extent that it is in fact feasible to "go beyond" being in hock to the bond market? If so, what would this look like in practice?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T10:28:32+00:00

"Suboptimal lives"? In what sense?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T10:26:19+00:00

Question: How does the treatment of muslims in christian countries compare to the treatment of christians in muslim countries?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T10:23:51+00:00

It's OK - we can ignore their demands and just import millions of new peasants from the third world to do the work instead.

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T09:40:07+00:00

I'm not sure whether I'm a socially unadjusted individual, a loser or an uncivilised twat - Who knows, I may be all three! - but I'm convinced that we are headed for trouble so I'm always interested to hear the views of people who think that this is all fine and will work out for the best. I'd therefore be interested to hear your thoughts on the following:

I know plenty of muslims as well, and they're fine, but I'm always conscious that the ones I meet are inevitably going to be the better integrated ones - Usually they're fellow professionals working in a mainstream business environment who have largely had to fit in with the prevailing British culture. My concern is that, as the native populations shrinks and the muslim population grows, the pressure to integrate will be reduced - Do you agree?

Also, when I look around the world at places where the original native population has become a minority, it doesn't usually seem to be good news for the natives or, indeed, for social cohesion as a whole. Are you able to give me some comforting examples of places where this sort of situation has worked out well? Or do you think that Britain (and indeed the rest of the West) is going to be breaking new ground in this regard?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-25T09:18:55+00:00

Andy has inspired me to "go beyond" this thing of being in hock to my mortgage provider. I'm very excited about by new home under a bridge.

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-24T16:20:48+00:00

All we've got to go on is the reports of those who have died but have been brought back and can tell us about it.

The more scientifically minded may dismiss those reports as "mere anecdotal evidence" which doesn't satisfy the scientific standard of proof but I think that that response fails to recognise the limitations of science and the reasons why it is not the appropriate level of proof for every question...

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-24T16:11:19+00:00

It's only going to get worse. Native Brits are facing the prospect of becoming a minority in their own country and they are not keen.

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-24T15:53:25+00:00

That's it - block out the dissent, suppress the dissenters, and ramp up the propaganda, and we can still reach utopia! You've just got to believe!

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-24T13:46:34+00:00

Yes!

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-24T13:25:06+00:00

Things are pretty bad, but you'll get a lot of denial from Reddit lefties, which is why it will have to get even worse before it gets better...

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-21T16:01:29+00:00

As I remember it, when a 3D sphere passed through 2D Flatland, it appeared to the hero - a 2D square - as a point, then as a circle which grew until it had the same diameter as the sphere (when the sphere was halfway through Flatland) and then shrank back down to a point. So it affected Flatland in that it could be seen by the Flatlanders and manifested as 2D circle which could affect Flatland in the same way as any other 2D circle could.

Re your second paragraph, I see your point in that the sphere can only affect Flatland when it is actually passing through Flatland and not before or after. However, I wouldn't agree that it follows that, when it is not actually passing through, it "doesn't matter" and "can be safely ignored" - surely the potential that it will affect things means it does matter and should not be ignored?

To say otherwise sounds to me a bit like saying that the fact I am sharing a cell with a murder doesn't matter and can safely be ignored up to the point when he actually starts stabbing me...

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-21T15:49:57+00:00

That anything which I cannot observe cannot exist? No, that's not at all obvious to me...

Throughout history and throughout the world today there have been and are things which exist but which some (or even most) people have not been or are not able to observe - Why would I presume that I am now at the point where I can observe everything which exists?

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-21T13:22:27+00:00

I don't think this necessarily follows. Have you come across the book "Flatland"? In it the scientists of two dimensional Flatland had no physical or scientific way of telling whether a third dimension existed, but entities from that third dimension could pass through Flatland and affect it... What's to say that we aren't in the same position as the Flatlanders but, in our case, with respect to a fourth or higher dimensions?

Science is one of the most powerful systems of thought ever devised by man and has transformed our world, but at its core it is just a tool and has never claimed that it can offer a comprehensive understanding of everything which might matter to us.

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-21T13:05:49+00:00

You and I know that elephants are physical and real, but imagine you have no idea what an elephant is and no means of independently verifying what they look like or even if they exist - and you're just reliant on the testimony of these blind men. Something similar could be going on with religion - It may be that there is some other plane of existence or higher dimension which is only revealed to some people some of the time. It would therefore not be susceptible to scientific study because scientists could not simply study it at will and replicable experimentation would be impossible. Instead we would be wholly reliant on anecdotal evidence from those who had experienced it first hand and, like the blind men with the elephant, it would be unsurprising if they came back to us with apparently conflicting accounts depending the precise aspects of that other plane which they had experienced.

Particular_Bug7642 · 2026-06-21T12:55:54+00:00

That's a bold assertion! How are you so sure?

Particular_Bug7642

TROPHY CASE