Disqus - Latest Comments for winton_bates

Re: The Illiberal Liberalism of Charter Cities

winton_bates — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:41:57 -0000

I don't think there is such as thing as the "Singapore/ China market authoritarianism route". You are lumping together two regimes with very different levels of economic freedom. There might be some improvement in the well-being of people in Myanmar if their economic freedom rating rose from 139th place (third from the bottom in the Fraser institute ranking) to China's level (93rd place). But that is nothing like going from 139th place to Singapore's level (2nd place).

Re: Why Economists Aren’t Experts on What Is a Cost or Benefit

winton_bates — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:38:39 -0000

It seems to me that the main advantage that economists have in discussing costs and benefits is that they are more likely to be familiar with any conceptual problems that may be involved. But no economist could seriously argue that the quality of any comment about any evaluative standard is determined by the professional label attached to the person making the comment.

Re: The Complexity of Happiness

winton_bates — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:06:34 -0000

Talking about longitudinal studies, Will, it would be interesting to have your thoughts on the finding that "happiness is contagious" that has come from research using the data base of the Framingham heart study. Reported here: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec04_2...

Re: Vice and The Motive of Wealth

winton_bates — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:21:37 -0000

I should have followed Will's link to Connor Clarke's post before posting my comment. He makes the same point - that "not good" is not necessarily the same as "bad".

Re: Vice and The Motive of Wealth

winton_bates — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:13:59 -0000

Matt wrote: "we’ve lost the willingness to just say clearly that ceteris paribus greedy behavior is not virtuous behavior".

That seems to me to be an odd claim to make. He is not saying that we are no longer willing to say that greedy behavior is bad. His claim is that we are no longer willing to say that greedy behavior is not good (i.e. we are no longer willing to say that it is either ethically neutral or bad).

It seems to me that the claim is probably false. How do people actually respond when asked which of these propositions they agree with: "greed is good"; "greed is bad" and "greed is not necessarily either good or bad"?

Re: The True Meaning of Irony (When Liberals Attack)

winton_bates — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:22:03 -0000

Protestor says to Coralie: "The snow on global warming protest day was surreal."

Coralie to Protestor: "No, it was ironic!"

Re: Morality: A Kludge of Kludges

winton_bates — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:18:11 -0000

<<The norms that undergird the peaceful liberal order of impersonal, extended, massively positive-sum exchange are the result of generations of often self-conscious resistance to the “factory defaults.” >>
I'm not too sure about the "often self-conscious" part of that statement. There is an interesting difference between the views of Hayek and Nozick on this question.

Re: PM Harper Suspends Parliament in Canada, a Bad Omen

winton_bates — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:35:22 -0000

The Canadian system (like that in Australia) seems to give quite a bit of discretion to the governor-general (unelected head of state). In Australia these "reserve powers" were used to force and election in 1975. It is interesting to see them being used in Canada at the moment to keep the government in power for an additional period.

Re: Surprise! I’m a Libertarian!

winton_bates — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:27:23 -0000

Mike
The link is:
http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html

Re: Surprise! I’m a Libertarian!

winton_bates — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:15:04 -0000

There was nothing surprising about the test results for myself.
So I did the test on behalf of Australia's Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition. According to my understanding of their views, the P.M. is very definitely a Statist and slightly left of centre, as I would have predicted. The surprise result is for the Oppostion leader (the leader of the Liberal Party, which is usually thought of as being on the conservative side of politics) who shows up as a Centrist (actually further left of centre than the PM).
I'm not sure what that means. Perhaps the political centre in Australia is more statist than in the U.S., but no further to the left.

Re: Let’s Measure Meaning!

winton_bates — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:16:57 -0000

I think Adam was on the right track quoting David Hume.

It seems to me that the following quote from Hume is also relevant: “Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason” (“A Treatise of Human Nature”, 1739, III, I, i).

That doesn't mean that our moral sense is purely a product of genetic evolution. Hayek provided a sensible explanation of the evolution of rules of conduct evolving because the groups who practiced them flourished and displaced other groups.

Re: The “Conservative” Moral Sentiments: Do We Need Them?

winton_bates — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:47:33 -0000

It seems to me that a libertarian can view all five moral intuitions identified by Haidt as being relevant in different contexts. Families have a comparative advantage in dealing with harm/care issues. Fairness/reciprocity is particularly important in dealings with strangers (we enjoy the benefits of market economies because people are generally trustworthy and a lot of people are willing to make sacrifices in order to punish people who are not trustworthy); in-group loyalty and authority/respect enable us to obtain the benefits of large organizations which have to be run along hierarchical lines; and purity/chastity is purely an individual matter. Socialists, nationalists, conservatives etc. tend to define themselves by their desire to take particular moral intutitions into the political sphere. Socialism is about harm/care issues and regulation/redistribution to achieve fariness; nationalism is about in-group loyalty; conservativism is about hierarchy and purity/chastity.

Re: More Canuckophilia

winton_bates — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:10:50 -0000

Both the Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute put Hong Kong and Singapore ahead of the U.S. on economic freedom, but political freedom isn't so great in those places. Heritage and Fraser also both rank Australia ahead of the the U.S. on economic freedom, so it could be the freest country on earth - but as someone who lives there I must admit that I find that hard to believe.

Other countries ranked ahead of the U.S. on economic freedom are as follows: Heritage gives a higher ranking to Ireland and Fraser gives a higher ranking to New Zealand, Switzerland, U.K., Chile and Canada.

The results obviously depend a lot on how these indexes are compiled.

Re: I Heart Adam Smith

winton_bates — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:23:52 -0000

I particularly like the way Smith deals with the Stoic view that we should eneavour to see all things in the same light as "the great Superintendant of the universe". Smith suggests that the plan that "Nature" has "sketched out for our conduct" is that "the events which interest us most, and which chiefly excite our desires and aversions, our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows" are those "which immediately affect ourselves, our friends, our country".

Re: Bundles of Oy

winton_bates — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:37:27 -0000

It seems to me that the fact that having kids does not increase subjective well-being (SWB) says more about the limitations of SWB than about the merits of having kids. This is an instance where revealed preference provides a better indicator of what people want from life than measurement of SWB.

Re: Betsey Stevenson on Happiness on Nightline

winton_bates — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:37:07 -0000

It seems to me that it might be desirable to add just one more acronym to the vocabulary. If "longtime significant other" is too much of a mouthful, why not shorten it to LSO?
Some people think that this is a reference to the London Symphony Orchestra, but no harm would be done. A longtime significant other might actually prefer to be referred to as "my orchestra" than as "my partner" or "my colleague plus".