http://www.irrationalknowledge.com Serving the online community for less than a 17th of a decade Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:01:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As my interests have evolved from economics to ethics and Christianity, I’ve decided to launch a new blog. It is called Gentle Respect - a gentle defense of a Christian worldview. I’ll still talk about economics - the welfare state does not work - but the emphasis is changing. Thanks for ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/03-02-2007/new-blog-gentle-respect/ Many progressive arguments that attribute poverty to factors other than out of wedlock childbirths can be refuted with the following two data points: (1) the success of immigrants, who frequently live in the same neighborhoods and go to the same schools, but find success in America, and (2) the fact ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/12-06-2006/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-about-poverty/ Robert Whaples surveys PhD members of the American Economic Association and finds substantial agreement on a wide range of policy issues. For example: 87.5 percent agree that “the U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade.” 85.2 percent agree that “the U.S. should eliminate agricultural subsidies.” 85.3 percent ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/12-01-2006/consensus-among-economists/ The key issue is the elasticity of labor supply. Some economists do believe, as you suggest, that this elasticity is small and, as a result, that taxes aren’t very distortionary. Others believe that the elasticity is larger. Economist Ed Prescott has suggested that the main reason Europeans work less than ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-27-2006/how-distortionary-are-taxes/ Marriage is in decline across much of northern Europe, from Scandinavia to France, a pattern some sociologists describe as a “soft revolution” in European society — a generational shift away from Old World traditions and institutions toward a greater emphasis on personal independence. But French couples are abandoning the formality of ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-22-2006/the-decline-of-marriage-of-europe/ Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability. Hispanic immigrants bring near–Third World levels of fertility to America, coupled with what were once thought ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-21-2006/hispanic-family-values/ The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, [Arthur C.] Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income. … The book’s basic findings are that conservatives who practice ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-16-2006/conservatives-are-more-generous/ Depolarize Politics No more debates about abstinence versus having twelve year old children put condoms on cucumbers. No more debates about school prayer. No more debates about back to basics education versus new-fangled experimentation. Everyone is happy. A whole realm of toxic, polarizing political debate will immediately and permanently drop off ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-09-2006/the-case-for-school-choice/ Here is a fairly common liberal argument: The North is wealthy and votes Democratic The South is poor and votes Republican The problem with that argument is that historically the North voted for Republicans, and the South voted for Democrats. But over recent decades they have flip-flopped (read about this realignment here and ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-08-2006/realignment-and-rich-yankees/ Here is a good article from the Wall Street Journal’s Op-Ed page making the point that regaining Congress is hardly a victory for the left, or a repudiation of conservatism. Only about one in four Americans currently say they believe that the Democratic Party is friendly toward religion, according to the ... http://www.irrationalknowledge.com/11-07-2006/just-like-your-fathers-democrats/