Category Archives: Politics – international

How many WELLBYs is the corona panic costing?

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Paul Frijters

How much unhappiness is created by the unemployment of millions of people in Western countries (mainly N-Am +Europe) caused by the corona panic? How much unhappiness has been created due to the vast expansion of loneliness and physical inactivity? And … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Democracy, Education, Employment, Health, History, Politics - international, Science, Social, Social Policy, Uncategorized | 26 Comments

6 post-Corona Institutional questions

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Paul Frijters

The mass hysteria of the corona crisis is raging, with the resulting self-isolation of whole economies and populations. The loss seems greater with every new forecast on the economic collapse than I initially thought, and the benefit of imprisoning and … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Climate Change, Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Health, History, Life, Political theory, Politics - international, Public and Private Goods, regulation, Religion, Science, Social, Society, Terror | 20 Comments

The Corona Dilemma.

Posted on March 21, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Consider the shown picture where you are the decision maker who can pull the lever of the train tracks to avoid the coming train from going straight. If you do not divert the train, one person, John, will get run … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Employment, Health, History, Libertarian Musings, Life, Philosophy, Politics - international, Public and Private Goods, Science, Society | 42 Comments

Keeping a cool head – thinking about the covid-19 crisis: a guest post from Toby Phillips

Posted on March 21, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

This post is a direct response and rebuttal to the recent ‘Has the coronavirus panic cost us at least 10 million lives already?’ by Paul Fritjers. Paul’s post takes the current covid-19 crisis, and uses some haphazard multiplication to create … Continue reading →

Posted in Best From Elsewhere, Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Employment, Ethics, Politics - international, Politics - national | 5 Comments

Has the coronavirus panic cost us at least 10 million lives already?

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Paul Frijters

The number of people worldwide who have died from the coronavirus stands at 8,000 at the moment, equivalent to the death toll of two days of the world’s traffic accidents. The fear is of course that millions more will follow. … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and taxes, Economics and public policy, Health, History, Medical, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Society | 67 Comments

The Weinstein case: is #Metoo delivering justice?

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Paul Frijters

They got him! It cost millions of dollars in legal fees, and involved multiple trials, settlements, and dismissal of the worst charges, but they convicted Harvey Weinstein. A bit like a buck who is taken down by a pack of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Ethics, Gender, History, Politics - international, Politics - national, Social Policy, Society | 5 Comments

Are drugs the Achilles heel of stagnant inequality?

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Paul Frijters

[off the cuff research idea memo] There is an uncanny analogy between China in the 19th century and the US this very moment: in both cases a large part of the general population could not be persuaded away from drugs … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and taxes, Geeky Musings, Health, History, Political theory, Politics - international, Politics - national, Race and indigenous, Society | 13 Comments