Category Archives: Employment

Is Sweden the promised land for sensible covid-policies? Reluctantly. 

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Sweden is a rich, spacious country famous for IKEA, ABBA, dark cold winters, and its unique covid-policies. We escaped London for a few days to see for ourselves what the deal was with this Scandinavian country of 10 million. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Dance, Death and taxes, Democracy, Employment, Health, Politics - international, Science, Social Policy | 77 Comments

Constant distractions are leading to major declines in top-level reasoning. What to do?

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Till 20 year ago, IQ scores in the West increased about 3 points per decade ever since the 1920s, a phenomenon known as the “Flynn effect”. That rise in IQ test scores, which have an average of 100 and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Employment, Gender, History, Inequality, IT and Internet, Media, Parenting, Public and Private Goods, Science, Social, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Professor Foster’s cost-benefit analysis for the Victorian parliament.

Posted on August 20, 2020 by Paul Frijters

[below the exact text (with different font/highlight) as Gigi Foster’s submission to the Victorian parliamentary library in mid-August here. To see her health-related notes, including on topics like non-linearities and Sweden, see here, and to see all documents of that … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Ethics, Health, Medical, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy | 159 Comments

How can the Covid-policies be countered with the help of Big Money?

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Suppose you agree with me that containment and elimination strategies pursued regarding Covid-19 do far more harm than good. Suppose you also believe that having an open economy and a vibrant close-contact social life is vital for the long-run health … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, Life, Media, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society | 86 Comments

A seminar/workshop on wellbeing cost-benefit analysis applied to covid

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Find below the video of a seminar for the Australian Institute for Progress done a few weeks ago detailing the basic cost-benefit view of the current pandemic. The slides of this presentation are here: Presentation CBA Covid May 2020_V2 Most … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Employment, Health, History, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society | 79 Comments

Covid strategies for Australia: herd immunity or quarantine land?

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Let’s talk about some of the covid policy options facing Australia in the coming months and years. It seems to me we can either grasp the nettle and accept we will get a wave of highly visible covid-19 deaths before … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, History, Journalism, Libertarian Musings, Life, Politics - international, Politics - national | 16 Comments

On Corona/Covid-19, herd immunity and WELLBY tradeoffs: key predictions and numbers

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Paul Frijters

[in progress: will add more references, links and latest numbers when I get the time] In this note, I want to deal with three related issues: the main lessons on the corona virus from the reported deaths across countries with … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, IT and Internet, Libertarian Musings, Life, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Social Policy, Society | 52 Comments