Category Archives: Society

From being to seeming: why empirical scientists failed in times of Covid.

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Paul Frijters

There have long been scientists who were celebrities in their own time. Galileo, Keppler, Goodall, Linneus, Cousteau, Darwin, Smith, Leeuwenhoek, Da Vinci, Ibn Khaldhun, Curie, and many others in the last 800 years were followed and admired. They in many … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Geeky Musings, Health, Life, Philosophy, Politics - national, Religion, Science, Social Policy, Society, Theatre | 15 Comments

What kind of crowd are we now seeing? The 5 surprises in this pandemic.

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Paul Frijters

There are 5 aspects of the covid-19 pandemic I really did not see coming, all pointing to a phenomenon that European sociologists of a century ago spent their whole lives describing, coming up with theories about crowds and their behaviour … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, History, Life, Philosophy, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Society, Theatre | 117 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

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

UK policy wonks following Troppo in saying the lock downs were a mistake (but hiding the message a bit)

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Here at Clubtroppo, we have been saying for well over a month now that a quick look at the economic damage and the health damage of the responses to the corona virus tells you they dwarf the possible benefits of … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Health, History, Methodology, Social Policy, Society | 12 Comments

Unseen victims of the corona panic: IVF babies and their parents

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Did you know that Australia has over 13,000 IVF babies born per year, the UK over 20,000, the West as a whole (Europe+US+offshoots) over 200,000 and the world as a whole 500,000? And did you know that due to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Economics and public policy, Health, Science, Social, Social Policy, Society | 36 Comments

How the Corona narrative will flip: two predictions.

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Paul Frijters

My first prediction is an easy one: many countries are going to ease their restrictions on social isolation in the coming weeks, including many countries with an ongoing corona problem. They simply have to if they want to have any … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society, Uncategorized | 83 Comments