Seanzie

We still have poverty, but not your granddad's poverty. It used to be, the poor suffered under-nourishment. Today, poverty can stem from obesity so severe as to be disabling.

My mom and i were just discussing my dog's visit to the veterinarian. She said that her father would never have taken a dog to the vet for those symptoms, but my dog got a blood analysis and a stomach X-ray. I spent a lot of money on all this, which paid the vet and their staff and the lab and the equipment manufacturers. Conclusion: increased wealth creates increased opportunity to work.

I rarely come across such a terse, yet clear, argument why socialism requires force. But it is a false dichotomy, to conclude that the alternative is not to do anything.

It seems like a losing argument, from whichever direction. Who would not be ashamed to confess, that they took only their own interests into consideration when voting?

This reveals that it is possible to combine the Persuasion and Zero Sum methods that the poster above described: "Once I have persuaded 51% of voters to my view, I no longer need to care about your view."

For as long as journals refuse to publish negative results, researchers will scrounge for some type of positive result, even if it's causally questionable, because to do otherwise is to see years of work go for nought. Until these incentives change, the rest of us are right to be skeptical.

But consider Hyman Minsky’s theory that in capitalist economies stability engenders instability. It could be true, that good times plant the seeds of bad times, similar to the way that forests that go many years without fires, build up tinder.

There are many ways to prepare for climate catastrophe, but here's one you could try: 1) Read Paul Ehrlich's book "The Population Bomb". If you don't have time, just watch the movie "Soylent Green" to get the gist of it. 2) Look around you for any sign of planet-wide famine. 3) ??? 4) Profit!

It appears that we have already given up. Efficient, low-carbon-emitting natural gas power plants have been replacing coal-fired plants in the USA, largely due to cheap and abundant fuel extracted via fracking. If that were important, we would not be discussing bans on fracking.