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You put in self check out in response to high wage costs, but then you find new problems. High trust systems cannot survive in the presence of low trust people. And this is why, in the second world, you cannot have nice things… And ultimately, the incentives and selectors turn the systems into pastiches of their intent. May 6th, 2025 | 68 comments - (Comments are closed)
 Our diagnosis is that what really worries The Guardian here [about Argentina] is that this will all work. For where would the progressives be if classical liberalism were shown – once again – to work? May 5th, 2025 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
In The Times, no less:
Safety is one thing. The article goes on to discuss consent and the risks to female athletes of speaking out on this topic. May 3rd, 2025 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
Democracy tends towards protectionism when those harmed by free trade are numerous enough to count. But democracy also demands cheap goods. No one has yet squared that circle. April 23rd, 2025 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
What’s more, the imposition of punitive tariffs on poorer countries like Vietnam will simply impoverish rather than improve the potential importing power of these countries. Disrupting the economic development of poorer countries isn’t going to improve the chances of selling to them. The irony is brutal. Trump’s fixation with trade-deficit “offenders” is punishing the very nations that could one day erase those deficits through development and prosperity. US consumers, businesses, and economic growth will all suffer as a result of the US president’s inability to grasp this elementary logic. There seems to be just one long-term strategy behind all this: unleash populism for immediate electoral returns, blame someone else for the problems that populism inevitably causes, and let someone else deal with the long-term consequences. April 20th, 2025 | 42 comments - (Comments are closed)
In the future, people will study propaganda like “Adolescence” in the way they study “Triumph of the Will” as a way to understand Germany in 1935. April 12th, 2025 | 30 comments - (Comments are closed)
April 11th, 2025 | Comments are closed
[a] trade imbalance is not an inherently bad thing. it can be a very good thing, a beneficial thing. this idea that if we buy $50bn more goods from kermeowistan every year than they buy from us that it implies that they are somehow “taking advantage” or this this is “unstainable” or negative is flatly false. it’s actually ridiculous. it ignores complex trade flows and balancing factors like “capital flows.” people really seem to struggle with this, but it’s not that difficult. you’ll will have a large lifetime trade deficit with the grocery store. you will buy much from them. they will buy nothing from you. is this a problem for you? is it unsustainable? most people seem to sustain this beneficial grocery trade their whole lives. why is it any different if it crosses a border or gets aggregated by nation? (spoiler alert, it’s not) you’ll likely run a lifetime trade deficit with many countries too. you buy a BMW. that’s a deficit to germany. you run a restaurant in toledo. you have no german customers. does this fact harm you in some way? did germany take advantage of you? would it be better for you if we imposed a tax that made that BMW 25% more expensive? no, and if we do, it might create automotive jobs in the US, but the cost to do so is YOUR choice and your budget. Follow the link, read the whole thing. April 8th, 2025 | 62 comments - (Comments are closed)
The lads from Ulitsa Savushkina have been poking the blog hard & smitebot’s algorithm has become cantankerous once again.  April 8th, 2025 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
The modern view of a councillor is that they are there to promote state policies, such as Diversity and Inclusion (see, for example, the Equality Act 2010 – and the duties it lays down). A councillor, or even a Member of Parliament, is not there, according to the modern view, to represent ‘reactionary’ residents or constituents – not AGAINST the state, but rather the elected representative is there to help the resident or constituent get benefits or services from the state. And to promote Progressive attitudes and behaviour. I am not saying I agree with the modern view – I am just explaining what it is. After all supporting ‘reactionary’ residents might imply that one shared their opinions and, therefore (according to the modern view – of the training colleges and so on) deserved to share their punishment. April 5th, 2025 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)
Labour and its fixation on Net Zero must also take responsibility for the pending death of British Steel. It was Labour, in 2023, that promised to invest in ‘all available clean-steel technologies… innovations to make the UK a world leader in clean steel’. In the same press release, then leader of the opposition Keir Starmer committed to ‘greening the steel that will make the solar panels and wind turbines built to power our homes for years to come’. This was thoroughly delusional. Not only are solar panels and wind turbines not the answer to our energy needs, but there also aren’t even any British factories making solar panels at present. Similarly, it was Jonathan Reynolds, in February this year, who claimed that decarbonising steel ‘will never mean deindustrialisation’, boasting of Britain’s ‘world-leading research and development capabilities’ in the sector. But this isn’t true. Between 2021 and 2023, Tata, a leading investor in steel research and development, spent just £11million annually on ‘green steel’ research. It will take many more millions (and many more years) for decarbonisation to ever result in anything but deindustrialisation. My only objection to this article is it should read “The Labour and Tory fixation on Net Zero must also take responsibility…” April 2nd, 2025 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
The first lockdown in the UK did not technically have legal force until three days after Johnson’s address. But that didn’t stop police going after people almost immediately. This may sound like a trivial oversight, but it does underscore the authoritarian nature of how lockdown rules were made and imposed. For a brief period at least, police were arresting people on the basis not of laws passed democratically in parliament, but on the mere words of the prime minister, merely because they had been uttered in a television broadcast. This really did bring Britain into ‘police state’ territory. March 25th, 2025 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
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