“But my time and labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another.”
Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe
“The only reason we don’t adopt an open-ended utility function is because of the law St. Paul says is written on the human heart. But it’s a good reason; otherwise there’d only be varying degrees of risk-aversion rather than deplorable timidity and rashness and between them praiseworthy courage. Note also that peaceniks whose recommendations lead to the tyrant’s victory cannot be declared to be mistaken if we adopt an open-ended utility function; they merely reveal themselves to be masochists. But it is surely no coincidence that abandoning sincere church attendance leads to Anthony de Jasay’s consent-driven Leviathan; it’s only if he takes God seriously that homo economicus doesn’t rent seek. Aristotle wanted the state to be concerned with the good life because he didn’t conceive of separating Caesar from God; homo economicus now wants the same, except his good life is explicitly hedonist so he wants boodle.”
Another of mine, from April 21, 2003 [and very possibly of interest only to economists, or not even to them].
In my latest Epoch Times column I say it’s actually good news that about two-thirds of Canadians in a poll said they think “everything is broken in this country right now” because we still expect better and have not spiraled into rage, paranoia or, worst of all, resignation.
In my latest Epoch Times column I contrast the Canadian federal government’s sluggish incapacity even to agree to hand out cash to get other people to build houses with the endless vaulting promises of our politicians to deliver social justice, world peace and better weather.
In my latest Epoch Times column I ponder why the Canadian government is massively expanding both the public service and the army of consultants it employs to do bureaucrats’ work for them.
In my latest National Post column I say it is humans, not frogs, who fail to react as circumstances slowly change in terrible ways like governments piling up debt.
In my latest Epoch Times column I take aim at the government’s self-deceiving reliance on “continue” to describe things they are not even trying to do and would not know how to start trying.
In my latest Epoch Times column I challenge Canadians, especially those in positions of authority, to stop embracing and even enforcing mediocrity… starting by admitting they have a problem.