Not buying it. In today's world we have to deal with corporations censoring and attacking those with right wing views. The best way to solve this is with government regulation.

Moreover capitalism has produced a bunch of lonely atomized individuals. Sure people have more stuff but they are more isolated then ever.

Also the world is uglier than it has ever been. If states fill our cities with beutiful architecture while capitalism builds souless office buildings and tacky chain restaurants I'll pass on the capitalism.

I guess on the whole capitlaism is better then communism but a mixed economy with more emphasis on collectivism and community would be preferable.

My point: If your overall reaction to business progress over the last fifteen years is even mildly negative, no sensible person will try to please you, because you are impossible to please. Yet our new anti-tech populists have managed to make themselves a center of pseudo-intellectual attention.
--Brian Caplan

Ya I'm not buying it for a second. I don't care what any economist's stupid metric says; it's obvious things have gotten worse in America over the last 15 years. Children can't afford to move out of their parent's house or get married, it is harder and harder for the working class to get jobs that pay a living wage. Opiod use is rising in White America because of bleaker economic and social prospects.

Hell the huge amount of immigration we have had over the last 15 years has seriously depressed wages. Or at least prevented wages from rising.

This whole Brian Caplan article reads like a bad joke.

A couple of issues. First:

When business offers new energy, new housing, new food, the wise are grateful to see the world improve, not outraged to see a world that falls short of perfection.

Regarding this "new food," we need to address this. Because it's usually some plant-based, ultra-processed garbage that is, at best, inadequate to meet our dietary needs and harmful to the environment. At worst, it's deadly.

The vegans are winning the war. Basically, prominent political figures have accepted the vegan propagandist machine's lies that veganism is healthy, sustainable and good for the environment, when, in fact, it is none of these things.

Nonetheless, politicians treat this sanctimonious claptrap as a given. And the problem isn't that vegans wish to eat this way -- they can eat all the plants they want, as far as I'm concerned; more beef for me. The problem is that their goal is to take away your right to choose. They don't want veganism just for themselves. They want to force it on all of us.

And we have very good reason not to embrace this "new food" by being "grateful to see the world improve." The much-touted Impossible Burger, for instance, was sprung on the public, not only completely ignoring the FDA's concerns about soy leghemoglobin, but more recently found to contain eleven times the amount of glyphosate found in the Beyond Meat burger. Glyphosate is a known carcinogen and the principle ingredient in the herbicide RoundUp.

This is an improvement in the world?

Brian Caplan is free to uncritically accept all the cancer-causing fake meat he wants. For myself, my instinct for self-preservation prompts to look at these things with a lot more skepticism.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media let us socialize with our friends, comfortably meet new people, and explore even the most obscure interests. The price: free....

Youtube gives us endless entertainment. The price: free.

Google gives us the totality of human knowledge! The price: free.

That's because you're not the consumer; you're the product being sold.

Advertisers pay for these these services to monitor your browsing habits to direct ads to you for the things you look at.

As for the claim that Google gives us the totality of human knowledge, not really. There are sites containing scholarly, peer-reviewed studies on a variety of topics that should be included in our quest for the "totality of human knowledge." And you have to pay to access them.

Also, Google is hardly objective when it comes to information that we're allowed to access. It isn't "the totality of human knowledge"; it's the totality of what Google wants us to believe is factual.

“Free” is never really free. The cost is in advertising, or developing information profiles of you that someone uses. Someone says it’s free, you should wonder how and what’s the catch.

Things are getting much better, we tend to not see it because we compare now vs now (for others) rather than now vs then.

> Sure people have more stuff
> but they are more isolated
> then ever.

Not me! I have a *bunch* of stuff. I like all of it, and often dream of more. But I have connections to all kinds of people, including the kinds of connections that wouldn't have been available in earlier decades.

Both the stuff and the connections came readily at appropriate but mild costs.

> Also the world is uglier than
> it has ever been.

Preposterous. Maybe your life is going nowhere, but more people are living in greater wealth and safety and learnedness than ever before.

"Glyphosate is a known carcinogen"

Probably not. The study that the UN cited, and continues to cite, was withdrawn seven years ago. I'm not aware of any other study that has established an out-of-the-noise correlation between glyphosate and cancer.

If states fill our cities with beutiful [sic] architecture while capitalism builds souless [sic] office buildings and tacky chain restaurants I'll pass on the capitalism. ~ Jewish Cat at July 8, 2019 11:22 PM

We tried state-driven architecture - in the Soviet bloc. It produced soul-less gray slab brutalist buildings that made Moscow, East Berlin, Bucharest, and other Soviet bloc cities dreary places.

While I have little love for the modernists' infatuation with steel and glass, I have even less love for the brutalists' infatuation with concrete.

I guess on the whole capitlaism [sic] is better then communism but a mixed economy with more emphasis on collectivism and community would be preferable. ~ Jewish Cat at July 8, 2019 11:22 PM

Not so. Collectivism, whether coming in the guise of communism or fascism, is an insidious evil. When any state-sanctioned abuse of power can be excused on the basis of public good, that it's "for the people," then state power will be expanded to include that abuse - i.e., eminent domain or civil asset forfeiture.

The individual's rights must be the cornerstone of our societal foundation. Even if it means tolerating and protecting the rights of the most distasteful of individuals. Even if it means a proliferation of ugly chain restaurants and bad architecture.

...more people are living in greater wealth and safety and learnedness than ever before. ~ Crid at July 9, 2019 5:42 AM

People need to be reminded of this. Regularly.

All cycles of change produce fear and uncertainty, this one no less than the others. The Industrial Revolutions produced dystopian literature, communism, fascism, and imperialism. It also produced labor unions, rapidly-rising GDP, a higher standard of living, a longer life span, greater rates of literacy, employment reforms, and universal suffrage.

The Digital Revolution will no doubt continue to introduce seismic shifts in society. Whether these changes are, in the aggregate, positive or negative will depend upon where each of us lets them take us.

If states fill our cities with beutiful [sic] architecture while capitalism builds souless [sic] office buildings and tacky chain restaurants I'll pass on the capitalism. ~ Jewish Cat at July 8, 2019 11:22 PM

We tried state-driven architecture - in the Soviet bloc. It produced soul-less gray slab brutalist buildings that made Moscow, East Berlin, Bucharest, and other Soviet bloc cities dreary places.

While I have little love for the modernists' infatuation with steel and glass, I have even less love for the brutalists' infatuation with concrete.

I guess on the whole capitlaism [sic] is better then communism but a mixed economy with more emphasis on collectivism and community would be preferable. ~ Jewish Cat at July 8, 2019 11:22 PM

Not so. Collectivism, whether coming in the guise of communism or fascism, is an insidious evil. When any state-sanctioned abuse of power can be excused on the basis of public good, that it's "for the people," then state power will be expanded to include that abuse - i.e., eminent domain or civil asset forfeiture.

The individual's rights must be the cornerstone of our societal foundation. Even if it means tolerating and protecting the rights of the most distasteful of individuals. Even if it means a proliferation of ugly chain restaurants and bad architecture.

...more people are living in greater wealth and safety and learnedness than ever before. ~ Crid at July 9, 2019 5:42 AM

People need to be reminded of this. Regularly.

All cycles of change produce fear and uncertainty, this one no less than the others. The Industrial Revolutions produced dystopian literature, communism, fascism, and imperialism. It also produced labor unions, rapidly-rising GDP, a higher standard of living, a longer life span, greater rates of literacy, employment reforms, and universal suffrage.

The Digital Revolution will no doubt continue to introduce seismic shifts in society. Whether these changes are, in the aggregate, positive or negative will depend upon where each of us lets them take us.

Sorry for the double post - I got a "gateway timeout" message on my first submission and when I checked the site on another tab to see if it posted, my post wan't there, so I re-submitted it.

The Inter-webs seem to be a little wonky today.

Conan: Sorry for the double post - I got a "gateway timeout" message on my first submission and when I checked the site on another tab to see if it posted, my post wan't there, so I re-submitted it.

Same thing happened to me, and I triple-posted. The Goddess was kind enough to remove the double and triple posts.

Perhaps it's Amy's site that has the issue. I'm not getting this on anything else I visit.

It all balances out. I zero posted. Three times.

> Probably not.

Juries are crazy.

> People need to be reminded

Here's a good 'un.

I've got another somewhere that said the movement from China's hinterlands to her cities, the largest migration of all time, caused a substantial drop in the planetary incidence of rape.

"Uglier," he says.



JC needs to strip down to his undershorts and party in a hotel room. He should do that one move where he caresses his flank with a slow, flat, very deliberate palm.

The AC in my car just broke. It is 88F today. I am one sweaty person. Fortunately I am a guy and not a snowflake.
Imagine offices without AC. Sticking to every piece of paper, smelly people all around you. What kind of idiot complains about AC? Take a sweater.
I am old enough to remember lots of things that were not so great about the past. Winter? Cars had useless heaters and you froze your ass off. No internet. Tires blew out all.the.time. If your tire did blow out you were stuck with no way to call for help until someone stopped. You could be out there for hours. Cars wore out at 50,000 miles. Lead paint, and it didn't even cover. At the grocery in the winter you could get bananas and mealy apples for fruit. Nothing exotic even in summer. Mangos? hahaha. 4 channels on TV.

Jewish Cat is funny blaming lack of community on capitalism. Does he imagine that communist countries had/have lots of non-lonely people? The problem is big cities--that is what causes loneliness. BUT they also increase economic output and offer you options for work and higher wages. If you work at it you can have close friendships and parties. I do.

"People need to be reminded of this. Regularly." Conan the Grammarian

Freedom tunes is rather appropriate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QfU8mOA7E

I am unbelievably happy that we have air conditioning, however I think turning it down to 62 in the summer and the heat up to 82 in the winter is stupid. Yes, I had an office mate that did that. I’m fine from 68 to 78. Unfortunately, I’m often miserable in public buildings.

cc wrote:

Jewish Cat is funny blaming lack of community on capitalism. Does he imagine that communist countries had/have lots of non-lonely people? The problem is big cities--that is what causes loneliness. BUT they also increase economic output and offer you options for work and higher wages.

I'd wager you find about the same percentage of lonely people in small towns vs. big cities, but I may be wrong.

Seems like loneliness has a lot to do with the individual (gregarious vs. solitary, personality-attracting vs. personality-repelling, etc.).

Also: Air conditioning is the great gift of the modern age. One can always don more clothing when uncomfortable, but the removal thereof is socially, and sometimes legally, unacceptable.

A lot of the time, the problem with air conditioning in public buildings is that they have lousy control systems, especially in older buildings. (But also in some newer buildings, where the building owner puts in the absolutely cheapest system possible while still being able to get a certificate of occupancy.) In the building I work in, everything runs on timers. A custodian tweaks the system each morning based on a SWAG of what the outside temperature and heat load might be on a given day. The system is not aware of the actual room temperature.

"Also, wear a fucking sweater"

Kinky!

Totally SFW and yet WTF.

Effin woolies. Everyone says communism is great. We'll all be taken care of. No one needs to suffer. And then you get the woolies. They never mention the woolies.

”The best way to solve this is with government regulation.”

LOL. Because “government” has never done those things.

Right.

I’d LOVE to see your attempt to WRITE this “regulation”.