“Hive mind” is in error by comparing the individual correlation between income and IQ with the national correlation. Correlations are dimensionless quantities, and we need a quantity with dimension “increase in income per IQ point” From Scott’s graph of income by IQ decile, I conclude that within a nation, individual income increases by a factor of 1.024 per IQ point, that for IQs in the normal range, average income for people of that IQ within a given nation is proportional …
Category: economics
What to do in a restoration
That which cannot continue must end. Thus one way or another, the movement ever leftwards, ever faster, is going to stop, going to be stopped, probably after the fashion of Stalin, if we are lucky after the fashion of conspiracy of 9 Thermidor, if really lucky after the fashion of Cromwell. That does not necessarily mean things will get better, merely that, as in Stalin’s Soviet Union, they will stop getting even worse. But when China recovered from Maoism, it …
A lost military technology
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, wealthy private individuals substantially supported the military, with a particular wealthy men buying stuff for a particular regiment or particular fort. Noblemen paid high prices for military commands, and these posts were no sinecure. You got the obligation to substantially supply the logistics for your men, the duty to obey stupid orders that would very likely lead to your death, the duty to lead your men from in front while wearing a costume …
How to stop mass illegal immigration to Britain
Lately the British government has been making feeble ineffectual gestures vaguely in the general direction of attempting to slightly slow the flood of illegal immigrants, most of them black and Muslim, into Britain. This has resulted in dramatic scenes of disruption at the Calais truck terminal, but … All of them get there in the end,’ he said. ‘No fence is too difficult – in the end, borders are there to be crossed.’ Actually not all borders are made to …
Greece to receive yet another bailout
If you know the the details of the bailout, your brain is being filled with useless misinformation. The important facts are the thirty thousand foot view: That this bailout is much smaller than the previous bailouts. That the previous bailouts had extremely harsh conditions that Greece was unable and unwilling to fulfill, and this bailout has even harsher conditions that Greece is even less able and even less willing to fulfill. That this is not the first time that Greece …
Yet another final deadline for Greece
Supposedly, if no agreement by Sunday, the ECB will stop funding Greece . There have been a lot of final deadlines. That which cannot go on forever will stop, but I would not bet on it stopping on Sunday. Greece does not need austerity nor does it need stimulus. Greece does not need to remain in the Euro nor to exit the Euro. What Greece needs is a a massive reallocation of labor from luxuries and import consumption, to necessities …
Greece runs out of other people’s money
The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. The level of economic freedom in Greece is fortieth out of forty three in the Eurozone. It has been falling like a stone for some time. The real Greek economic crisis has been happening since about 2002, though it was partially hidden by very large amounts of other people’s money until 2009. Supposedly only twenty five percent of the workforce are unemployed, but the unemployed are …
The Camp of the Saints
The good and the great have announced there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant, in part because anyone who (however implausibly) claims to be a refugee, is legal. Some time ago Australia adopted a policy of turning the boats around,
After white male america
Law enforcement against blacks is inherently racist. Gentrification proceeded under an unprincipled exception. Eric Holder is rolling back that unprincipled exception. Not only does every good progressive know that being black is no indicator of propensity to commit crimes, he also knows that a past history of criminal conduct is no indicator of propensity to commit crimes in future – see “Les Miserables” for the correct progressive position on crime and punishment, which is, pretty much, that punishment is horribly …
The stupid elite
It seems obvious to me that our ruling elite has been getting less and less elite, less and less intelligent, since around 1875, and I have previously produced a great pile of anecdotal data on this subject, for example the endless dumbing down of university entrance tests throughout the twentieth century, the hilarious conversations found in the Challenger inquiry archives, showing spectacular examples of pointy haired boss syndrome, the staff of the World Bank, Obama’s scriptwriters, and so on and …