Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Trickle Up Economics

 Coalition unlikely to lift unemployment benefits when jobkeeper scrapped in March


They will lift it but only marginally so, might not even reach my prediction of $50 per week. Frydenburg argues against an increase because a lift will be an ongoing structural increase in the deficit. Yet for the sake of protecting a coalition seat in South Australia there is the 50-60-70 ??? billion fiasco submarine build, the proposed 270 billion defense spend for missiles etc, and tax cuts that will decrease revenue by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. All those are structural increases in the deficit and all those do not have a significant multiplier effect by promoting greater economic activity through infrastructure improvement.  

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Irrational Symbolism in Australia

 The proposed change to the national anthem from "young and free" to "one and free" is another example of how symbolism dominates proposed solutions to indigenous issues. It is ridiculous to think that removing the word "young" from the song will result in any improvement for indigenous people but obviously Scotty from Marketing thinks it is a great way to kick of 2021. 

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Horror, The Horror!

Political Conservatives Fear Chaos; Liberals Fear Emptiness

Mistah Kurtz died long ago so get over it. (With apologies to the wonderful Joseph Conrad)

Keep in mind that with these studies the results are statistical so don't go around thinking that because someone has liberal or conservative political beliefs ipso facto that particular person experiences what the study results suggest.

According to this study conservatives fear of social chaos and absence of order while liberals fear emptiness. The potential for social chaos and absence of order is always a problem for societies so these things need to be guarded against. As for feelings of emptiness just get over it. The universe is a cold heartless place and the sooner you realise that and go on living the better off you will be. Stuff the rubbish touted by Deepak Chopra, Gary Zukav, and even Anthony Robbins for that matter. These people are fools who delude others into thinking that life truly is meaningful. It isn't. This has long been known but few are willing to embrace it wholeheartedly. When people do truly accept the meaninglessness of existence they realise it was a stupid thing to worry about. Alas I fear that humanity will continue to generate all manner of Imaginary Friends to keep The Horror away. As that wonderful French writer Albert Camus noted, "Seeking the truth is not seeking what is desirable." More importantly, remember his words:

But it is bad to stop, hard to be satisfied with a single way of seeing, to go without contradiction, perhaps the most subtle of all spiritual forces. The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live.


The Myth of Sisyphus.

So if you are a conservative and fear emptiness the problem is that you fear nothingness. When you think about it, that's kinda stupid. At least conservatives aren't that silly.