(Reason 1) I don't believe anyone really existed before 1990, nor do I believe real, conscious people exist in poor, repressed countries. However crazy it seems, I just cannot fathom a universe where all the suffering I read about in history books really took place.
(Reason 2) Politically-charged issues like global warming and income inequality are difficult to understand because so much ostensibly credible evidence is presented by each side. I go further than simply saying it is a complex issue. While truth does exist in many places, when an issue because hotly contentious, with much to gain / lose on either side, I believe that truth literally ceases to exist.
(Reason 3) I do not believe Tyler Cowen exists, because it seems he has no supporting staff, and I do not believe one person could write and read so much while also teaching, eating, and sleeping.
(Reason 4) I don't believe the book A Death in the Family could win a Pulitizer Prize when I cannot even get a literary agent to consider my novel. Much of my world, alas, is an illusion. Either I don't exist, or that book doesn't really exist. Or perhaps the Pulitizer Prize is also an illusion?
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Blog Archive
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2011
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December
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- Economic Harmonies by Bastiat
- If Paul Krugman is wrong...
- Why Mercantilism bothered Adam Smith
- If I was a military historian...
- In case my appraisal matters...
- Nations run like businesses
- No one is really religious anymore
- My collection of quotes is better than yours
- Take that, Department of Applied Economics
- Economic Models and Inequality
- Quote on Rent-Seeking and Corporate Tax Rates
- Should Student Loans Be Forgiven?
- Debt-Bondage, Ancient Rome, and the Incentives of ...
- Catherine the Great Convenes Her Empire
- Context-Dependent Preferences in Birds
- I was wrong about posting copyrighted videos
- If only we were still hunters and gatherers...
- Religion First, Then The Plow
- A World Without Conspicuous Consumption
- Two Quotes
- Copyrights Be Damned
- Utopia Documented
- Middle Ground Between Science and Religion
- Inside the mind of a saint
- Jonathan Haidt
- Conversation with my daughter
- Lit agents are ridiculous
- Origin of word "placebo" and placebo quotes
- Straight-A Students Need Not Apply
- The lies of children
- The "tinkering" metaphor
- The Art of Self-Deception
- College Subsidies
- Ayn Rand's Opposite
- Quotes about cities
- Maybe I do understand the EU
- Reasons why most people would call me insane
- I wonder how long...?
- How to be a political pundit
- Vitamins should be banned
- The most devoted medical researcher ever
- A Story of Creativity: how the stethoscope was inv...
- To train an economist...
- The Political Purpose of Debasing Profits
- The Final Destination of OWS
- A Forty Year Plan
- The Truth About Communal Living
- Is Utopia a vegan paradise?
- Thomas More's Utopia
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December
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