Governments love monopolies when run by them, but hate them when run by others. There can be no monopoly without government assistance, but they prosecute vapors and call it consumer protection. Intel is being prosecuted because it was mean to AMD. Microsoft is “offering” new browsers as it bows to E.U. regulators. One of them said this was an “early Christmas present” to consumers. As far as I know, you could always download other browsers. I have used Firefox for several years to almost completely replace Windows Explorer. I am planning to use Linux on my next computer to supplant the Windows OS. Why does any government agency need to protect consumers while the government serves up such bad products?
“The U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen was supposed to be the moment when the world came together to save us from an excess of carbon dioxide. Like all such confabs, it’s coming down instead to cold, hard cash.
On Monday, the so-called G-77—in effect, the Third World—walked out of the talks for several hours in protest of the unwillingness, as they saw it, of rich countries to foot the bill for averting or mitigating climate catastrophe in the developing world. The negotiations have since resumed, but with the most difficult questions set aside and expectations lower than ever.
More than anything else, Monday’s walkout revealed the real reason that the developing world is in Copenhagen in the first place: They see climate change as a potential foreign-aid bonanza, and they are at the table to leverage the West’s environmental angst into massive transfers of wealth.
In theory, the money is supposed to help poor countries pay for their transition to a carbon-neutral future. But the developed world has been pouring trillions of dollars into development aid in various forms for decades, with little to show for it. The reasons are well-known: Corruption, political oppression, government control of the economy and the absence of rule of law combine to keep poor countries poor. And those factors also ensure that most aid is squandered or skimmed off the top. Recasting foreign aid as "climate mitigation" won’t change any of that.” More of it here.
What does this have to do with psychology, one may ask? First, a lot of human activity is guided by incorrect assumptions. Second, many people mistake intentions and predictions as reality. These two things bedevil much of human activity and explain why much of psychology, and official human activity, is nonsense.
I recommend two books, one by Thomas Sowell, about , as the title says, economic facts and fallacies and the other about the myths of psychology.
from Sowell, T. (2008). Economic Facts and Fallacies, MA: Perseus Books.
Sowell talks about the zero-sum fallacy about economics, held by many in the media, wherein each economic transaction involves a loss and gain. “Exploitation of the worker”, “Economic Imperialism” and other silly notions comes from this assumption.
Another is the open-ended fallacy wherein if some education is good, more must be better and “you can never have too much”. There is much more.
The other, Lilienfeld, S.O, Lynn, S.J, Ruscio, J & Beyerstein, B.L. (2010). 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, outlines, of course, myths. Among these are “Most people only us 10% of their brain power,”, left-brain, right-brain nonsense, learning styles, self-esteem and other shibboleths beloved of “experts” and the media.
Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
January 7, 2010 at 8:54 am |
Never got one myself.
Cheers
Grant