In the spirit of How Many Elephants in a Blue Whale?, I thought I’d do a quick calculation of how much hard work was in Bill Gates (variously estimated) fortune.
At one point, Bill Gates was said to be worth US$50billion. That’s a lot of ‘money’. What would it take to earn that at an hourly rate? Continue reading
A recent comment by Don Brash [about 7mins45secs into the video] gave me the clue as to why the right are so dependent on the ‘welfare’ argument. They are, to put it bluntly, dependent on ‘welfare’ as the explanation for all that, in their eyes, has gone wrong with the world. In particular, they are dependent on welfare for explaining poverty, crime and all the other social ills.
It’s an odd explanation and it’s wrong, but that seems to be what they believe. Continue reading
It’s Mary Poppins time boys and girls – Dr Brash is your medicine and Mr Key your spoonful of sugar. Do you want to take your medicine? No?
Well, what’s to be done with you?
There not quite as cheery and smiley as you might want – and a bit of effort’s involved – but here’s a few brisk political calisthenics that you could try as an alternative to holding your nose and swallowing.
Continue reading
I’ve never been to an ANZAC Day dawn service. I’ve often tried to work out why. I think I now know.
Is it elitist to advocate government funding of TVNZ 7 and, by extension, Concert FM, National Radio, the NZSO and the Royal New Zealand Ballet?
I don’t think so.
Michelle Boag, in her appearance on Jim Mora’s ‘The Panel’ on National Radio on Friday (8 April), raised the argument in relation to the demise, through lack of government funding, of TVNZ 7 [The comment is about 7min40s into the audio.].
We care most about things that happen to us and affect our interests directly. Try as we might, it’s harder to care about things that happen to others, at a distance, and which have little impact on our interests (which, of course, include the state of our emotional lives).
Similarly, the ‘effects’ of an earthquake decay from its epicentre in more ways than one. Our modern, market-based social world speeds the rate of a decay in empathy as interconnections between people are reduced and thinned to market connections. Continue reading
The one question so many people in Christchurch are asking is “Should I stay or should I go?” The motivation to stay – for those with the ability to leave – will depend on whether or not there is a quick emergence of a sense that there is a Christchurch worth staying for.
As more and more people make their incremental decisions about the future the range of opportunities to recreate our city diminishes day by day. If the push to rebuild as soon as possible, especially to re-establish a commercial CBD, creates a ‘reality on the ground’ within a matter of weeks or months then that range of opportunities becomes vanishingly small. Continue reading
This is a post about the Amish, diversity and Thomas Sowell’s visions. I’ll try to keep it brief.
Just to remind anyone who’s interested, this is part of my response to the post directed at me over at ‘A Life of the Mind‘. Continue reading
This is getting interesting. Lisek has posted again on my post – which is very welcome, as I genuinely do welcome debate and discussion.
It’s not quite as welcome to find an accusation in the title of the post to the effect that I haven’t read ‘A Conflict of Visions’ and yet deign to comment on it – but I’m a forgiving sort of person. (It’s also a bit sad that s/he gave up completing the response simply because, I guess, s/he thought I wasn’t really worth it.)
To be fair, it’s a deduction rather than an accusation. Lisek came to a ‘realisation’ that I hadn’t read the book because of my comments about Marx being a ‘Tragic Visionary’.
I’ll respond in two parts. First (in this post), I’ll respond to the ‘have I read the book?’ arguments and clarify what I was really trying to say (long-windedly, I’m afraid). Second, I’ll respond (in a second post) to some of the points in what Lisek posted before realising there was no point.
On to Sowell and Marx … Continue reading
I’d like to thank Walenty Lisek at The Life of the Mind blog for the detailed response to my post on the Tragic Vision. I’ll try to reciprocate as best I can with ten points in response.
I should start, however, by clarifying my position. Continue reading
