Search Results » fallacy
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High jump and higher education – the fallacy of continuous improvement
They set targets and you meet those targets, so they raise the targets. You meet them again, so they raise them again. If those targets were high jump bars, everyone watching would know you are going to miss the target at some point. That is not a failure. That is just something that is eventually beyond the very limits of your ability. However, if you are a tertiary education teacher we pretend there is no limit.
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Darkhorse: Roger’s legacy – the fallacy of economic efficiencies under a neoliberal regime
Darkhorse writes amazingly insightful economic pieces on his ‘How Daft’ blog (the title gives you a clue as to what he thinks of the current state of affairs). The neoliberal experiment has been an abject failure by any rational measure. And there are alternatives. Darkhorse has given us permission to syndicate his posts, the originals are here.
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The Committee Coup: Democracy Unravels in Palmerston North
The recent decision by PNCC to remove Rangitāne o Manawatū representatives from the Culture, Arts, and Community Committee, and to remove the independent member from the Finance and Audit Committee, is not an administrative tidying-up exercise. It is a political statement.
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The fascinating story about when some redditors took on Wall Street
The world has been watching, mostly with amusement, as some redditors have brought a Wall Street merchant bank to its knees, by buying stocks in a company, GameStop who has seen better days and whose business model is antiquated.
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A Bit About How (my) Moderation Works (at present)
An attempt to clarify some misconceptions and dispel some urban myths about (my) moderation.
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Comrade David signals radical rewrite of Act’s living wage policy
Comrade David Seymour has signalled that Act may argue for a minimum wage of $50 per hour.
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Humans – doing it to themselves
About the only thing that surprised me was that it took so long for a pandemic to really break out into the modern world. Because our evolutionary and recorded history is mainly punctuated and constrained by disease and environmental change. We invented large cities many times in the past and lost them to plague or drought. It looks like we’re going through that phase again – just at a larger level.
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Terror attack at London Bridge
With just over a week to go till the UK General Election, polls (which are questionable in reliability) show the race getting tighter. Expect lots of harsh word and dubious tactics. In all this, political operators shouldn’t forget that real people’s lives are impacted by events like terror attacks. Politicians from all sides need to think about their actions before trying to gain political points.
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Do poor people and women exist in right wing economics land?
david seymour, Dr Deborah Russell, economy, housing, spin, taxpayers union, uncategorized, unemployment, workers' rights, you couldn't make this shit upDavid Seymour has written a critique of Deborah Russel’s review of the hard right economic tome “Economics in one lesson”. And totally missed the point of what she was saying.
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Regrets, John Key’s had a few *
brand key, capitalism, climate change, disaster, Environment, global warming, john key, national, poverty, Privatisation, same old national, sustainability, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit upor more accurately one. A failed vanity flag referendum.
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Tripling down on financial illiteracy with Amy Adams (and MMT)
Amy Adams won’t commit to $11.7b, but she too has now become the third person to fall down the imaginary fiscal hole. How can National claim to have any soundness on finance if they won’t admit their criticisms on the economy are unreasonable and unfounded? And besides, aren’t National actually worse fiscal managers if ordinary people tend to get paid less under their regimes? We dive into some theory to thoroughly dispute even Steven Joyce’s/Amy Adam’s secondary criticism of “fiscal tightness,” although concede that two of the Budget Responsibility rules are probably stupid in order to do it.
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The ten most popular Standard posts of 2017
The ten most read Standard posts of 2017.
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The Accidental Bodyguards of Capitalism
What does it mean to look beyond capitalism? We do not yet know what it will look like because we have not yet ventured out from our caves.
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Hosking wants Auckland Council deposed
auckland supercity, democracy under attack, national, public transport, same old national, supercity, sustainability, transportFrom the I kid you not files Mike Hosking believes that Auckland Council is to blame for the housing crisis, not immigration, not favourable tax conditions for landlords, not the global financial crisis and not the lack of restrictions on home ownership. And he believes that Nick Smith should step in and Roll Auckland Council.
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Bill Gates on Piketty and inequality
Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century came to the strong conclusion that capitalism left by itself will increase inequality and cause increased risk of social, economic and democratic upheaval. He has an unlikely supporter, albeit critical, in Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world.
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Imagine if National had not sold the shares in our companies
The twelve month financial performance results for all of the sold off companies have recently been announced. And as predicted NZ Inc is taking a bit of a bath.
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Mum and Dad Investor?
The SST this morning have broken a story about how an American couple were able to purchase $1.6 million worth of shares in Genesis while “mum and dad kiwi investors” had their share allocation limited to $5,000.
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Polity: The ENV debate: Some more data
David Farrar, election 2011, election 2014, elections, john key, national, same old national, Steven JoyceRob Salmond presents the David Farrar / Steven Joyce / John Key argument that 2011 non voters are a National-leaning bunch. Then he shows that a better look at their own data undermines their claim. This matters because it helps us understand which bloc has more to gain from voter mobilization efforts in 2014. This means the left has a lot more to gain than the right from mobilization in 2014.
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Assuming justice and creating justice
I’ve been thinking about politics, assumptions, and justice. I sat in on a recording of The Egonomist on Friday – thanks for having […]
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Socioecomonic status and educational outcomes (and the ignorance of DPF)
It would suit the right-wing of politics to ignore the profound impact of poverty on education. Nat blogger DPF ran the line just yesterday. His bombastic and ignorant conclusion is based on a trivially superficial reading of Hattie’s work.
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If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear
Yesterday Key actually ran the classic justification for “police state” surveillance: if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. This argument is bollocks. Here’s why…
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The budget’s flawed premise
The whole austerity driven focus of the budget and National’s economic policy is based on a premise which is in turn based on a spreadsheet error.
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Taking a hard line on moderation fallacies
I’ve got a new rule. If I’m reading any political ‘analysis’ and the author commits argument to moderation fallacy, I stop reading right there. So I don’t know what John Armstrong wrote after his third sentence yesterday: “The competing choruses of those who say it has not gone far enough and those who say it has gone too far would suggest it has things just about right.”
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Sunday Reading
I’m going to try and put up a piece each Sunday of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week: Greece, Watergate and Tax avoidance.
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Asset sales: still bad
Adding to the canon of reasons and commentators on why you don’t sell your assets (particularly to pay for your maintenance) is an […]
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Remember 1984
Labour moving to the right would be a disaster for the left. It doesn’t need to, in order to lead a winning coalition at the next election. The last time a small cabal in Labour tried that strategy was in 1984 – it proved to be a disaster for New Zealand and for the Labour Party. I’m not sure that the Labour leadership is making a definitive shift to the right – more like a tentative search for the marshmallow centre. As a strategy, it is a recipe for failure.
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The biggest party are non-voters.
The option that most eligible voters in NZ supported in 2011 was “don’t vote”. Nearly 7% didn’t enroll, and if enrolled then more than 25% didn’t vote. Of the eligible voters from the 2006 census, over 30% didn’t vote at all. And since 2006 the voting population has almost certainly increased. It means that National’s large vote is probably less than the biggest “party”. Not a particularly good mandate unless you’re as deluded as John Key.
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The long game on charter schools & national standards
Charter schools and national standards/league tables are part of the same process. It’s about siphoning off public funds, the best pupils, and the best teachers into ‘elite’ schools, and leaving everyone else behind. It’s about cutting money for ‘failing’ schools and ‘failing’ students. It ultimately means more lost potential and a poorer NZ, but one that serves the elite’s interests.
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Ohnstrong on Labour’s Chch policy
A guest post from Jarm Ohnstrong: I want to start this article with an apology. A couple of weeks ago, I attacked Labour for its criticism of National’s performance on the Christchurch rebuild while not having released its own recovery policy. That was unfair and petty. Now, Labour has released its policy. It’s deserving of the highest praise.
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Flavell fails on suicide
Last week, Jim Anderton said that the tidal wave of youth unemployment we’re experiencing will lead to more suicides. He’s right. The best response from the Right: slash young people’s wages and that might create a few more jobs. But Te Ururoa Flavell’s suggestion to ostracise and condemn the dead is just as bad.
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Finding the balance
MrSmith argues that the need to provide ‘balance’ undermines our media. It lets well-financed or extreme interest groups skew public discourse through the fallacy of moderation – present two sides and people will tend to think that the truth is somewhere in the middle. MrSmith wants media that is unafraid to voice its opinion on what is right.
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Begging the question
Yesterday, John Armstrong wrote “Goff’s management of the crisis has already begged a major question.” Apart from making me wonder if the question was ‘is it OK for the Minister of Police to leak stories about ongoing police investigations for political gain’, Armstrong’s misuse of ‘begging the question’ reminded me of this song.
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Straw Men
On ACC, National are running out their favourite tactic again – the Straw Man.
We see it regularly with every highly-paid “Working Group” they establish. They choose the participants to make sure they get the ideas they want to implement, plus a bit more. Then they cleave off the extra bits to look “moderate”.
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Tax Cuts or High Wages?
benefits, bill english, election 2008, jobs, john key, labour, national/act government, unemployment, wagesAt the last election we chose tax cuts and unemployment instead of stimulus and stability – which was the more ambitious, high wage way to go?
National are not fulfilling their government’s core reason for existence: closing the wage gap with Australia. No, we’re fast going backwards on that score, and it’s predictable: high unemployment causes low wages.
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Key the real target of Hobbit producers’ game
The Hobbit ‘crisis’ is all about money. It’s about the producers of this long-troubled production, who are in financial difficulty, wanting to minimise their up-front costs. The mark in the con is the only one with cash to offer on the scale they need – the Prime Minister. He’s the one with the most to lose and the most ability to pay.
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Digested Read – Spirit Level 6: Future Options
The last in a series of 6 summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how we might achieve a more equitable future.
