A study by the Central Intelligence Agency argues that climate change “will produce consequences that exceed the capacity of the affected societies or global systems to manage, and therefore will have global security implications serious enough to compel international response.”
.. “Resistance to climate change science is … strongest among individuals, groups and organizations who identify most strongly with the core political claim that individual choice and the pursuit of self-interest in consumption and production activities are the sources of the human good, of freedom and flourishing.”
Local Minimum Wages
cities and counties are now enacting higher local minimum wage policies that cover all work performed in the area. Cities as varied as Albuquerque, San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., Santa Fe, N.M., and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages ranging from $8.60 in Albuquerque to $10.74 in San Francisco.
.. Modern economics therefore regards the employment effect of a minimum-wage increase as a question that is not decided by theory, but by empirical testing.
The Invention of GDP
The invention of GDP was a response to the depression
Ross Douthat: Minimum Wage and EITC
I’d be willing to accept a slightly larger government in exchange for a lighter regulatory footprint and very different spending priorities; I’d accept the kind of carbon tax that I just expressed skepticism about if it were part of a tax reform that included the kind of work and family-friendly tax cuts I support; I’m open to modest gun control measures where their effectiveness can be demonstrated (here’s some interesting recent evidence on the pro-gun control side); I’d be willing to endure a socialist dictatorship if I were allowed to co-write the next season of “True Detective” … you get the idea.
.. Q: Why do conservatives object to directly increasing the minimum wage by making employers pay for it, while they are O.K. with indirectly increasing the minimum wage by think it pays enough, I certainly don’t want to subsidize Walmart’s profits with my tax dollars.
A: Not all conservatives are pro-EITC, but on behalf of those of us who favor its existence and potential expansion, I’d offer this answer: Because we prefer a transparent welfare state that supplements market income after the fact to a hidden welfare state that interferes with market forces more directly.
.. So rather than imposing a single standard on an incredibly diverse landscape, it’s better to do whatever redistribution you favor more directly, even when it sometimes seems to let bad actors off the hook.