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Economic Shock Therapy for Barbelith

Regrettable Juvenilia

20:27 / 21.05.08

Hello all,

Having returned from the dead, I recently received the username and password for a Barbelith 'suit' from an anonymous source. This unnamed benefactor suggested that the theories of economic liberalism which I taught to such history-shaping effect at the University of Chicago's Economics Department might be in the position to reverse the terrible state to which centralised government and the unsavoury compromise of 'distributed moderation' (which smacks of fuzzy thinking and pseudo-socialist 'mixed economies', with all their distortions) have led this bulletin board.

I have come to save you all.

I propose an immediate programme of economic shock treatment. Barbelith's large and unwieldy centralised infrastructure must be broken up at once. Moderation powers must be autionned off to the highest bidder. Any so-called 'terms and conditions' are equivalent to welfare state distortions which must be immediately removed so that posts can be traded freely.

If we do this, the beautiful scientific laws of pure economics will, after a short and painful period of transition, soon bring about a balance which will mean that Barbelith not only returns to its former glory, but in fact surpasses it, becoming more prosperous, peaceful and successful than ever before.

20:44 / 21.05.08

And, yet...

22:51 / 21.05.08

Hmmm.
First being chided for my pet Peeve of being told to "Speak American", now having Capitalist BS being shoveled down my throat...
We're going to become fast friends, I can just tell!

Closed for Business Time

09:57 / 22.05.08

Fuck off Milton, we gots Thaler and Sunnstein now. Liberal paternalism, nicht? It's all about choice framing, innit.

What we need is not some scummy market that in any case will be coopted by cheaters, scum and bloodsucking Austrian lizards. What we need is to get everyone to re-register in a new system wherein

1. all must pay a sum of £1 to register
2. by ticking a box they agree to either dutifully serve as mods for a set period of time (in a rota system), or failing that, have their £1 donated to the BNP.

Anna de Logardiere

13:22 / 22.05.08

Humans! You have such sweet, absurd ideas! Why I could hypnotise you with my tail in an instant and you would be no wiser. You remind me of that odd little professor who thought I was doing all manner of unspeakable things to him in the shower.

14:23 / 22.05.08

Libertarian paternalism is very unlikeable, isn't it?

It isn't even paternalistic, although there are possible paternalistic implementations for it. What it really is is evidence against libertarian economics, and its assumption that people are utility maximising spreadsheet analysers. The data LP is working off of would suggest that, actually, people don’t care, and are lazy. The idea that they’ve managed to salvage classic liberal economics from the wreckage of itself simply by making up a really, really annoying phrase, and marketing a book to appeal to people who enjoyed Blink, is really annoying.

15:03 / 22.05.08

Milton, your ideas intrigue me. Tell me more.

Closed for Business Time

15:36 / 22.05.08

_pin: It's economics by Americans, for Americans. %No wonder they assume people are all selfish, ignorant bastards%.

16:33 / 22.05.08

Of course I need to go to Wikipedia when I'm not informed on a subject, so I typed your name...
Nice to see you made it back from the grave: I do assume that it's due to divine intervention (God could not leave us without you're guidance) or some arcane technology developed in and sold on the free open market...(Cheap, natch!)
There is one small thing from Wikipedia which bothered me a bit:
His views of monetary policy, taxation, privatization and deregulation informed the policy of governments around the globe, especially the administrations of Ronald Reagan in the U.S., Brian Mulroney in Canada, Margaret Thatcher in Britain, and Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
Could have swore thet were all socialist, commie, nazis... Shows what I know...
Just curious... I work in sales in a competitive sector of the market, yet I save my money to buy things like:
Adbuster Shoes
Am I inherently evil or just confused?

All Acting Regiment

16:56 / 22.05.08

These people were not 'socialist' or 'commies'.

23:10 / 22.05.08

Ha! I love that "designed by John Fluevog" is one of the things that makes them eco-friendly! Kind of cute shoes, though.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:36 / 23.05.08

I work in sales in a competitive sector of the market, yet I save my money to buy things like:
Adbuster Shoes

I see what you're saying, freektemple, I really do. But unfortunately to me it reads like: "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, I am a buster".

08:16 / 23.05.08

Nolte; I'm not really sure if I'm being attacked for being anti-American there? What are the percastics for? Anyway, their argument wouldn't be half so annoying to me (I find it quiet easy to ignore book-form econo-wank, since books are hardly the most effective vectors for policy notions, are they?) if it wasn't for how it seems to be sloshing around Birtish post-Third Way policy-wonk circles...