By and large, free-marketeers understand where their opponents are coming from. We understand what explicit or implicit assumptions they make … Continue reading “Nature, nurture and economics”

A recurring feature of politics is that of politicians and parties claiming to be acting as the heirs of a … Continue reading “Why is everyone suddenly mad about Teddy?”

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has earned itself a reputation as the sworn enemy of economic growth and consumption. In … Continue reading “Egalitarianism reloaded: the NEF discovers the Spirit Level”

Objections to large material inequalities are probably as old as mankind itself. In numerous ancient legends and folk tales, the … Continue reading “An alternative to Spirit Level egalitarianism”

I recently gave a talk at the Libertarian Alliance entitled ‘Spirit Level Egalitarianism, Happiness Economics and Steady State Economics’. When … Continue reading “Can you be a half-way Spirit Leveller?”

Classical liberals claim that theories of justice must be judged by their practical capacity to facilitate positive sum games in … Continue reading “Car Insurance and the Arbitrary Quality of Egalitarian Justice”

In the preface to their best-selling book The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett compare what they call their … Continue reading “More Spirit Level delusions”

The Liberal Democrats  have been telling us they want to “hardwire fairness back into national life.” Britain, for all its many … Continue reading “The misleading and dismal concept of “fairness””

Once upon a time, an old Nordic legend tells, there lived a princess in Burgundy who owned a huge treasure … Continue reading “The new egalitarianism: Hagen von Tronje replaces Robin Hood”