We resort to the brute force of willpower when when we have failed to avoid exposure to temptations. Willpower often works in these situations, but it can be exhausting. Willpower works best when used sparingly…Better smart self-control than hard self-control.
Note that individual income tax revenue was below 8% of GDP during the 1950s and early 1960s, when the top marginal income tax rate was over 90%. The top income tax rate has stayed within the narrow range of 35-39.6% since 1987 and yet over the same period income tax revenues have gyrated from 6-10% of GDP. Now for the real shocker:
The following stats are care of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), part of the U.S. Department of Justice. First, data on time served in state prisons, based on prison release records for 2016 from 44 states…So, how are US prisoners doing upon release? Turns out, not so good. This from a BJS nine-year follow-up study of state prisoners…
That’s almost 30% more beef produced per cow since 1961. And yet the amount of land devoted to livestock pasture has been declining for the past twenty years…How did we do it?
Here’s how the Niskanen Center describes their approach to policy-making: “We are globalists who share progressives’ desire to robustly address economic and social inequality, liberals’ commitment to toleration and civil liberties, moderates’ embrace of empiricism rather than dogma, conservatives’ belief in the wealth creating power of free markets, and libertarians’ skepticism about the ability of technocratic elites to solve complex economic and social problems.”
Republicans used to be more gung-ho about saving endangered species and other environmental causes, e.g., a Republican president established the Environmental Protection Agency and the late, great John McCain fought many battles to protect natural habitats. But then the ardor cooled. Why was that?
“President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years” - Headline/ Washington Post January 20, 2020
What are we to make of the above headline? That Trump says a lot of things that just ain’t so. Then again, politicians exaggerate, lie and mislead all the time. …Is Trump that much worse than, say, Bernie Sanders in the untruth-telling department? Time to get the ol’ calculator out.
Depending on the scenario, average global temperatures may rise anywhere from less than 2°F to over 9°F by 2100 (.9°C – 5.4°C). The question is how to plan for such a range of possible climate futures? I offer some thoughts from people who make a living pondering this very question:
“Uncertain changes in climate, technological, socio-economic and political situations, and the dynamic interaction among these changes, and between these changes and interventions, pose a challenge to planners and decision-makers. Due to these uncertainties, there is a risk of making an inappropriate decision (too little, too much, too soon, or too late).” Kwakkel, J. H., M. Haasnoot, et al., 2016.
These measures include: increasing ocean carbon uptake (thereby reducing atmospheric CO2); utilizing solar energy to convert greenhouse gases into renewable fuels; adding biochar to soils; restoration of wetlands…
Note that I’m not endorsing some measures over others. None of the above measures are mature technologies and none should be excluded from consideration. As energy systems engineer and Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins put it:
“If we’re really in a ‘climate crisis,’ then you go to war with your full arsenal, you don’t hold anything back. And you don’t purposefully make this crisis harder by limiting our already limited options.”
Per the IPCC glossary, decarbonisation (British spelling) aims to achieve “zero fossil carbon existence” and typically refers to a reduction of the carbon emissions associated with electricity, industry and transport. Examples include methanisation, biomass co-firing, carbon capture and storage, and many more. Here’s a list of 18 decarbonisation measures…
Climate change mitigation pathways are a series of measures taken to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions or to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Demand-side measures are policies and programs for influencing the demand for goods and/or services. Without further ado, here are 17 demand-side measures found in the 2018 IPCC report, “Mitigation pathways compatible with 1.5°C in the context of sustainable development”…
“Profit is the money a business pulls in after accounting for all expenses. Whether it's a lemonade stand or a publicly-traded multinational company, the primary goal of any business is to earn money, therefore a business performance is based on profitability, in its various forms.” — What Is Profit? by Will Kenton/Investopedia Updated Nov 13, 2019
News Flash! According to a recent Pew Research Survey, most Republicans and Democrats can’t stand each other and large numbers consider the other side to be closed-minded, immoral, and dumb. This got me to thinking: if you want to better understand what people care about, ask them what they hate. And if you want to know what people hate, read the posted comments on political opinion pieces. So that’s what I did.
A bunch of studies have concluded that effective psychotherapy is almost entirely associated with factors common to all therapies but specific to none (Laska & Gurman (2014), Wampold (2015), Cuijpers, Reijnders, et al. (2019). These common factors include….
Relative to GDP, the federal debt may be nearly twice what it was 30 years ago, but it is costing the feds half as much to service - thanks to low interest rates.
…A much better of indicator of household well-being is the labor market participation rate for individuals between 25-54, which excludes early retirees, most students, and a good portion of the disabled (who skew older). And here the picture looks better…
Per the IPCC, here are a few of the “key uncertainties” (reflecting low or very low confidence) regarding the effects of climate change…Global-scale trends in drought…Changes in tropical cyclone activity…Global-scale trends in cloud cover (as well as cloud-climate feedback effects)…Global-scale ocean sub-surface temperature trends and variability…Global-scale and regional changes in precipitation levels….
Cross-cultural studies have found that people generally agree the needy deserve some sort of help (van Oorschot and Roosma, (2017). Such generosity comes with qualifications, though. For example, individuals “seen as being personally responsible for their neediness are seen as less deserving (if at all)” (van Oorschot and Roosma, (2017). How much control the needy have over their circumstances, and whether these circumstances are so bad that charitable assistance is warranted are additional considerations. In lab studies, young children would not help a distressed child if her distress appears unjustified, such as crying over something trivial. They would only help when the distress seems justified by a clear cause (Tomasello 2019).
Per “Analysis: Global coal power set for record fall in 2019” (Carbon Brief), global electricity production from coal is set to fall by around 3% in 2019, the largest drop on record. The projected drop is due to record falls in developed countries, including Germany, the EU overall, South Korea and the United States.