I have just had my hip replaced, one of approximately 1,500 similar procedures to be performed in Manitoba this year. Aside from the nervousness I experienced since my hips are close to where I normally keep my brains, the experience afforded me an opportunity to reflect on the state of health-care costs. Read the full article … [Read more...] about Health costs rise as tech prices plummet — but why? (Part 1)
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Mad Cow disease holds surprising lessons
The BSE crisis teaches us lessons to this day. For most of us, the year 2003 is of no importance. However, an event occurred then that holds useful lessons in the current political and economic environment. Read the full article … [Read more...] about Mad Cow disease holds surprising lessons
Private MRIs won’t endanger health care
What do pizza joints and MRIs have in common? Read the full article … [Read more...] about Private MRIs won’t endanger health care
The economy of useless things
The robots are coming! The robots are coming! Many social commentators raise alarms about impending technology induced job losses. The vision is dire — professional jobs in accountancy, law and medicine are all on the chopping block in the face of technical change that threatens to turn humanity into couch potatoes on minimum income, binge watching streaming TV. This … [Read more...] about The economy of useless things
Structural approach needed for budgets
This is the season for taxes and brave promises. Taxes are inevitable, but is it not time to ask our finance ministers to stop spinning fairy tales? On the left hand, many see government spending as good and taxes as financing the "essential" services of the modern public sector. On the other hand, those on the right advocate for reduced services and taxes, resulting in a … [Read more...] about Structural approach needed for budgets
Basic income, child benefits best bet to reduce poverty
Poverty — especially child poverty — is pernicious. The latest research reported in Scientific American shows children born into low-income situations experience a range of intellectual deficits compared to their counterparts raised in homes at a higher socioeconomic status (SES). Poverty is also persistent. Children born to a low-SES family start the foot race of … [Read more...] about Basic income, child benefits best bet to reduce poverty
Revisiting Manitoba’s basic-income experiment
There seems to be a persistent misunderstanding and mythology surrounding the Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment — or Mincome, as it came to be known. With the recent publication of a working paper on the Ontario Basic Annual Income and the universal basic income experiment about to begin in Finland, it is time to review Manitoba’s experience with a basic income, also … [Read more...] about Revisiting Manitoba’s basic-income experiment
University teaching methods mired in the past
With the cessation of the recent labour action by the University of Manitoba Faculty Association, it is an opportune time to reflect on why the strike occurred. It is tempting to see this issue in classic Marxist terms, where the workers (faculty with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $140,000 per year) defend their rights against administrators who have been captured by a … [Read more...] about University teaching methods mired in the past
Fallacies in analysing the impact of gas prices
Fallacies in gas price sensitivity Dec 27, 2017 Writing in the Financial Post, Terence Corcoran argues (read original article here) that gas prices have had no impact on the demand for gasoline. He presents the proof positive as the following chart This is a classic example of simultaneous equations bias, which typically occurs when one uses time series data to test a … [Read more...] about Fallacies in analysing the impact of gas prices
Forget rights, focus on obligations
Whenever I go for a walk, my feet each claim credit for any forward momentum. My right foot says it has all the initiative and is the real driver for my progress. It sometimes complains that my left foot just tags along, not doing the heavy lifting. My left foot replies that it plans where we should go and without its direction the right foot would carry me off … [Read more...] about Forget rights, focus on obligations