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Any comment on the teratogenic effects of marijuana consumption? It's surprising that not more research has been done. The effects will should be seen in the 2nd generation offspring of marijuana users, i.e. it should show up in the grand-children of baby-boomers.
Why Marijuana Should be Decriminalized- Becker
Decriminalizing a drug like marijuana means that it no longer is a crime to possess marijuana for personal use, The advantages of decriminalizing marijuana are so numerous and powerful that it is difficult to understand the intense opposition. The movement at the state level of the United States...
@neilehat -- the OSHA standards and Ohio plumbing rules conflict and our engineer thought that the local standard was safer. OSHA surrendered on that one, but it cost some legal feels to make them go away.
Has the United States, by Virtue of Its Size and Complexity, Become Ungovernable?—Posner
There are, especially in Europe and East Asia, and to a limited extent in the Western Hemisphere, small countries that are well governed. But among large, populous countries, there appears to be only one well-governed country: Germany. The United States is the third largest country by land mass ...
Mattnotda -- "enumerated powers" -- only they can't count. I didn't ever think I would become a libertarian until OSHA took a tour of our plant and told us we had to move the eye-wash station 18 inches.
Has the United States, by Virtue of Its Size and Complexity, Become Ungovernable?—Posner
There are, especially in Europe and East Asia, and to a limited extent in the Western Hemisphere, small countries that are well governed. But among large, populous countries, there appears to be only one well-governed country: Germany. The United States is the third largest country by land mass ...
The gerrymandering also prevents "upstarts" from challenging incumbents in their own party, to the point that only incumbents who are ready for the glue factory are primaried.
Slightly OT -- perhaps the best thing which we could do to fix Congress would be to go back to making the State legislative bodies elect Senators. Popular election of Senators has just created an entrenched political class, something Madison warned about.
Should Partisan Gerrymandering Be Outlawed? Posner
The term “gerrymandering” refers to a political tactic that in the United States goes back to the eighteenth century—the tactic of configuring electoral districts to favor the party that does the configuring, or to achieve some other non-neutral political goal: for example, reducing minority rep...
Bravo Dr. Becker.
WRT neilhat -- 15% of the US will always be in comparative poverty. Compared to the US median which is very high relative to other countries.
Capitalism’s Return from the Financial Crisis-Becker
Karl Marx saw every major depression in the nineteenth century as the final crisis of capitalism, due to its “ internal contradictions”, that would usher in the era of socialism and communism. Alas for Marx, each time he was proved wrong because the end of these depressions was often followed by...
Less optimistic on Mexico -- tremendous natural resources, bad internal governance and worse still constitutional system.
What to Do About Immigration, Legal and Illegal? Posner
Becker rightly divides the immigration issue into two parts. One is the criteria for lawful immigration, and specifically whether a potential immigrant’s contribution to the U.S. economy should be eighted heavily. The other is what to do about illegal immigration. I agree that a foreigner’s pot...
It's a red herring -- the White House prefers 1) having a demonizing issue which paints their opponents into a corner than 2) lower unemployment amongst women, teens and minorities.
Logical analysis? -- for the Chicago crowd now transplanted to Washington, it's like the line in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre": "Logic, we don't need no to show you no stinkin' logic".
Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised to $9?—Posner
The President in his State of the Union address last week proposed increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9, and then indexing it by the rate of inflation. The proposal will not commend itself to most economists who study the economic consequences of minimum wages. They make ...
Rules replace trust.
Why I Favor Rules Over Discretion-Becker
Posner shows there is no absolute distinction between rules and discretion (and standards) because most sensible rules allow for discretion in extraordinary cases. Yet there is a difference under less than extraordinary circumstances, and rules are better in the great majority of circumstances wh...
What accounts for 125 Harvard students being censured for cheating on a "Governments" class? I mean, who has to cheat on something which should be hard-wired into the fabric of their existence?
Why Has Competition to Get into Top Colleges Become Much Tougher? Becker
Children in the better secondary schools in Korea, Japan, China, Turkey, and other countries work very hard not only because of considerable school homework, but also through their parents spending considerable sums on private tutoring. In these countries, spending on tutoring is a sizable fracti...
#jim kirby -- kudos -- your point brought up in this morning's (12/26/12) NYTimes.
It's nigh unto impossible for the Federal Government to achieve the personal income tax revenues estimated by the White House for 2015, 2016 and 2017 without broadening the tax base, or increasing the top marginal tax rates to the levels recently imposed in France.
Meanwhile, the White House estimates that debt service costs will exceed defense spending in 2017. That's a wonderful situation to impose upon our children and grand-children. Linked here:http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/hist.pdf
Spending, Taxation, and the Fiscal Cliff-Becker
A front page article today in the New York Times points out that around 1990 the Republican Party shifted away from an emphasis on balancing the federal budget to an emphasis on the level of taxes. I believe that this shift was in the right direction, and it is highly relevant in understanding th...
And Dr. Becker has a series of lectures hosted by University of Chicago, free to all. (Or at least this was the case a few months ago courtesy of a youtube search.) As an alum, I am always intrigued to capture some of the stuff I missed in my youth. It's different 35+ years later, not bothered with the distractions of the draft, job search or impending marriage. A big thanks.
Online Courses and the Future of Higher Education-Becker
Online courses began around 1990 with the growth of more widespread access to the Internet. They spread rapidly in the United States during the last half of the 1990’s buoyed by the dot-com boom, and fell sharply after that bubble burst. During this early period, online courses typically charge...
May want to consult a molecular biologist on this -- but "chance" not luck determines genetic makeup -- while "methylation" of your genes is a mixture of "luck", and processes/environments over which we have some control.
...and on the trading floor, the managing director in charge would say: "I'd rather be lucky than smart." and he certainly proved this in some of his unfortunate life-choices.
Luck and Taxation-Becker
I do not believe that differences in value judgments are the main source of the disagreement among economists over how much to tax individual with different levels of wealth and income. These value judgments include beliefs about how much of high incomes are due to good luck, whether high-inco...
It was easier with nuns, the orders sent the bad ones to darn the altar linens...and I am not kidding.
Good parents make teaching a lot more efficient.
Good and Bad Teachers: How to Tell the Difference-Becker
Although the recent Chicago teachers’ strike of seven school days was their first strike in 25 years, the main disagreement with the city was not over the traditional bread and butter issue of pay and benefits. Rather it was centered on the criteria to be used in evaluating teachers to distinguis...
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Sep 30, 2012
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