The Unions – A dinosaur refusing to die
- Category: Socialism
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There is an interesting article published today in the Canadian newspaper The Star about unions. It would seem that after a merger, a super-union called Unifor representing 300.000 workers was created. A true dinosaur refusing to die.
The article goes on stressing a large number of nonsensical half-truths which us, as Austro-Libertarians, feel our duty to comment and dispel.
After a decline, the rate of unionization has stabilized. A study…
Japan rewinds back to 1980 – expect a new economic meltdown
- Category: Asia
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We all remember the economic Japanese boom of the 1980’s. Japan could do no wrong. But then, in the 1990’s it became perfectly clear that the previous boom was created by exceptionally low interest rates. The reasons for those levels are debatable but ultimately, irrelevant. It was the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) decision.
As a consequence of this, asset prices (particularly properties) skyrocketed. This created a huge speculative bubble which…
Lesson #014 - Political Theories and Systems - what they are and how they work
- Category: Lessons
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What is a Political Theory?
Contrary to what politicians may want to you to believe, a Political Theory is not actually a Theory but a Hypothesis. In other words, it is an unproven idea or model as to how a system of government should work.
Why is it an unproven idea and why will always remain so?
If you remember our lesson What Is Science And How It Works (Definition…
Lesson #013 - What is science and how it works – Part 5 - Science is Internally-Consistent
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Science is an internally-consistent system
That’s a mouthful, but what do we mean by internally-consistent?
To answer that question we need to look at how a scientific discipline is actually built.
Any scientific discipline begins with a small number of concepts that cannot be proven and are accepted as true. They are called axioms.
For example in Mathematics, they are:
- Reflexive: a=a therefore a=a (things are equal to each other)…
Freedom of disinformation – worth fighting for - Part 3
- Category: Freedom of Speech
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Federal Prosecutor. Designated by the Executive power and supposed to be neutral, declared herself against the newspaper group facing the biggest loss. According to her, this group grew violating human rights, acting as an oligopoly of the written press during the time of the State sponsored terrorism. She also added that over time this group obtained judicial exceptions against current laws due to the lobbying power exercised through its concentration…
Lesson #012 - What is science and how it works – Part 4 - Science is Self-Correcting
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What do we mean when we say self-correcting?
We mean that the role of scientists (and their carer advancement) depend on creating new scientific models. The easiest way to do so, is to find the mistakes in the existing ones, correct them and create an improved model.
This means that science has a built-in mechanism to detect and correct errors. This mechanism is independent from any external factors such as…
Freedom of disinformation – worth fighting for - Part 2
- Category: Freedom of Speech
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On the corporation’s side we find four speakers.
Clarin’s lawyer (a newspaper). He believes that the law is redundant because an anti-monopoly law regulating all market areas already exists.
Translation: we don’t want more regulation because it limits us. Besides, more regulation means more paperwork which translates in higher expenses, this is, lower profits.
Comments: it is obvious that the existing anti-monopoly law is a paper tiger. It has no teeth…
Lesson #011 - What is science and how it works – Part 3 - Scientific Truth or Fact
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You may have heard expressions that have the word “scientific” behind them. Because of this, most people assume that they are the same as saying “truth” or “fact”.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. As we have seen before, science creates models that describe portions of our reality. Then, we attempt to verify those models using measurements. If the measurements coincide with the forecast from the model, then…
Freedom of disinformation – worth fighting for - Part 1
- Category: Freedom of Speech
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Today an interesting article was published by the Spanish newspaper El Pais about the new broadcasting media law in Argentina. It would seem that the Supreme Court was handed a burning coal and it’s eager to pass it on. That’s the problem. The solution? Call for a public debate. Nice, when in trouble shift the blame to somebody else.
The excuse? The Supreme Court must decide “a case of national transcendence,…
