Lecturas 15.11.2012

Good Ship Zong: The Most Macabre Insurance Claim In History, by Giles Milton.

This was brushed aside by Lord Mansfield ‘What is this claim that human people have been thrown overboard?’ he said. ‘This is a case of chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse these well-serving honorable men of murder.’ It was one of the darkest days for British judicial system. And it would be another two decades before Great Britain finally abolished the slave trade.

El antiliberalismo por interés, por Fernando Parrilla.

Y esto nos lleva a la pregunta de siempre. ¿Es necesario endulzar el liberalismo para que pueda llegar a toda gente sin espantarla? 

Mi opinión es que no. No hay manera humana de aplicar la lógica para contentar a todo el mundo. Ni siquiera para que contente a la mayoría. La lógica se aplica y punto. Si la mayoría se niega a aplicarla cuando le desfavorece habrá que aprender a convivir con ello.

The Principle of Incomplete Knowledge

As a more general argument, one might note that models must be simpler than the phenomena they are supposed to model. Otherwise, variation and selection processes would take as much time in the model as in the real world, and no anticipation would be possible, precluding any control. Finally, models are constructed by blind variation processes, and, hence, cannot be expected to reach any form of complete representation of an infinitely complex environment.

Ganó a Sandy, por Arcadi Espada.

Sin embargo, al margen del debate, lo interesante es comprobar hasta qué punto la potencia de una voluntad se asocia a la destrucción. Es más sencillo para un hombre (Franco, Hitler) destruir la democracia que mejorarla lenta y laboriosamente.

Mark Thoma on price gouging, by Michael Giberson.

Yes, maybe people would have their fairness-feelings hurt if prices rose in disaster-struck areas, but just maybe the efficiency gains (i.e., harm more effectively reduced in disaster-struck areas) are worth bruising a few feelings.