Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 7

As Bitter As It Is Illuminating

: Why did they pick you? Because you like to fight?

: I’m expendable.

: What mean expendable?

: It’s like someone invites you to a party and you don’t show up. It doesn’t really matter.

—Rambo: First Blood, Part II

“Leave no man behind.”  This slogan is the peak of military romanticism.  No matter how much you suffer for the cause, you are never alone.  You belong to an unbreakable brotherhood of blood.

“I’m expendable.”  This admission is the peak of military realism.  You’re ...

The Card Consensus

My Ph.D. Micro teacher, David Card, won the Nobel Prize last week.  My best-known piece on Card examines the tension between his research on the minimum wage and his research on immigration.  My most extensive discussion of his work and intellectual influence, however, appears in Chapter 3 of The Case Against Education.  Here’s the excerpt.  Enjoy!

Labor Economists Versus Ability Bias

Labor economists aren’t merely attuned to the possibility of ability bias.  They’ve long felt a professional re...

Hungarian Events

1. Tomorrow, October 19, I’m virtually visiting Hungary to debate immigration with Balázs Orbán and András Kováts.  Airing live at 11 AM ET, 5 PM Hungarian time.  Here’s Orbán’s (not that Orbán, but they do work together) take on Facebook:

2. October 28, I’m physically visiting the University Chicago to discuss education with Agnes Callard – who also turns out to be… Hungarian!  From this biographical interview:

I was born in Budapest, Hungary and left there with my parents (illegally) at the a...

CPI Bias vs. the Penn Effect

How much richer is the First World than the Third?  If you simply compare nominal GDP per capita, the ratio is staggering.  By this measure, Americans are over twenty times richer than Haitians.  The standard view in macro, however, holds that these ratios are overstated.  Largely due to non-traded goods, the cost of living is higher in rich countries.  To properly compare the First World to the Third, this argument goes, one must do a Purchasing Power Parity adjustment.  When you do so, the rat...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value Book Club Round-Up

The latest Huemer Book Club has been a long and storied journey.  Here’s the full set of entries.

Announcement #1

Announcement #2

Part 1

Caplan Replies on Part 1

Huemer Replies on Part 1

Part 2

Caplan Replies on Part 2

Huemer Replies on Part 2

Part 3

Caplan Replies on Part 3

Huemer Replies on Part 3

Part 4

Caplan Replies on Part 4

Huemer Replies on Part 4

Part 5

Caplan Replies on Part 5

Huemer Replies on Part 5

My Rejoinder to Huemer, Part 1

My Rejoinder to Huemer, Part 2

Huemer’s Last Word, Par...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value Book Club: Huemer’s Last Word, Part 2

Here’s Part 2 of Huemer’s final word on our recent Book Club.

9) On consent and my paradox for moderate deontology:

BC:      How is this different from a person who foolishly refuses to consent to a vaccination, even though he admits that the benefit of the vaccine greatly exceeds the pain of the needle? As you explain in The Problem of Political Authority, we have no right to benefit him given his explicit refusal to consent.

I’m on board with the idea that it’s wrong to harm one person withou...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value Book Club: Huemer’s Last Word, Part 1

Here’s Part 1 of Huemer’s last word on Knowledge, Reality, and Value.

Many thanks to Bryan Caplan for the extensive, thoughtful, and interesting discussions over the course of this Book Club. Thanks also to all the readers who contributed their thoughts. I found the discussion very high quality and serious.

Bryan’s comments below, preceded by “BC”, followed by my replies.

1) On consequentialism vs. deontology in the history of ethics:

BC:      Why doesn’t the Ring of Gyges thought experiment co...

Social Desirability Bias vs. Punishment

I break unjust laws all the time.  Though I’m proud of my law-breaking, I don’t claim to be especially courageous.  News flash: I’d rather live on my knees than die on my feet.  After all, I’ve got a lot to live for.

Why then do I choose to be a righteous scofflaw?  Because the expected punishment for breaking the kinds of laws I break is very low. Government enforcement is rare, and even if I get caught, the sanction will probably be mild.

Which raises a puzzling question: Why are so many laws ...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value: Rejoinder to Huemer, Part 2

At long last, here’s my final entry!

Rejoinder to Huemer’s Response, Part 4

Suppose A does not consent. A wants you to perform only the action that benefits him while harming B; he won’t consent to the action that harms him while benefitting B (not even conditional on your doing the other action simultaneously). Now what? It looks to me like we still have the original problem.

How is this different from a person who foolishly refuses to consent to a vaccination, even though he admits that the be...

Teaching Paranoia: An Open Letter to Every University President

Dear University Presidents:

We all know that higher education falls far short of its promise.  I’ve spent a large part of my twenty five years as a research professor documenting the shortcomings of our system.  Perhaps you’re even familiar with my The Case Against Education (Princeton University Press, 2018).  In recent years, however, we’ve begun failing our students in new and improved ways.  In the past, we failed to transform our students into thoughtful and knowledgeable adults, but at lea...