Jim's Blog

For tasks requiring intelligence and independent judgement, for the kind of job where one would ordinarily employ a contractor or high level free employee, slave owners generally gave one of their best slaves an incentive environment approximating that of a high level free employee, where the slave had a future career path, the opportunity to save and invest, to own money and buy assets, including buying other slaves, indicating that slavery does not work to get such tasks done – hence the failure of the Soviet Union.

However for many tasks, tasks suitable to stupid people, tasks for bad people, tasks where you want people to reliably do as they are told rather than make good decisions, the sort of tasks that most black people are suitable for, slavery was markedly more productive and efficient than free labor, with the slave producing more value for himself and his owner with less labor, than he did when freed.

When the slaves were freed, they became for the most part, considerably worse off economically, having to work harder and getting less to eat.

My! dem was good ol’ days.

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Twarn’t long atter dat dey tell us we’se free. But lawdy, Cap’n, we ain’t nebber been what I calls free. ‘Cose ole marster didn’ own us no mo’, an’ all de folks soon scatter all ober, but iffen dey all lak me day still hafter wuk jes’ as hard, an some times hab less dan we useter hab when we stay on Marster John’s plantation.

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Freedom is all right, but de niggers was better off befo’ surrender, kaze den dey was looked after an’ dey didn’ get in no trouble fightin’ an’ killin’ like dey do dese days. If a nigger cut up an’ got sassy in slavery times, his Ole Marse give him a good whippin’ an’ he went way back an’ set down an’ ‘haved hese’f. If he was sick, Marse an’ Mistis looked after him, an’ if he needed store medicine, it was bought an’ give to him; he didn’ have to pay nothin’. Dey didn’ even have to think ’bout clothes nor nothin’ like dat, dey was wove an’ made an’ give to dem. Maybe everybody’s Marse and Mistis wuzn’ good as Marse George and Mis’ Betsy, but dey was de same as a mammy an’ pappy to us niggers.

Source: American Slave: North Carolina Narratives14 (1): 284-290. (more…)

Moldbugs liquidation would be a Pareto improvement on the present government. Large numbers of people would be made better off, and no one would be made worse off.

Once upon a time there was a man who was infested with parasites, that were gnawing his flesh and relieving themselves in his blood.  The man said to the parasites:

Why don’t you come out of me, and I will serve you a wonderful four course meal with wine and cheese, and we will all be better off and no one will be worse off.  It will be a Pareto improvement.

To which the parasites replied:

The moment we come out, you will wrap us up in newspaper, and cast us onto the fire. (more…)

Conservatives are fleeing the evil witch and horrible heretic Jason Richwine.

Richwine pointed out what everyone knows, but no one can say: That mestizos are genetically low intelligence, and that importing a low intelligence underclass will cost Americans a lot of money, and that this underclass, even if, unlike blacks, they really want to assimilate, can never assimilate, and will forever resent their failure to assimilate, forever blaming it on racism.

Richwine’s estimates were, however, very much on the low side. He only considered the costs of a genetically low IQ underclass that sucks up welfare and fails to pay taxes. He ignored Smart Fraction Theory. (more…)

Byran Caplan assures us that progressives have the easy painless cure for unemployment, but somehow, due the pernicious influence of cruel heartless free marketers who just do not care about the unemployed, the government is just too right wing to apply the magic.

The magic cure is, of course, to print more money. If it has not worked yet, obviously that proves we have not printed enough. Whosoever doubts this obviously does not care about the unemployed as deeply as Bryan Caplan cares.

Every time Keynesianism fails, they say is evidence it was not done hard enough.

In Japan, they decided that this time they really would do it hard enough.  And it worked.

Rapid inflation ensued.  Employment and production did not. (more…)

A major part of Kermit Gosnell’s business was late term abortions.  The usual way to do a late term abortion is to induce childbirth, and then, as the baby’s head comes down the tubes, jab a steel straw into its head and suck out its brains with a powerful vacuum.  This collapses the head, making the rest of the birth easy.  However, because Gosnell was doing an abortion mill, doing as many abortions as possible as cheaply as possible with the least possible skilled labor, he generally left his patients unattended, so they would frequently pop out a living, healthy, screaming baby before Gosnell got around to looking in on them.  So instead of killing the baby five minutes before birth, he would kill the baby five minutes after birth. There is much shock and horror about this ten minute delay.

Notice I have categorized this post under economics, not politics. I am not among those horridly outraged by this ten minute delay. (more…)