I have been predicting for years a new prohibitionism, this time driven from the Left rather than the Right. I see government-provided healthcare used to justify all sorts of micro-behavioral interventions in the name of reducing costs to public spending

pjmedia.com/columns/bryan-…
One small example is motorcycle helmet use, where attempts to mandate helmet use are often justified by arguing that helmet use would decrease public health costs from costly head injuries in motorcycle accidents
I can just see some folks nodding their head and saying, "good, they should mandate that." And the same folks are also likely wanting to ban soda pop, snack foods, and a zillion other things in the name of reducing public health care costs.
In my mind the financial incentive to nanny is an oft-missed cost of government health care. But for those tempted by this argument, I will ask this question: what private activity (eating, smoking, whatever) is the absolutely largest driver of health care costs? My answer is....
...sex. It leads to STD's. Fertility treatments. Abortions. And of course, that single largest category of health care spending under 50 -- pregnancies. Be careful what you wish for when you start banning behaviors that increase health care costs.

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More from @Coyoteblog

3 Nov
I have given up ever seeing the @ACLU defend property rights. But I find their abandonment of the First Amendment over the last several years to be depressing and has caused me to cease my long history of donations to them
Not to mention the fact that our government is shutting down businesses, creating night time curfews, locking people in their home, restricting their movement, invading their privacy w/ testing, collecting personal data in restaurants-- and the @ACLU has not said a word about it Image
Abortion rights supporters (I am one) are super-pious about the sanctity of one's body & privacy, except when they are not. If they really believed what they say, they would be opposing many government COVID interventions on the same grounds they oppose abortion restrictions
Read 4 tweets
3 Nov
I don't do much blogging on climate any more because the conversation has become unproductive and at the end of the day very little changes in our understanding of the key questions (and 99.9% of media writers don't even know what the key questions are)
- People are still extrapolating from tail of the distribution weather events and attempting to use these as evidence of climate change
- People are still claiming trends (eg drought or more hurricanes) that don't actually exist when one looks at the data
- Most scientists still think the actual direct sensitivity of temperatures to CO2 is low
- Most catastrophic warming forecasts are still driven by assumptions of very large net positive feedback effects that multiply small amounts of direct CO2 effect many times
Read 10 tweets
2 Nov
We had an amazing sunset tonight. Cell phone camera does not do it justice but look at the detail of oranges and reds in the clouds. This understates what we saw
#sunset #Phoenix Image
This is, by the way, one of the reasons to live in Phoenix. I have lived many places. I have seen sunsets many places, including on the ocean. But nothing matches Phoenix. The secret sauce, I think, is the megatons of dust we have in the air from the desert plus the low humidity.
This is why it is good to always have a batch of cocktails mixed up in the fridge. "Honey, drop everything and bring the cocktails and let's watch the sunset."
Read 4 tweets
1 Nov
Because formally publishing this would result in an earth-shattering barrage from @UniversalPics lawyers raining down on her head (see exception at end), here is my daughter's full children's book version of Jurassic Park.

Copyright Amelia Meyer, 2020.
Instagram.com/meliameyer Image
Image
Image
Read 14 tweets
23 Oct
The "jobs saved or created" stats in the media are totally abused. When they like an industry, the number has everyone who even tangentially touches it, with multipliers added (eg sports teams). When they don't like it, they use the narrowest possible definition
My guess is if these same folks talk about "green energy", suddenly wind and solar will employ millions based on a far more expansive definition. The sugar industry is a master of this defending their tariffs. Personally I ignore any jobs saved or lost number I see in the media
I wrote this in response to Matt Ygglesias, but this is a bipartisan game. I can't even remember the name of that pipeline that was being blocked, but defenders said it would create some absurd number of jobs.
Read 5 tweets
22 Oct
I am still flabbergasted that under GAAP accounting $tsla is not required to show the value of its accumulated regulation credits on the balance sheet. Selling this asset is 100% responsible for its GAAP profit but the asset doesn't have to be booked as even existing until sale?
If these credits are driving their profit, then investors need to see how many are acquired each quarter, how many are sold, and how many remain on the balance sheet for future sale.
In response to commenters, do not have to be on the balance sheet to account for the sale. They can book the sales as debit cash, credit revenue just like a no COGS service sale. Or they can pass them through the balance sheet only at moment of sale
Read 4 tweets

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