VINDICA

Only four years ago, there was talk of Republicans forming a permanent majority. Now there is talk of them being the minority for the next generation . Apparently, a generation is about 4 years long.

A wonderful article on the Edge . Like most articles there, it is difficult to explain concisely, but the author basically starts from different premises when compared to traditional Economists. The author contends that traditional Economic theory considers humans to be infinitely wise and with no self control problems. However, real humans are driven my emotions as well as logic, and have serious issues with self control. In order to take this into consideration and use it for welfare of the society, the author advocates "Libertarian Paternalism". The Libertarian part involves making sure freedom of choice always exists. The Paternalism part involves nudging individuals towards behavior that is helpful to society. A great (and extremely funny) example of "nudging" people to do the right thing by changing a small thing in the environment is an example of a German Airport urinal, where they have a fake fly baked into the urinal. They notice that people aim at th

At the end of the 2004 US presidential elections, it was clear the Bush had won the popular vote. However, there was still a chance that an extended recount in Ohio could pull in the election for Kerry. At Vindica, I had spoken that it was unfair for Kerry to call for a recount given how much the Democrats had moralized about Bush winning the election without a popular vote in 2000. Commenting the Kerry should concede the election, I also mentioned that the talk of a permanent majority for the Republicans was clearly not borne out by the nuances that the election results threw up. It was clear that the party had lost the middle ground and the long term prognosis for its base was not good. Based on these assumptions, I commented that 2004 may represent the "high water mark" of the Reagan style Republicanism. I was tempted to call victory in 2006, but refrained because I felt the tide had not turned completely. However, now with the decisive victory of Barack Obama, that da