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Ep. 170 Bob Murphy Dissects the “Shopping Cart Theory” Allegedly Blowing Up the Case for Self-Governance

Recently Tim Poole alluded to the so-called “shopping cart theory” of why self-governance is impossible. Specifically, because people can’t even bother to take back the shopping cart when this is clearly the socially right thing to do, we can’t hope to have a system relying on everyone’s good nature. Bob explains what’s wrong with this argument.…

Ep. 168 Bob Murphy Responds to Dave Ramsey Calling IBC a Scam

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey recently called IBC a scam on his popular show. Ramsey alleged that the dividends received from a mutual life insurance company were just deliberate overcharges to make the customer think he was earning a profit, even though it all came out of the customer’s own pocket. Bob sets the record…

Ep. 167 Gad Saad on Mind Viruses, and the Evolutionary Explanation for SJWs

Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing and holds the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He talks with Bob about his new book, The Parasitic Mind, and its relationship to the culture wars. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: The YouTube version of this interview. Gad Saad’s website. Saad’s…

Ep. 166 Explaining Kenneth Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem for Social Choice

First Bob explains his contest involving Adventures in Pacifism–winner gets 100 smackers. Then he explains the incredibly powerful, and surprisingly Austrian, result by which Kenneth Arrow showed it was impossible to coherently aggregate individual preferences into a social ranking. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: The blog post explaining the rules for the…