John Quiggin

@Ernestine Gross

Yes – presumably Robinson Crusoe created growth without GDP measures.

There is a distinction between what GDP measures, and what growth really means.

However if growth is just ‘market transactions’ (market activity) then you can get growth and jobs simply by destroying buildings and then rebuilding exactly the same.

@Freelander

Sure, but the one talking non-sense in this case is in fact a Nobel Prize winner in physics not economics. Although physicist can be said to have not much expertise in the field of AGW, he is a scientist so he should at least be talking in scientific sense. Listen to some of the things he said and you’ll be surpirsed if he is actually a scientist in the first place.

Introducing another Sandpit topic, on Friday and Monday I was in an outer suburb of Brisbane where the local pub has a quite detailed and rather snooty dress code. Further, this code doesn’t just apply to the areas of the pub you’d expect like the lounge or the dining area, but also to the PubTAB and the pokies bar. The pokies bar, in common with such spaces in most Australian pubs, is a rather dimly lit space in which the patrons mostly don’t look at or interact with each other as their eyes and minds are fixed on a machine which is picking their pocket.

This raises the question of what point is served by imposing a strict dress code for the unfortunate inmates of the pokies bar. One theory I’ve come up with is that pub management thinks it would be bad for business and for the possible regulatory environment if people were seen entering and leaving the pokies bar looking as impoverished as many of them no doubt are.

I’ve just peeked at Catallaxy and their Liberty Quote du jour is “A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill” by famous SF writer Robert Heinlein. QED Bring back Birdy at Catallaxy.

@Chris Warren

I don’t think you understood my post(s).