Why a “fixed tax” or “equal tax” might be better than the income tax

What I am calling a“fixed tax” is simply charging every citizen and resident, who enjoys the benefits of living in the country, the same amount each year, say somewhere in the range of 0 to 5,000 dollars. (This…

Are Interest Rates Determined by Time Preference?

Time preference is your desire to sacrifice money now, for more in the future, or vice versa. Presumably, this determines interest rates— some people…

Constraints and Objectives: Complementary Aspects Of Choice

Constraints and objectives are the two complementary aspects of choice rationalization.

The Paradox of Need

Needs are absolute requirements for survival, thus they should be the highest priority. But often, they are considered an inconvenience. Instead of addressing our needs head on, we sometimes neglect them until we have no other choice. This might be driven by ego, delusion, laziness, or even…

The Mental Hurdles of Thinking Abstractly

I promised to write about category theory, not that anyone would care, but I want to follow through.

I’m still trying to learn it, so bear with me.

3 Essays from my Ethics Class

Last fall I took an Ethics and Values class. I wanted to share some of the essays I wrote in that class, because they are relevant to the ideas I discuss here on medium.

Unfortunately, I got a ‘D’ in the class. I suppose it’s because I’m not a very…

The Pizza Theory of Fiat Money

To Really Understand Fiat, You Must Learn Fractions

Understanding Equity

This post will focus on equity, identifying what qualifies financial assets as equity, and the strengths and weaknesses of equity as a financial tool.

Compared to trying to analyze “money”, which can mean different things to different people in different contexts…

Supply and Demand: The Problem With “Them Curves”

“Supply and Demand” has ruined “economics” with bad concepts. We must leave aside the math until we fix our philosophy. Then we can use accounting and…

Efficient, Expedient, Essential

Economics talks about efficiency a lot. Efficiency is easy to define mathematically. If there are two ways of performing a task, the more efficient one uses fewer resources, whether time, labor, or materials.