Thursday, May 02, 2019

Judith not good at analogies (when it suits her)

Whenever The Australian or AFR run articles by the likes of Judith Sloan or Alan Moran on climate change economics, they should (but don't) put a large rider in bold "READERS SHOULD KNOW:  THIS ECONOMIST DOES NOT BELIEVE CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL OR NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED IN ANY MANNER AT ALL.".  Because, of course, if your analysis is springing from  that fundamental belief, there is no reason to trust its objectivity at all.

So I see today that Sloan's column in The Australian on the modelled costs of Labor's climate plan is able to be accessed.  

To be honest, much of her account of the uncertainties is pretty well aligned  with what I heard on Radio National this morning - she could have put more effort into poohing-poohing Labor's policy than she did.   Is this a sign of a crack in her noggin that is letting in light that action is going to happen and she had better start sounding like she hasn't always been a flat earth climate change denier when talking about policy responses?

But my main reason for posting about this:  she claims to be completely puzzled by Bill Shorten's "fat person eating 10 big macs" analogy.  It's not perfect, but the point is clear enough:  the fat person [Australia] can't just continue with the easy and fast fix for hunger [energy needs] by eating fast food all the time [building coal power stations], because we all know that in the long run it will hurt/kill them [climate change effects].   They  have to put the effort in to get a better diet [clean energy and reducing all emissions] even if a good meal costs more than a Big Mac [that's where the analogy starts to go off road - although if the only choice were restaurants, it might work.]

She's just being deliberately obtuse in saying she doesn't understand it.

5 comments:

  1. obtuse is a good word.

    I was in the car with my youngest son hearing Shorten's analogy and he hates Shorten ans he understood instantly as did I.

    compare and contrast Fisher's absurd conclusions with Garnaut's thoughts which I had yesterday. $30 V $130 forecast is very stark

    Denialists will not admit solar PV is now cheaper than old coal and Wind is almost on par. both renewables costs are still falling. Coal's is not.

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  2. Why does he hate Shorten? As I have said before, I don't quite get the personal animosity some people have towards him.

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  3. He just does not like him. Who knows

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  4. Just strikes me as an average politician - not especially charming, not especially offensive.

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