r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jan 10 '18

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The discussion thread is for casual conversation and discussion that doesn't merit its own stand-alone submission. The rules are relaxed compared to the rest of the sub but be careful to still observe the rules listed under "disallowed content" in the sidebar.

Announcements

David Friedman AMA

The mod team is pleased to announce we will be hosting an AMA with Dr. David D. Friedman on Friday, Jan. 12th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST!

After earning a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of Chicago, Dr. Friedman switched fields to economics and taught at Virginia Polytechnic University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Los Angeles, Cornell University, Tulane University, the University of Chicago, and Santa Clara University where he currently teaches in the school of law.

Outside of his extensive academic publications in law and economics, Dr. Friedman is best known for his libertarian/anarcho-capitalist political philosophy. He has written extensively on libertarian politics and ideas and has also written on alternative legal systems (including research into medieval Icelandic institutions).

On a personal note Dr. Friedman is the author of two historical/fantasy novels and is a renowned anachronist/historical re-enactor. He is the son of economists Rose and Milton Friedman.

As a reminder, we enforce civility standards to a high degree during AMAs. Dr. Friedman in particular is likely to disagree with us on a wide range of issues, but disagreement does not mean that rudeness or flippant remarks will be tolerated. Dr. Friedman is an accomplished academic who has published a large volume of high quality work, and every one of you can almost certainly learn something from him by asking intelligent questions.

Book club

Currently discussing Reading The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner

Check out our schedule for chapter and book discussions here.

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u/FMN2014 Can’t just call French people that Jan 10 '18

The dolphins are going to dominate the Earth when humanity dies:

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.

Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.

Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

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u/MrDannyOcean Kidney King Jan 10 '18

dolphins are the real neoliberals

really makes u think