It is amazing how much Krugman can get wrong in one tiny retweet.
First, as far as I am concerned Epstein is far from a libertarian and he doesn't come close to my perspective on libertarianism.
But second, I made clear right after Epstein put up his essay that he made a serious error, A Serious Problem With Richard Epstein's Optimistic Case On the Spread of COVID-19. So this is in no way a "libertarian error."
That said, I still rank Epstein higher on the intellectual scale than Krugman.
I have never seen him reach out to distort opinions and movements the way Krugman does.
-RW
Does Krugman even attempt to be anything other than a moronic asshole (excuse my language)? Leaving aside any issues that there might be with the validity and reliability of the deaths attirbutable to coronavirus, why does Krugman think that Epstein needs to apologize for being incorrect, if indeed he is? What exactly is he supposed to apologize for? At most he would have to acknowledge he got it wrong--which, to any normal human being is not the same thing as apologizing. Furthermore, are libertarians never allowed to be wrong? If one libertarain is wrong about something, what does this have to do with the idea that all librrtarians think they never have to apologize about something, assuming there is anything to apologize for?
ReplyDeleteWhen have we heard Krugman say anything about his insanely wrong dumb fuck predictions? Being a communist means you can't be wrong because you'll just argue your own counter factual
DeleteRW - great perspective on these two. Although I wouldn't trust forecasts from either one. As I've said before statistics is the wrong tool when evaluating the impact viruses have on humans. Because viruses are interacting with human immune systems and both are changing and adjusting there is no way to obtain accurate data on the number of people infected vs. the number of illnesses (not to mention their level of severity) vs. the number of human deaths actually caused by a particular virus. And lets not even discuss the problem of time. The press recently reported that deaths from coronavirus have exceeded 500 in the U.S. There is no logical way they or anybody else could know this. Just because someone was infected by the virus at the time of their death doesn't mean that was the cause of death. Anecdotally, the numbers published by various organizations on previous virus outbreaks remain vague or wide ranging years after the outbreak. Because its not possible to be more accurate. Mathematics is not helpful.
ReplyDeleteHowever, viruses have been around for thousands of years and humans have a great deal of experience with them. Our experience tells us that most healthy humans do not have to fear death from viruses. And the best defense is wash hands, cover mouth when coughing and stay home when you feel sick or if you wish to avoid those you believe to be sick. No government interference necessary.
As a matter of fact, it is not clear at all that 500 people in US have died from coronavirus. Not at all. What is known is that in 500 people who died coronavirus has been detected. (As a thought experiment, imagine a widespread - 100% are infected but totally harmless virus. Every dead person tests positive for it. 100% mortaility!!!!!! RUN LIKE HEADLESS CHICKEN!!!!!!! Meanwhile, in reality the virus is absolutely harmless.)
ReplyDeleteAmerica is being destroyed by people who never learned basic math and logic.