Devin Helton

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Most Recent Posts

Dec 13, 2017
Introducing Left-Versus-Right Book and Article Pairings
Break out of your filter bubble and read up on both sides of the issues.
Nov 29, 2017
What caused the dramatic rise of crime and blight in American cities from 1950 to 2000?
How I came to believe that the current consensus of academia has the explanation backward.
Apr 15, 2017
How many jobs really require college?
We send too many people to college and high school -- by factor of five

Featured Posts, By Topic

Education & Academia

Do jobs that require college, really require college?
The greatest architects and lawyers of the 19th century had little schooling. So why do young adults today need nineteen years of sitting in a classroom before they can work?
How many jobs really require college?
We send too many people to college and high school -- by factor of five

Economics

The Rent-seeking Epidemic
America risks following the path of late Rome: Fortunes no longer arise from creating new wealth, but via exploiting privileged relations with the state.
The Economic Classes and their Respective Plights
The underclass degenerates. The plebs get squeezed. The rat-racers run to stand still. The rentiers thrive.
Day Dreaming of a Living Wage Grand Compromise
A living-wage job for everyone, with no increased taxes. Here's how to do it.
GDP and CPI: Broken beyond repair
The Gross Domestic Product and Consumer Price Index numbers are a hodgepodge of subjective judgements. The numbers are worthless for virtually all use cases.
Stop citing statistical indicators that you do not understand
Today, I condemn two additional economic indicators: manufacturing output indices and productivity indices.
Inequality, Bargaining Power, and Startups
Do startup founders acquire riches by creating wealth? Or by winning zero-sum games? A response to Paul Graham.
Why the National Debt is the Wrong Problem to Care About
Because the dollar is a fiat currency, and the national debt is denominated fully in a currency the government controls, the "debt" is not really debt.
The Misunderstood Laffer Curve
Nominal tax revenue does not matter. Growth of purchasing power is what matters.

Race, the Underclass, and the American City

What caused the dramatic rise of crime and blight in American cities from 1950 to 2000?
How I came to believe that the current consensus of academia has the explanation backward.
Does Inequality Cause (or Reduce) Crime? Does Poverty Cause Crime? Does investing in education reduce crime? What does reduce crime?
An investigation into the causes and cures for crime.
The Decline and Fall of West Philadelphia
Excerpts from "Philly War Zone: Growing Up in a Racial Battleground" -- a story of white-flight during the 1970s.
The Other Side of the Drug Crime Incarceration Debate
Is there too much enforcement, or too little? Are those jailed for drugs harmless users, or menaces to their community?
The Black Panthers in Dorchester: A Forgotten History
Is it unfair to compare the Black Panthers to the KKK? Not if you look at their history.
"Offense-bullying" Part II: The Origins of the Ferguson Riots
Is anger is automatically triggered by the nature of an offense, or is anger a result of conditioning? Is anger uncontrollable or can it be suppressed?
The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Urban Studies and its Consequences
We are already far down the slipperly slope. The narrowing of acceptable discourse has already had devastating real world consequences.
Desegregation, Busing in Boston, and Bad History
The standard civil rights narrative about integration in Boston is badly flawed.

Democracy & Political Philosophy

Conspiracy Theories, Meme Theories, and Bureaucracy Theories
Conspiracy theories are usually false. But the same theory rewritten as a bureaucracy theory is often true.
Democracy versus Autocracy: A False Dichotomy
American ideology divides the world into democracies and authoritarian regimes. This distinction is not based on reason or reality, but based on classic us-versus-them ideological thinking.
The U.S. in Afghanistan: A Fractally Stupid War
America fought a war for 14 years, all the while binding herself with conditions and goals that made the war impossible to win.
How to identify and quash 'offense-bullying'
The movement to purge offensive language has gone into overdrive. But who defines what is offensive?
Heltonian Formalism: A political philosophy for better government
Formalism is not a political ideology, but rather a collection of practical wisdom, gleaned from the study of past and present polities.

Remaining Posts, By Date

Dec 13, 2017
Introducing Left-Versus-Right Book and Article Pairings
Break out of your filter bubble and read up on both sides of the issues.
Aug 31, 2016
Introducing Counter Search: A Search Engine for Counter-Zeitgeist Thought
Here is my challenge to intellectually curious progressives: for six months integrate Counter Search into your reading habits.
Jun 10, 2016
What is the real definition of "racism"?
Once intended to name-and-shame those who foster tribal hatreds, the word racism has itself become a hate-word in the right-versus-left tribal war.
Apr 7, 2016
Day Dreaming of a Living Wage Grand Compromise
A living-wage job for everyone, with no increased taxes. Here's how to do it.
Nov 12, 2015
Worthy Books: A Reading List
A collection of books that helped broaden my own perspective beyond the mainstream zeitgeist
Apr 21, 2015
Why are interest rates so low? Are rates artificially low?
The Fed cannot raise nominal interest rates, because the rates have been too low, for too long. Raising the rates will be like quitting heroin.
Dec 20, 2011
Europe's Wile E. Coyote Moment
Europe cloned the banking system of a unified nation, and mistakenly applied it to a confederation of sovereign states.
Aug 4, 2011
How to Legalize Drugs Without Creating More Social Pathology
Drugs should be just legal enough to avoid generating a black market.
Jul 26, 2011
Europe and the Europeans
Barzini was on the ground in Europe during its most tumultuous years.
Apr 3, 2011
What is a state? Is Statelessness a Viable Alternative?
Sorting out muddled thinking about of the nature of states, refuting anarchism, condemning the Orwellian use of the words "public" and "private."
Nov 11, 2010
Assorted Thoughts on the Economy
Economic analysis and predictions from 2010.
Nov 6, 2010
How to Reform the Banking System
Good reform should prevent systematic meltdowns, while allowing for bottom-up decision making about who gets credit.
Oct 23, 2010
Tocqueville on the Revolution of 1848
Tocqueville writes: I cannot remember ever feeling my soul so full of sadness. It was the second revolution I had seen accomplish itself, before my eyes, within seventeen years!
Jun 17, 2010
The Race Between Education and Technology - A Review
This book epitomizes everything that is wrong with social science.
Mar 26, 2010
Stefan Zweig on the Rise of Democracy in Europe
Zweig writes: I never loved that old earth more than in those last years before the First World War.
Sep 27, 2008
Top 10 Articles About the Financial Crisis
A list of links collected in 2008 about the crisis of that year.