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We have already had a Samizdata quote of the day, but I cannot really put this one off until tomorrow
I especially regret not having been called upon to answer Duncan Weldon’s claim that Hayekian’s are like dentists who have nothing to offer someone who is suffering from a rotten tooth. I might then have been tempted to point out, first of all, that it was pretty cheeky for a British proponent of greater government intervention to be bringing up dentistry.
– Professor George Selgin, discussing his preparation for the LSE Keynes versus Hayek debate, which is being broadcast on BBC Radio Four in half an hour’s time.
Update: The BBC has now put the debate on the internet, which can be listened to here. I am not sure if it can be listened to from outside the UK, as the BBC insist on their annoying iplayer crap rather than just posting an mp3.
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Perhaps what appeals to Keynesians about dentistry is that it quite often involves digging holes, and then filling them in.
The BBC debate is audible here in Hawaii.
A good point by George S.
Many thanks for drawing attention to it Mr Jennings.
The mp3 download is available on their Podcast servers……
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/analysis/analysis_20110803-2040a.mp3
Enjoy………
Brian: and these days they are not filling them with gold or silver either.
Re the iPlayer syndrome, I too find that annoying. I am glad that it didn’t apply in this particular case, and that an mp3 could be downloaded by anyone wanting a permanent souvenir of the event. Or just wanting to know exactly what was broadcast, e.g. in order to criticise it, and wanting to get it right.
A permanent mp3 that everyone can access fundamentally improves the nature and usefulness of events of this sort. Without a permanent mp3 it is aural chip wrapping. With it, it is On The Record.
Michael, next time we meet, I would appreciate a tutorial about iPlayer, so that my prejudices about it can be confirmed, deepened, modified, whatever.
I rather suspect the BBC iplayer is about how in a decade or so they will be justifying applying the telly tax to internet connections.
The Beeb can see the writing on the wall, I’m sure.
The whole story of iPlayer is a very long story, in truth. It started out as a very expensive debacle and ultimately became something at least vaguely useful.
The BBC has been very, very good at using the existence of the internet and new media as an excuse for expanding itself and justifying a higher licence fee, rather than the other way round. This has got even worse under the Cameron government than it was under Labour, oddly enough. (I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the sorts of people who run the top of the BBC knew the sorts of people who hang around Cameron at Eton and Oxford, possibly. Maybe some of them are even the same people).
Various companies are already welcoming the government’s “deregulation” efforts for “as in Europe” they hope these plans will include a tax on machines – to “compenstate” the companies for people downloading their stuff.
Of course people would have to pay the tax whether they download the stuff or not.
The BBC will want to get get in on this – say “well the private companies get money from a tax on equipment….”