Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• The Trashy Secret of Plastic Bag Bans

  Skeptoid Podcast

  • Myth #1: Plastic carryout bags contribute to ocean plastics
  • Myth #2: Bans decrease the amount of disposable plastic leaving the supermarket
  • Myth #3: Plastic bags are worse for the environment than other options

  And so the final conclusion on the subject of plastic bag bans is that the best solution - supported by climate science, ecology, economic theory, and proven by experimentation - is to continue to allow lightweight single-use bags to be provided for a fee by retail merchants, and to encourage shoppers to reuse durable reusable plastic bags.

Also for more information see: Pros and Cons of the Plastic Bag Ban Debate and
Plastic Bag Bans and the Coronavirus - How Are They Related?


• Capuchin monkeys reject unequal pay

  Old but still hilarious video illustrating the case for fairness and why inequality is a problem.

• Crony Capitalism & the Case for Labor Unions

  The process by which business seeks government intervention to sustain long-term economic profit is called "rent seeking." The outcome of successful rent seeking is "crony capitalism," that is, when the government intervenes on behalf of business to allow it to sustain economic profit.
  ...
  The existence of crony capitalism is not an all-or-nothing affair. Crony capitalism can exist alongside a robust competitive sector. This is called a "dual economy." In the crony sector economic profits exist; in the competitive sector economic profits do not exist. In the competitive sector putative economic profits get dissipated to everyone through lower prices. In the crony sector, business owners are able to keep economic profits for themselves.
  ...
  Given what exists today, and what has existed for the last century in the U.S., the probability of successfully forming a political coalition that would systematically root out crony capitalism in the U.S. political system is close to zero. On the other hand, successful political coalitions supporting labor unions existed in the past, and continue today (albeit in a weakened form).

• Wall Street Can’t Burn Bernie

  Jeffrey D. Sachs

  America's plutocrats and their media allies are certain that US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is unelectable, or that, if somehow elected, he would bring about the collapse of the republic. This disdain is both telling and absurd.
  ...
  In Europe, Sanders would be a mainstream social democrat. He wants to restore some basic decency to American life: universal publicly financed health care; above-poverty wages for full-time workers, along with basic benefits such as family leave for infants and paid leave for illness; college education that does not drive young adults into lifelong debt; elections that billionaires cannot buy; and public policy determined by public opinion, not corporate lobbying (which reached $3.47 billion in the United States in 2019).

• Gmail: Swinging the Vote?

  Google's black box algorithm controls which political emails land in your main inbox. For 2020 presidential candidates, the differences are stark.

• Reducing Administrative Costs in U.S. Health Care

  Administrative costs account for one-quarter to one-third of total health-care spending in the United States-far greater than the amount necessary to deliver effective health care. Excessive administrative burden results in higher costs for physicians, insurers, and patients alike.
  ...
  Cutler proposes several reforms to the U.S. health-care system aimed at reducing administrative costs. Specifically, his proposal would establish a clearinghouse for bill submission, simplify prior authorization, harmonize quality reporting, and enhance data interoperability in the health-care system. Cutler's proposal to lower administrative costs could save $50 billion annually.

• Do We Have Minds of Our Own?

  The strange, startling, and competing explanations for human--and possibly nonhuman--consciousness.

  In his new book, "Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience," the neuroscientist and psychologist Michael Graziano writes that consciousness is simply a mental illusion, a simplified interface that humans evolved as a survival strategy in order to model the processes of the brain.
  ...
  One of its pioneers, the neuroscientist Christof Koch, has a new book, "The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed," in which he argues that consciousness is not unique to humans but exists throughout the animal kingdom and the insect world, and even at the microphysical level.