In addition, second, third and further consequences of their actions appear to never feature in their decision-making,
Sigh.
What is to blame? Most obviously it is an education system that (via the Oxford politics, philosophy and economics degree above all else) teaches that markets dominate economies, governments should back away from interfering to the greatest extent possible, and there are no externalities (i.e., those second and third tier consequences of decisions that very obviously do exist) because markets can always price them.
He is, actually, insane, isn’t he? The entire point of even the word externality is something that is external to markets and thus unpriced. By the very use of the word we are insisting that markets cannot and do not price them.
What a tit. The whole point of the PPE degree is that if you find Economics a little too mathsy or practical for your taste you can largely skip it and concentrate on the PP. What I don’t know is whether people who find Philosophy a bit too logical can then concentrate almost wholly on Politics. Anyone here know?
Evidently – at least in Murphy’s world – second and third tier consequences (whatever those are) equals externalities. He’s simply appropriated the term and given it a new, imprecise and completely unclear definition.
Try asking Matt Handycock or William – Sixteen Pints – Hague or Ball-less Ed or (it’s a f**king long list), dearieme. Or even Corner Shop Rishi.
Very good for meeting (& sometimes marrying or just f**king) the right people, though.
I studied PPP (Philosophy, Psychology, and Physiology) rather than PPE, so the situation may not be exactly the same as for PPE, but I had to take a total of 8 papers across at least two of the subjects. The degree seemed to be aimed at people who wanted to tilt the What of psychology towards either the Why of philosophy or the How of physiology, but not both.
As I understand it, PPE works much the same: you can study all three, or drop one. There’s no reason to suppose that a PPE graduate has continued to study economics, other than that I think it’s the only economics undergraduate degree at Oxford but there are a number of alternative options for those inclined towards P or P.
Ironically, some of the philosophy in PPP was far more mathematically rigorous than any of the psychology…
The notion that he has any understanding of first order consequences, let alone second or third order consequences is one of the most laughable things he has ever said.
He is directly responsible for inflation in the UK through the following policy positions:
– Unqualified support for Net Zero
– Support for the war in Ukraine to protect Joe and Hunter Biden’s business interests
– Advocacy of unlimited migration
– Support for QE without end and MMT
– Support for the ‘Woke agenda’ more generally
You could probably add more – the notion that he had thought through even first order consequences of any of these is risible. As Dennis says, he has heard the term second hand and chosen to regurgitate it without even googling it’s meaning.
Those who are brilliant and want to study Philosophy do “Greats”.
One can argue that PPE course is to encourage those wanting to play politics to understand the “Why” through studying Philosophy and the “How” through Economics.
I have long regarded Economics as “less than challenging” intellectually but at least Oxford’s PPE course is not completely taken over by Marxist indoctrination like Cambridge Economics.
Last time I checked (a while ago), you had to study all three of P, P and E for your first year, but after that you could drop one of them; and most students chose to drop E, because after year 1 it starts to involve difficult sums, which hurt their brains.
VP
“He is directly responsible for inflation in the UK”
No he’s not. He’s just a very naughty boy.
PF
That’s true of course. But by extension anyone supporting any of the reasons listed is contributing to inflation.
– We need to repeal the unilateral commitment to Net Zero and criminalise it’s advocacy
– We should reduce diplomatic cooperation with the White House under Biden and certainly withdraw support for the conflagration in Ukraine. An immediate ceasefire is needed
– those over on small boats need to be removed to Rwanda post haste and negotiations should begin with other countries in Africa to also accept them temporarily. At the same time, the Section of the Human Rights Act which prohibits the death penalty needs immediate repeal and people trafficking should be added to the list of capital crimes (alongside treason and piracy). Bills of attainder also need relagalising which means that in the case of people trafficking the traffickers immediate family can also be charged. This could be extended more broadly to deal with XR, JSO and other terrorist groups. Possible even Murphy himself.
Thank you V-P. I especially like the reintroduction of Bills of Attainder.