Do we really want to increase life expectancy?

September 13, 2012

From James Paterson

The NBN is really great and definitely not a waste of taxpayers’ money at all!

(Disclaimer: that sentence may or may not have been ghost-written by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Here’s the article they wanted us to publish in the IPA Review. And here’s their email suggesting we should pretend we wrote it ourselves).

This is probably the most depressing chart you’ll ever see about America. It’s from this great essay in the Wall Street Journal recently on entitlements in the USA. Charles Koch’s article this week in the WSJ on crony capitalism is also a great read.

There’s nothing Hey readers like more than a good Nanny State story so here’s ‘18 examples of the Nanny State gone wild.’ This article in the New York Times about all the stuff banned in California is pretty amusing too.

Why am I not surprised? Apparently there’s no evidence that having your phone on during landing and take-off in a plane endangers anyone. (Which you would know already if you read Chris Berg in the IPA Review in September 2005).

Jay-Z’s ‘99 Problems‘ was ranked by Rolling Stone as the 2nd best song of the 00′s. But is it good legal advice? This law professor has the answer. (Warning: it’s a rap song, some bad language).

I wish all academic papers were that practical. But I guess it also is important to know that some music videos feature alcohol – and that pop songs are getting sadder. And these academics aren’t even sure if a longer life expectancy is a good thing.

Our 75 ideas for Tony Abbott continue to stir debate. The Courier-Mail admits we have ‘some eminently sensible ideas‘ and The Punch kindly labels us as ‘smart’ and ‘relatively influential‘. We’ll be adding 25 more in the next edition of the Review – so make sure you join as a member to read them first!

The IPA is currently fundraising to support our research on climate change. Read the email James Delingpole sent to IPA members and supporters this week explaining why we need your donations.

Here’s what else the IPA said this week: