Why obligatory vaccination today can be compared with compulsory seatbelts of the past. Why the origins of current social divides could lie in an overconcentration of power, privilege, and influence. Data is now confirming that a desire for remote working is why many are quitting or taking a job. What is the ‘metaverse’ and why it matters. What is ‘nudging’, how technology has altered it and why it matters. The five ‘must-knows’ from the IPCC report.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Peter Singer, Why Vaccination Should be Compulsory
(Project Syndicate, 4 August 2021)
Making Covid vaccination compulsory is emerging as a very politically and socially divisive issue. Peter Singer, one of the world’s foremost bioethicists, shares some of the reasons why he sees no problem mandating vaccination. The key one: although the first compulsory seat-belt laws met with strong objections when they were introduced 50 years ago, nobody bothers to complain about such a commonsense rule anymore. Governments today can offer the same basic justification for protecting both individuals and society with a vaccine against Covid (metered paywall, reads in 6-7 min).
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David Brooks, How the Bobos Broke America
(The Atlantic, September 2021)
Once in a while an article forces us to relook at an issue in a completely different light. This article did just that and to better grasp why there is so much conflict in today’s societies, the 20 min read time couldn’t be better spent (US focused but applies to most Western democracies). According to Brooks, the wedge between the ‘elites’ and the ‘rest’ is widening, and the reason is this: the ‘bobos’ or the creative class “have coalesced into an insular, intermarrying Brahmin elite that dominates culture, media, education, and tech. Worse, those of us in this class have had a hard time admitting our power, much less using it responsibly”. The end-result: “In nation after nation, the rise of the educated metro elite has led the working class to rebel against them”. The bobos talk about equality but drive inequality; and part of the revolt against their ‘system’ is driven by economics, but also by moral contempt (metered paywall).
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Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Steven Davis, Let me work from home, or I will find another job
(VOXeu, 27 July 2021)
An important academic contribution to an important issue that arose with Covid. Using survey-based evidence, the three economists find that four in ten Americans who currently work from home at least one day a week would seek another job if employers require a full return to business premises, and that most workers would look favourably on a new job that offers the same pay with the option to work from home two or three days a week. This seems to be reflected in the data: high rates of quits and job openings in recent months appear to partly reflect a re-sorting of workers based on the scope for remote working (free access – reads in 6-7 min).
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Kyle Chayka, Facebook Wants Us to Live in the Metaverse
(The New Yorker, 5 August 2021)
Mark Zuckerberg has recently declared that Facebook’s new goal is to help build the “metaverse,” a Silicon Valley buzzword that has become an obsession for anyone trying to predict, and thus profit from, the next decade of technology. But what does that mean beyond the Facebook’s definition of metaverse as “a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces”? Read on to get a precise sense of what the metaverse could look like (it’s already present in fact) (metered paywall – reads in 6-8 min).
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Roberta Fusaro, Much anew about ‘nudging’
(McKinsey, 6 August 2021)
This is an interview with Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler. The two renowned behavioural economists remind us of what nudge and choice architecture are and discuss how technology and other changes in business and society have altered the practice of nudging and the amount of “sludge” in decision making. Interesting throughout (free access – reads in about 10 min).
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And in addition, a 1min+ video to grasp the 5 essentials from the ground-breaking and alarming IPCC Climate report:
Click here to watch the video
