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A few weeks ago I had a discussion with Shona about her experience with volunteering at a playgroup in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. I had to admit that although I strongly support volunteering I don't know much about it. Shona agreed to write a guest post on my other blog about her experience - in the hope that it might lead to further discussion of this important issue. This has led to a series of articles over the last week or so discussing volunteering in Australia.

A very brief outline of the posts follows:

What determines who volunteers? Shona suggests that the people who most readily volunteer at the playgroup tend to be newer members. The people who are reluctant to volunteer often give irregular attendance as their excuse, and then attend less regularly.

What does research show about determinants of volunteering? In this post I discussed some research by Sara Dolnicar and Melanie Randle which uses data collected from an Australian survey of volunteer work to identify various ‘market' segments in terms of the motivations of the people involved. The findings suggest that different motivations are involved in different kinds of volunteering. The volunteers at Shona's playgroup would fall into the ‘personally involved' category.

How well can volunteering be explained by a naïve economic model? The naïve model predicts, among other things, that people tend to volunteer more readily when they have fewer opportunities for paid employment. This seems to be at variance with reality. I conclude by suggesting that in order to explain non-volunteering we may need a model of behaviour that recognizes that volunteers and non-volunteers have different personal characteristics.

Why are people reluctant to volunteer at playgroups in the eastern suburbs of Sydney? In this post Shona discusses a number of possible reasons why people may be reluctant to volunteer. These include bad previous experiences in volunteering in other clubs and reluctance to commit to longer term roles when people are thinking of moving to live in other areas.

Is Australia's mateship ethic being lost in the big cities? In this post I discuss what mateship means and some reasons why it may not be as strong in the big cities.

Discussion on these posts is still open.

I think our freedom is increasingly under threat from people who want us to be happy.

 When I write about ‘freedom' I am referring to the extent that individual adults have control of their own lives. When I write about ‘our freedom' I am referring to people who live in middle to high-income democracies who are generally well-protected from any threat of foreign aggression or from criminal gangs who might take their property or make them slaves.

The people who threaten our freedom generally mean well. They want the government to act as our guardian to provide us with economic security, education and health care. They may even want this guardian to protect us from making bad decisions - for example, over-work, over-eating and over-spending - that might adversely affect our well-being. In short, they may want this guardian to give us all the help and guidance they think they we need to be happy.

As I write this I am conscious that I want governments to do some of those things. You may too. That underlines the point I have been making - the greatest challenge to our freedom comes from people who want us to be happy. It is not possible for governments to protect us from all threats to our well-being without restricting our freedom. If we refuse to pay taxes or to abide by government regulations our liberty can be taken away completely.

When we debate public policy issues it is appropriate to consider how the well-being of particular groups and the broader community might be affected. The problem is that in attempting to help particular groups we seem to have a tendency to overlook the longer term implications of reducing the responsibility of individuals to care for themselves.

Representative government does not necessarily solve the problem. We hope the political leaders we elect who will make wise decisions on our behalf. But if we elect representatives whom we expect to act as guardians of our well-being we cannot then also expect them to turn around and give higher priority to defending our freedom once they are elected. We should not expect our political leaders to ignore public opinion.

These thoughts have been taken from the introductory chapter of the book I am writing:

"We need to be

Free to Flourish"

You can read the rest of the draft of Chapter 1 here. Comments are most welcome.

I have been discussing this question on my other blog with, Ruth, a nurse who has worked in psych wards and prisons.

The discussion began after I suggested to Ruth that I tended to steer clear of blogging about questions like the high incidence of drug induced psychosis (DIP) among young people in mental hospitals. Anyhow, with a lot of help from Ruth, there is now a series of posts on my other blog related to this question and teenage drug use more generally.

In the first post Ruth tells the sad story of a man who has been suffering from DIP over a long period following an incident just before his 18th birthday.

In the second post we covered a range of related topics. We agreed that it was not helpful to view drug use as a law and order issue. I raised the possibility that Gary Becker's rational addiction model might be relevant. Ruth responded by suggesting that people suffering from mental illness retain the ability to make rational decisions about their own welfare. I concluded, however, that rational addiction theory was putting the problem back into the too hard basket by putting the onus on young people to make good choices. Adults must share responsibility for the choices made by adolescents.

In the third post I raised the question of whether identity economics could help promote an understanding of teenage drug use. The basic idea of identity economics is that individuals gain satisfaction when their actions conform to the norms and ideals of their identity, as well as from their consumption of goods and services. I suggested that kids who engage in particularly risky thrill-seeking or escapist behaviour may obtain some satisfaction from thinking of themselves as the kinds of people who do that kind of thing.

Ruth responded in the fourth post by suggesting that young people who use drugs seem to fall into a range of categories related to perceptions of their identity - e.g. those seeking to escape their thoughts; those who see themselves as risk-takers; and the experimenters who end up with physical addictions. However, she also suggested that it is a mistake to try to categorize individuals objectively. We should listen to what they say about themselves. Ruth's comments suggested to seems to me that researchers may need better survey techniques that will allow subjects to reveal how they perceive their own identity.

In the fifth post we moved on to discuss the effectiveness of anti-drugs advertising aimed at teenagers. Ruth suggests that anti-drugs advertising has failed miserably and may be counter-productive.

 If the title has suggested to you that there has been a theme running through my blogging in June 2010, then I must apologize.

How bounded is rationality? This post could be described as an economist's perspective on Jonah Lehrer's recent book, ‘How we Decide'. The book provides a highly readable discussion of the ways in which limited cognitive abilities can affect decision-making.  The book has reinforced my support for the view that governance structures will fail if they make large demands on the cognitive capacities of managers.

Does history give undue prominence to scribblers? In this post I suggest that an historical account of some student protests at the University of New England during the 1960s has given undue prominence to my contribution as the editor of the student newspaper.

Is there a crisis of capitalist democracy? This is a discussion of Richard Posner's recent book, ‘The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy'. Most of the book is about the recent financial crisis in the US. The title of the book reflects Posner's view that while the American political system can react promptly and effectively to an emergency, it ‘tends to be ineffectual' in dealing with the longer term challenge of maintaining fiscal responsibility. I think the major political parties in America still have a few years left to change their political culture before a democratic crisis becomes imminent.

Does parenting make a difference? Bryan Caplan suggested that parenting doesn't make much difference (in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal) and uses this as one of several reasons why parents should consider having more children. I was prompted to look at Steven Pinker's review of the evidence on effects of parenting, which gives prominence to the role of peer groups in child development.

How large a role does luck play in our lives? Genes, family environment and peer groups can only explain about half the variation in life outcomes, so luck must play an important role at an individual level. Luck must also play an important role at a society level because economic growth rates vary a lot among countries and over time for reasons that have little to do with resource endowments, institutions or government policies. At both the level of the individual and society, however, we can make our own luck by moving the odds in our favour.

In May I had two posts on the proposed new resources rent tax:

Does a resource rent tax solve the problem of sovereign risk?

I argue that investors will have perceived that the risks of investing in Australia to have increased as a result of the government’s proposal that the new tax will apply to existing mines.

Is state sovereignty relevant to resource rent taxation?

I argue that as a result of failure of the federal government to consult with state governments prior to introduction of the new tax there is still potential for state governments to increase royalty charges.

Will history judge Marx to have been right about the effects of technological progress on income distribution?

I suggest that history will probably continue to judge Marx to have been largely wrong, even though future prospects are not likely to be great for people without formal qualifications or interpersonal skills - unless they own robots that they can send out to earn a living.

What metaphors help us to understand the relationship between reason and emotion?

In this post I discuss the relative merits of Plato’s charioteer metaphor, Jonathan Haidt’s rider and elephant metaphor and Jonah Lehrer’s pilot and autopilot metaphor.

How can we ensure that parliaments are representative and governments are accountable?

My discussion leads to the conclusion that the system of government that we have in Australia may not be a bad compromise.

Would an hedonimeter help us to choose between push-pin and poetry?

If you don’t know what an hedonimeter is or what push-pin is you should read the post to find out. If you already know, then you should probably read the post in order to consider whether your reflective self has been paying too little attention to your experiencing self. 

Should we ever play the man rather than the ball?

No, not on my blog – not even if ‘the man’ is a particularly dirty player.

Which books should I recommend?

I have recommended 10 books that might be of interest to a person with a background in business or economics who is taking a broader interest in issues relating to human flourishing.