I can’t think of any single act of government that creates more inequality than the lottery—at least per dollar raised and spent. Think about it. Thousands of (mostly below-average income) people buy tickets and, after the drawing, one of them becomes immensely wealthy. As far as I can tell, the single largest winner in the […]
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Vogue, America’s leading fashion magazine, is one of those glossy periodicals providing in David Brooks’ words “nutrition for the imagination.” He asks, “Why do we eagerly seek out images of lives we are unlikely to lead?” Perhaps of greater interest, why did a magazine that a year ago launched an auction to advance, “…human rights […]
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We’re celebrating a happy birthday with dear friends. Not every culture celebrates these mile markers of life’s journey, but Americans have traditionally done so. This, I suspect, is related to optimistic expectations about our future. Some birthdays demarcate an important change in life status. The twelfth birthday is associated with Christian confirmation and the thirteenth […]
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Christmas, the holiday celebrating the birth of Christ, is indeed a joyous time. Ironically, it began as an exercise in political extortion. The Roman rulers of the time are best understood as sedentary bandits. They provided order and some security from roving bandits in exchange for taxes levied and collected. A census was required to […]
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From The New York Times For the past few years, there has been a strange motif running through my social life. I’d go out with some writers, and they’d start gushing about someone named Erica Brown. “She has an inner light,” one of them once said. I’d be out with my wife and some of […]
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I find a persistent myth among many of those who consider themselves well informed about economics. Specifically, many believe that governmental agencies are by their nature inefficient, unresponsive, officious, and insensitive to citizens’ legitimate demands and expectations. The U.S. Postal Service and state driver’s license bureaus are standard examples. This criticism is silly and often […]
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E.O. Wilson of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology is America’s best-known biologist and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He makes an annual pilgrimage to Bozeman for the American Computer Museum’s award dinner held in cooperation with MSU and Yellowstone Park. He was here on October 7th and reminded us that MSU is the “University of […]
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Working with undergraduate honor students is a great pleasure. FREE’s summer interns are from this set. They are normally headed on to graduate or professional school and not yet distracted by looming job prospects. Hence, they focus on ideas and ideals. I delight in sharing a few “life lessons” with them. Last year’s interns, Steph […]
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Working with undergraduate honor students is a great pleasure. FREE’s summer interns are from this set. They are normally headed on to graduate or professional school and not yet distracted by looming job prospects. Hence, they focus on ideas and ideals. I delight in sharing a few “life lessons” with them. These students are self-selected, […]
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Ramona and I spent the best part of last week on a remote family guest ranch. It is a few hours drive from Bozeman followed by a twelve-mile wagon ride. The ranch was built as a private retreat in the early 1920s and retains original character and charm. We were there with a few old […]
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