May 18, 2016
Stanley on Free Market Ideology
UPDATE: Make sure to read the comments posted below from Stanley, who claims I’ve misunderstood the thesis of this essay. His comments are entirely reasonable. In re-reading his essay after…
May 17, 2016
Save the Jobs!
The New York Times reports that automation may be coming to long-distance trucking. Oh, no, think of all the lost jobs! Capitalism’s relentless pursuit of cold hard efficiency will be…
May 17, 2016
Ignorance, Misinformation, Irrationality
Chapter 2 of my forthcoming book Against Democracy is titled “Ignorant, Irrational, Misinformed Nationalists”. In that chapter, among other things, I review the empirical work on voter knowledge and behavior and…
May 12, 2016
Varia on Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom
1) I’ll be talking about the book, in conversation with Douglas Baird (University of Chicago Law School), Saturday at 2:30 at the Seminary Co-op bookstore in Chicago: https://www.facebook.com/events/210791759288983/ 2) The…
May 09, 2016
Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society” – A Summary
I have been thinking a lot about the misunderstandings of Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society” essay. Below I offer what I think is a quick summary of his argument that…
May 05, 2016
For-Profit Kidney Sales and Altruistic Motivation
Many people believe for-profit kidney sales are wrong because they think people who save lives ought not be motivated by self-interest.* There are lots of problems with this thought. Does it…