“Why, in the previous Millennium, did Europe come to dominate the world, rather than China, India, or some other region? How did the Catholic Church, the legal profession, and the fall of the Roman Empire all set the stage for Europe’s eventual global supremacy? Meanwhile, in today’s age of AI, rockets, and robots, how can societies continue to innovate and prosper, rather than stagnate and decay? In Two Paths to Prosperity, Joel Mokyr, a 2025 Nobel laureate and professor at Northwestern University, offers a compelling narrative.” (12/29/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Benjamin BH Ko
‘On the Isle of Lewis, crofters still work the old way: one man, two dogs, a flock and the Atlantic wind. Watching Leslie and his collies, Bruce and Jude, round up sheep across the moor, I was struck by how little command was needed. After a whistle and a word, Bruce and Jude’s instincts took care of the rest. It was order without control, and freedom within purpose. This is liberty properly understood.” (12/29/25)
“The United States is a generous nation, and most agree that low-income households deserve help from their fellow Americans when times are tough. But that help should not inadvertently trap people in poverty and government dependence by disincentivizing healthy, working-age adults from working more hours, pursuing higher wages, or marrying out of fear of ending up financially worse off. … The need for reform is clear, as we recently argued in a report along with several colleagues. The solutions and how to enact them are less so. A common response is universal benefits or more government assistance higher up the income scale to allow for a more gradual phase out of benefits. But this approach creates more government dependence among American households rather than encouraging independence and hope. This would also require substantial new federal resources at a time when budget deficits are already unsustainable. That’s why we need a new approach that starts with the states.” (12/29/25)
“New research strongly suggests teachers’ unions are driving the skyrocketing administrative bloat that’s sucking resources away from classrooms. By diverting additional funding toward hiring more people, they starve effective educators of the raises and support they need, all to pad their own power structures. Unions benefit enormously from inflating the number of employees in the system, turning public schools into top-heavy bureaucracies that serve adults — not our kids. Teachers’ union bosses gain in two major ways from the rapid expansion in administrative hiring — which also siphons resources away from teachers, students, and classrooms.” (12/29/25)
“Something has gone wrong in America. By historical standards, we live in a time of unimaginable abundance. Yet there is a malaise, and we all feel it. The normal rules of normal politics no longer seem sufficient to answer our questions. The straitjacket of the Long 90’s is breaking: what will replace it? Enter Brink Lindsey’s The Permanent Problem. A vice president at the Niskanen Center, Lindsey diagnoses America’s malaise as a breakdown of two opposed forces: the dynamism of capitalism and the inclusiveness of communities. … According to Lindsey, we must recover the Promethean spirit — the willingness to go out and change the world, and use this to solve Keynes'[s] ‘permanent problem’ of ‘living wisely and agreeably and and well.'” (12/29/25)
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen
“I recently heard Jill Lepore, professor of history at Harvard University, on The Good Fight podcast. In discussing campus culture, she expressed dismay at the fact that some of her students had refused to read the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (1857), which she had assigned. They refused, apparently, because it would cause them (or perhaps others) pain to read a defense of slavery in the United States. … Students need to know — and do know — that they do not stand on desks in their classrooms, that they do not lecture to the class (unless the professor assigns that to them), and a host of other things. That has always included — and ought to still include — the simple fact that professors, like all teachers, make the assignments and they, the students, do them or get lower grades. This is simply how the institution works.” (12/29/25)
“Starmer’s UK government has set the most dangerous of precedents: it can now outlaw any political group it chooses as a terrorist organisation – and thereby make it impossible to defend it.” (12/29/25)
“With a triumphant Zohran Mamdani taking over as New York City mayor Jan. 1, many of my patients tell me they finally feel ‘seen’ in their resentment toward the wealthy. The anger feels righteous and moral. But it’s rarely about tax policy, wages or housing. It’s merely emotional. It’s about envy, inadequacy and the relief that comes from blaming someone else rather than looking inward. Mamdani declared during the campaign, ‘I don’t think that we should have billionaires,’ and he’s chosen Sen. Bernie Sanders, who regularly rages about them, to administer the public oath of office at City Hall. In my therapy practice, I hear what plays out in the streets. Resentment of the wealthy has become emotional currency. It gives temporary relief from feelings people don’t want to confront. Hating billionaires feels noble, but psychologically it functions as a shortcut to moral superiority.” (12/27/25)
“Critics of cash bail say it creates a two-tiered justice system: Those who can pay maintain their freedom, while those unable to pay remain behind bars.” (for publication 01/26)
