The Good Life

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “What explains the dramatic differences in economic performance between the two Americas? “Take some World Bank GDP numbers — one measure of economic success. We want people to make an adequate living, especially poor people who are struggling. And if we are ambitious, we want people to live […]

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Higher education can be a path to a successful life. Yet many successful people did not graduate from college and many unsuccessful people have impressive degrees. “So who should go to college? And who should pay for it? Let’s start by imagining an average student who wants

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “The long-term estimated death toll from the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India is about 15,000 people. “To put that in context, consider that the estimated immediate death toll from the Soviet Union’s 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster is 4,000. The death toll from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear radiation leak

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “One century ago, Adolf Hitler was fighting in the Great War. He was a good soldier — he would be promoted to the rank of corporal, be wounded two times, and be awarded six medals. And with him during the war he had the writings of philosopher Arthur

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “The Greek mess is complicated, but in sorting through complex messes it’s useful to start with simpler cases and build up. “All sides in the discussion are appealing to moral considerations about responsibility, fairness, and prudence. Part of the debate is over what those principles mean. An

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Microaggression theory could be seen as a sign of progress. The luxury of obsessing over tiny hints of racism or sexism implies that the problem of macroaggressions has been solved. “If your environment — to draw a parallel — is dirty and unhealthy, then you focus on

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “In your lifetime, how many times can you remember when everyone agreed about the significance of a major cultural phenomenon? “It is happening now, as libertarians, conservatives, left-liberals and far-leftists all agree that a deep rot has set into Political Correctness. Hell is freezing over and pigs