The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “You’ve likely heard the Bad News: we are supposed to be running out of resources. As a result you are sometimes asked: Will you continue use up resources selfishly — or are you willing to make sacrifices? Possibly you individually are a person of selfless virtue, but how likely […]
Do We Really Live in a World of Scarce Resources? [new The Good Life column] Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “A scenario that is beloved of ethicists, public policy experts, and management consultants asks you to imagine yourself on a lifeboat. “Built into such scenarios are powerful assumptions with life-or-death consequences, so as we work through the lifeboat scenario try to make those assumptions explicit. Here we go: “You
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “You’ve heard the claim: ‘Deregulation caused the financial crisis.’ In the years leading up to 2008, the story goes, bad economists convinced bad politicians to deregulate the money/banking/finance sector of the economy, and bad capitalists then enjoyed an orgy of greed that caused the system to go
Blamestorming: “Deregulation Caused the Financial Crisis” [new The Good Life column] Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “schiz•o•phren•ic, adjective: Of, relating to, or characterized by the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic elements. “Let’s talk about one reason why politics makes us all a little crazy — its incoherent mix of laws and regulations. (Warning: overcharged metaphor ahead.) Not only does the left hand of
Our Schizophrenic Politics: Sex, Health, Religion, Money, and Other Important Stuff Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Rape is among the most horrific of crimes. Sex should be a fun and beautiful thing – but rape takes that most personal of experiences and turns it into a degradation. “There is moderately good news about the number of rapes in the USA. According to the
Campus Sex and the Anti-Sexiness of the New Authoritarians [new The Good Life column] Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Chances are good that someone you know owns a Che t-shirt. Romanticized versions of Ernesto Guevara Lynch’s bearded face are popular on campuses and elsewhere — so popular that the American chain store Urban Outfitters planned to release a whole line of Che-inspired fashion items, and dozens
Our Che Guevara Problem [new The Good Life column] Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Let me share with you the most impressive number of our generation: 600 million. “That is how many people have been lifted out of extreme poverty in the last 25 years. Never before in history have so many raised themselves to a minimum level of comfort. “The
Who Really Wants to Solve the Problem of Poverty? [new The Good Life column] Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Let me brag a bit. In high school I was a pretty good at tennis. Now, many years later, I am an occasional weekend player who has somehow acquired the stamina (and the knees) of a middle-aged man. “But I still have this recurring fantasy that I