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Liberty and Power

  • Oct 27, 2004

    The NYC Subway Centennial

    by Liberty and Power

    Today marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the New York City Subway. It is interesting to note that the subway system began with the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), a private line that ran the 9.1 mile route from City Hall to West 145th street. The system has survived governme

  • Oct 25, 2004

    Calm Down, Get a Hold of Yourself

    by Liberty and Power

    Terrific article in the new Regulation magazine, putting the risks of terrorism in perspective. John Mueller collects the known knowns and the known unknowns about how much sleep we ought to be losing about dying in a terrorist attack. Mueller's answer: not much. And we ought to spend more time worrying about the risks of overreaction.

    Here's Mueller:

    Until 2001, far fewer Americans were killed in any grou

  • Oct 24, 2004

    Slugging Some Spontaneous Order

    by Liberty and Power

    Here's a great example of the spontaneous generation of a social institution to solve a problem - in this case, a problem created by government road-building policy:

    "Slugging" is the name, and beating the system is the game.

  • Oct 23, 2004

    "Team America": Mixed Feelings

    by Liberty and Power

    I just saw"Team America" and came away with mixed feelings. Some moments were truly inspired. The Kim Jong-il character was brilliant. The"fuck you" jokes got a little old after awhile.

    Some libertarian and conservative bloggers have claimed that"Team America" pokes fun equally at"both sides." They point to the scenes in which Team America in its fight against terrorists mistakenly destroy various monuments such as the Eifle Tower and Sphinx. This claim does not hold water. The gene

  • Oct 22, 2004

    Acquired Situational Narcissism

    by Liberty and Power

    Long-distance, pop psychoanalysis is the mark of a hack. It's also tons of fun. So I'm surprised nobody's mentioned"Acquired Situational Narcissism" in the light of Bush's peevish and immature performance in the debates. ASN first made it into the mainstream in a brief piece in the NYT magazine three years ago. In an age where everything has to have its own syndrome, ASN is psychiatry's answer to the question
  • Oct 22, 2004

    Division of Household Labour

    by Liberty and Power

    I posted the following in the comments on Jim Otteson's post (below), but thought it was worth saying in the section for regular posts as well:

    I don't think an asymmetrical division of household labour is a sign that something is necessarily wrong. But in light of the social expectations and practices that tend to encourage and reinforce this policy -- and in light of the more vulnerable position it tends to put women in -- I think it's reason for suspicion/concern. Whether that su
  • Oct 22, 2004

    The Fall Classic

    by Liberty and Power

    As a follow-up to yesterday's post on the Yankees' devastating loss to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, I recommend to readers a few essays in the New York papers—2 articles in the NY Times and 1 in the NY Daily News (even perpetual Yankee critics like Mike Lupica have a couple of valuable things

  • Oct 21, 2004

    Quick Reply to Otteson

    by Liberty and Power

    Just a quick clarification James: I completely agree that sometimes the division of labor in the household that puts more of the work on the woman is the best solution to the particular situation that home faces. I say this as someone whose wife was out of the labor force for almost ten years when our kids were younger. Two points seem key to me:

    1. We have to recognize that families have to solve these often complex intersections of economics and values according to their own li
  • Oct 21, 2004

    Men and women, initiative and choices

    by Liberty and Power

    Two small points on Long and Horowitz’s arguments about the sex-gap in wages. First, there is also such a thing as employee entrepreneurship: if a woman is being underpaid for what she does or is capable of doing relative to men (or anyone else), she is quite free—and in a free market would have all the incentives to encourage her to do so—to market herself elsewhere. I don’t just mean that she could look for another job; I mean she could market herself: approach other employers, e
  • Oct 21, 2004

    When You're a Loser ...

    by Liberty and Power

    ... it doesn't feel all that good. And what a loss it was for Yankee fans. But who am I to talk about losses? Not in the face of a history of enormous losses by the Boston Red Sox, who have spent nearly a century under the delusion
  • Oct 21, 2004

    Platonic Productivity

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    Women on the job market make, on average, 75 cents for every dollar men make for the equivalent jobs.

    What explains this wage gap? Various possibilities have been suggested. But some Austrians have argued that there is only one possible explanation: women are less productive than men.

    The argument goes like this: If employers pay an employee more than