Economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo studied the root causes of flawed decision making in their book Poor Economics. While much of the book is an applied economics redux of Ludwig von Mises’ more cerebral Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, there were several points that are particularly applicable in an examination on the difference between the … Continue reading Bourgeois IV: The Economics of difference
Today, there is a rising commercialization, a commodification of the character traits of the bourgeois. This in turn is leading toward a worldview in which bourgeois behavior is a “privilege,” instead of simply being an expectation of a civilized society. As part of such a change, the bourgeois, the real middle-class as exemplified by a … Continue reading Bourgeois III: Values in real-life
Quite recently, I was reading musicologist Martha Feldman’s book The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds, which is, unsurprisingly, a study on the castrato and the music written for the voice type during the 17thand 18thcenturies. The concept is exactly what it sounds like – a male singer whose physical development was surgically ended in order … Continue reading Bourgeois II: place in the world
If a person were to receive a letter with the salutation “Hey girl!” and the closing “Kindly,” one would naturally start to make conclusions about the author. One might conjecture from the salutation that the letter is between intimates, though it could equally signify that the author is unaware of appropriate salutations for written communications. … Continue reading Race versus class: Identifying the difference
In the 1999 remake of the film The Thomas Crowne Affair, there is an interesting snippet of dialogue: Woman: The thing that impressed me most… was getting from Glasgow to Oxford on a boxing scholarship. Crowne: Not bad for a wee lad from “Glasgee.” It was easy. Rich kids can’t box. As readers of NOL … Continue reading The muddle-class: A continuation
When I first walked into the conference room, two other girls were already there. One of them caught my eye and with a friendly nod indicated I should take the seat next to her. I did and then observed the girl on the other side of the table. She was quite striking, well-dressed in the … Continue reading A Queens’ Marxist in the Lions’ Court
Vestis virum (non) redit ~ Latin proverb As Brexit drags on, there is a reassessment occurring of Margret Thatcher and her legacy. After all, in addition to being a stalwart defender of free markets, free enterprise, and free societies, she helped design the EEC, the precursor to the EU. So in the process of leaving … Continue reading Middle-class: questioning the definitions
Notes On Liberty 