Author Archive
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Ranking by SAT Scores
This is quick and dirty, but I’ll go ahead and post the rankings by SAT scores of 4 year schools in RI. Out of 1352 ranked colleges in the US:
Brown 12th (1424-1440)
RISD 170th (1205)
Providence College 227th (1170)
Bryant 352th (1115)
URI 415th (1100)
Salve Regina 455th (1086)
RIC 1072nd (955)
JWU 1194th (920)
For those of you who care: Williams is 14th, Lake Forest is 168th, Stanford is 11th
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Culture of Congestion
Sandy Ikeda seems to have moved to New York to write about urban economics there. I met Sandy a couple of years ago and recommend him as a free market specialist on urban growth and the economic geography of cities.
This led me to think about how to imagine the pricing of traffic congestion in the future. London has implemented (and New York is considering) taxes on cars coming into congested
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
I always find it difficult to argue against “be nice” people like Peter Singer. One of Singer’s arguments makes use of the saving children drowning in a foot of water at no cost. He says it should be an ethical principle that you should act to help someone if it doesn’t cost you much. I think that’s probably true. It avoids the question, should anyone be permitted to throw you in jail under
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Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Insight in the strangest places…
I tend to read far and wide. Mostly this is a cover for reading things more interesting than what I pretend my vocation to be.
I recently came across a comment in a piece of fiction that pointed out that mercy is a value endorsed by scoundrels for a time when they might get caught. Good people, in other words, never talk of mercy.
This got me thinking. Anyone who endorses mercy frequently
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Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Private education in low income countries
Cato has published an interesting white paper on private education in low income areas of low income countries.
I welcome these studies, but it must be noted that the success of private schools at teaching reading and math better than public schools for a fraction of the cost doesn’t really matter to critics.
If advocacy for public schools rested on performance even for students from low income
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Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
The central libertarian thesis
People ask me what’s distinctive about libertarianism. (Ok. I’m lying, they don’t, but sometimes they ask me questions about it)
I think what stands out is a relatively simple thesis: “you don’t own me.” Libertarians don’t deny that we have obligations to family, church, or even communities, but they reject the idea that these collectives have a right to dispose of their time or persons as they
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Sunday, November 25th, 2007
Labor
I find myself a little annoyed at students who argue that, because one must work for a capitalist in a capitalist society, all labor is forced. At some level this is trivially true, but let us consider the alternatives.
There is no social formation worth having where everyone does not work for a living. Unless one is very fortunate, one must work to live under any form of social organization.
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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
You’re not your view’s best defender
I occasionally get into arguments with friends, acquaintances, or people in various discussion forums about public policy issues. Many of these people are quite smart and have values and interpretations of the facts that are at odds with me.
However, simply because I attack your argument does not mean there isn’t a good way to defend your view. I don’t tend to attack arguments that, while I
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Friday, November 16th, 2007
Repugnance can be repugnant
From Tyler Cowen:
“Is it not repugnant that some people are willing to let others die so that their stomachs won’t become queasy at the thought that someone, somewhere is selling a kidney?”
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Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Champions League
I’m disappointed in the evolution of the Champions League (European Soccer). It used to be 16 teams, all winners of their national leagues. Now it’s the first two or three teams of the top leagues plus the champions of some others, plus a play in for other 3rd, 4th, and 5th place teams from good leagues. This is not a league of champions, it’s a league of rich clubs.
It used to be that cup
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Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Identity
I’ve always taken to heart the admonishment of an old acquaintance that it was more important to be your own tee shirt than making any particular statement with your tee shirts. Appearance is fine as a social signifier, but appearances are by nature deceptive as well as revealing. Leading by example is always stronger than exhortation or other overt signals.
I’m always frustrated when I’m not
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Sunday, November 11th, 2007
Dept of Things That Make Me Laugh
“Yes, I’m in favor of a flat tax, but I want to make it real flat… like zero.” - Congressman Ron Paul, on Jay Leno
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Monday, November 5th, 2007
Unabashed self expression
At heart, I am French. This could explain a lot. I believe that we show our respect for others by only dealing with them only on voluntary terms. I believe that altruism is only too frequently a cover for the urge to rule, which is a shame for real altruists and individualists alike. I believe that treating unequals equally is just as unjust as treating equals differently. I believe that the
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Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Grading
There was a time when I enjoyed grading PS 11 papers, but it seems like they always write on the same tired topics, and really once you’ve read one paper on “Hobbesian sovereign: master or agent”, you’ve read them all. Also grading takes a lot of time away from research.
There are times when I want to wring my students’ necks for the unproofread bullshit papers they clearly wrote the day before,
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Health Care
Debates about health care drive me insane. There is no surer road to hell than divorcing who gets a good from who pays for it. And under this rubric, I include private insurance as well.
For those of you who have equity in mind (as though our life choices don’t affect our health) Tyler Cowen reminds us:
“Health care outcomes improve with income even under single-payer systems. Our best
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Monday, October 15th, 2007
Dulcolax
Here’s perhaps the worst idea ever. An overnight laxative that is supposed to relieve your constipation while you sleep. Now, not for nothing, but I can only imagine the overnight “accidents” due to your bowels loosening while you sleep.
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Monday, October 15th, 2007
New Post
Ok. I need to blog more.
I’m watching CBS news and I don’t know how long I can take it.
Cancer rates are down. I don’t care. If this means that my chances of getting or surviving cancer are improved, I’m interested. But cancer around the country? Yawn.
Of course, there’s a note about how treating cancer cost this woman her life savings. Well, why shouldn’t it? More importantly, why should your
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
This is fun
From Reason.com “Here are just a few of the gems offered by Toyama Koichi — nihilist, ex-con, street musician, and candidate for governor of Tokyo — in a Japanese television broadcast: * “Gentlemen! This nation is horrible.”* “I do not have a single constructive proposal. The only thing we must do now is scrap and scrap — annihilate everything that exists!”* “To further our ferocious,
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
Pedestrians are fair game
Sometimes, I can be a reasonable advocate for public policy changes. Other times, not so much. To wit, I really think pedestrians crossing the street outside of crosswalks should be fair game for any motorist who can tag them. I’m not saying jaywalking should be illegal, just that if you do so, you do it at your own risk. I think once a few pedestrians get tagged, even at reasonably low speeds,
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Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
Birth rates
Something interesting about the difference in birth rates in Western Europe and among anglo-americans from Will Wilkinson: “If white Americans produce more children than their European counterparts, then the (expected total) cost of children must be lower for Americans, especially women. Maybe this has to do with some mix of confidence in the possibility of successful re-entry into the work force
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Monday, April 30th, 2007
Ah Cricket.
For you Yanks interested in figuring out the similarities and differences between baseball and cricket.
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Monday, April 23rd, 2007
An interesting question from Parfit
On some views it’s bad if property is stolen. On other views, it depends on whether the theft made the world worse or not, but there’s nothing bad about the theft per se. Of course, there is another view that suggests that while what matters is whether the world is better or not, things generally go better when people believe it is wrong to steal. If we believed that the ends justified the means,
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Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Consequentialism and Deontology
My students in Ethics and Public policy are often confused at the distinction between consequentialism and deontology. Derek Parfit offers an interesting perspective. Consequentialism tells us that history should go as well as possible, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us never to act wrongly. Our substantive moral aim is that history go well, not that we shouldn’t act wrongly. Of course, then the
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Friday, April 20th, 2007
Things that make me want to go home
Other than the fat girl in capris showing off her hamhock calves and muffin-topped pumps… This review of the best bakeries in Paris left my mouth watering…
Also for the first time in my life, someone noticed that I was part Asian…
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Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
Ghettonomics
Kerry Howley posts a very interesting book review over at Reason.com of a book about the economy of the inner city. Read it. You’ll learn something.
