Outlook Zen

"When we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we've never crossed before." - Ursula K. Le

I've increasingly been hearing people assume or claim that meritocracy and social mobility go hand-in-hand. Their argument often goes like this: In a world driven by nepotism, cronyism, bribery etc, the only way to get ahead is to have money and/or powerf

What is the human will?How does the will interact with reason?Does the will follow reason's lead, or is the will the ultimate decider?If the will is indeed the ultimate decider, how does it go about deciding, given that reason is responsible for all analy

The developed world is headed towards extinction. Just take a look at this table showing fertility rates across every developed nation. Of the 53 countries, only one has a fertility rate above replenishment. The average fertility rate is about 40% lower t

In past articles, we have explored Election By Jury (EBJ) - the idea that our political representatives (ie, mayors, governors, senators etc) should be elected by a jury in a courtroom-like setting (see here for more details). Anyone familiar with the sor

Who pays the tariff? To anyone who has been following the news in the past day, this question has suddenly taken on outsized importance. With the US Government firing the opening salvos in a global trade war, we have seen in just one day: The US stock mar

For years, I labored under the illusion that I was the first to advocate for Election By Jury - at least in the modern era. Imagine my delight when I discovered that H.G. Wells had championed the same idea and made the exact same arguments an entire centu

look, whatever the {official economic} charts say is a 100% bold faced lie. have you seen the price of a little ceasars pizza? it's jumped nearly 50% in the last 4 years. my salary has not gone up 50% relative to my experiece in the last 4 years. most rec

It's hard to imagine a more incompetent group of people than literally everyone involved in the latest election season. Let's go down the list. Donald Trump After losing a closely fought election in 2020, the smart thing to do would have been to concede g

Individual income taxes are very progressive: If you make $50,000/year, you pay 16% in taxes If you make $100,000/year, you pay 22% in taxes If you make $500,000/year, you pay 32% in taxes In contrast, business taxes are completely flat. The federal corpo