The Hidden Cost of Compassion
Pursuing better public services and a firmer social safety net is sensible — but with important reservations. Badly designed social programs can wreak havoc on the very lives they are…
The pretention of economics
A young man recently posed a question during a seminar on rational inquiry: How do we distinguish between a mistaken opinion and one that is not mistaken? For context, recall…
On the Meaning and Value of the Left
When discussing the meaning and value of the political Left, we should start by being honest about what people actually need. They do not need a more “just” distribution of…
Promise without foundation
Donald Trump’s program to rebuild American industry is ambitious, yet its results so far remain modest. That should not surprise anyone: you cannot rebuild a nation’s productive base in a…
The End of Liberal Loyalty
“That was a time when New York Times journalists and academics would take to Twitter to distance themselves publicly from a newly controversial colleague while fantasising about how they’d decorate…
The Age Curve of Radicalism
There’s been a growing number of studies mapping the distribution of personality traits among followers of different ideologies. Movements like LGBT activism, feminism, and the climate crusade tend to attract…