de gustibus non disputandum est This famous Latin maxim holds that on matters of taste, there can be no dispute. This saying seems self-evident; we are all different, so what’s the point of arguing over what smells nice, looks good, is interesting, or is engaging?  Well, the great economists Stigler and Becker took issue with…
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This post is a companion to my (draft) Article,  Defamation By Contract.   The first Truth Bounty, the Carbolic Smoke Ball advertisement   The RNC Case Republican Nat. Comm. v. Taylor, 299 F.3d 887, 889 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (Credit: USA Today; special thanks to Culverhouse Law librarian, Blakeley L. Beals, who obtained a copy of the…
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It is very common today for consumers to use peer-to-peer reputational information. Online reviews are the latest incarnation of the old social customs of gossip and word-of-mouth, and they generate considerable excitement among policymakers and scholars. There is a growing sense that, with the advent of the sharing economy and mega reputational platforms such as…
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Part of my recent work criticizes doctors and hospitals for taking advantage of patients, trying to circumvent liability for accidents by various means. This gets me, as expected, into a lot of arguments. Had my argument only been contested by doctors, that would have been understandable, but non-doctors make arguments that have very much the…
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Kids fight a lot over toys. My twins are no exception. When they do, my partner sometimes try to calm them by announcing “turns” that each kid has with a toy, hoping that after a short while the kid in possession of the toy will lose interest or be willing to relinquish his claim for a…
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I am rationally minded. And by this I do not mean the self-congratulatory “I am intelligent” sort of claim, but a more technical aspect of rationalism and one that certainly has a dark side. One definition of rationality is that it is the ability to choose means that are fit to their ends. This definition…
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*You’re. It’s still funny. There is yet another round of deadly violence in Israel and people are getting very restless. Common to both left right is a call that “something must be done,” which is understandable, although in its abstract form is useless. The Israeli left, as many other “lefts” in the world, usually has…
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Part 1. In Which We Tell Jokes In the iconic scene from Life of Brian, various Jewish sects engage in the following (silly) dispute: Brian: Are you the Judean People’s Front? Reg: Fuck off! Brian: What? Reg: Judean People’s Front! We’re The People’s Front of Judea! Judean People’s Front, God! Rogers: Blighters… . . ….
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I have long wondered why it is OK in our society to be so (at least superficially) concerned with racism, ageism, sexism, lookism, etc. but stupidity is fair game. I have heard a few tentative defenses of this policy (which mostly fall under the meritocracy line of thinking), but none is very satisfying. But this…
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Two new posts, one on Econlog and one on Facebook, made me reflect on poverty. The first is a post by (the incredible) Bryan Caplan, who talks about a research showing that people in richer neighborhood are not generally happier and sometimes less happy than people in less affluent neighborhoods.  The second was a long,…
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