EclectEcon

Economics and the mid-life crisis have much in common: Both dwell on foregone opportunities

C'est la vie; c'est la guerre; c'est la pomme de terre . . . . . . . . . . . . . email: jpalmer at uwo dot ca


. . . . . . . . . . .Richard Posner should be awarded the next Nobel Prize in Economics . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Political Philosophy

As an undergraduate, I took several courses in political philosophy. I also ran across political philosophy in several other courses, in addition to some of the work I did before I dropped out of theological seminary.

To tell the truth, I never much cared about who said what and when.
And nowadays, I am much more interested in "positive" analysis as opposed to "normative" or ethical or moral imperatives or what-not.

In fact, the political analysis I find most compelling is this quotation from Yossarian:

“[T]hey have the right to do anything we can't stop them from doing,” which is a very nice Machiavellian summary of the economics of political choice.

The quotation is from Joseph Heller's classic, Catch-22 about WWII, which I highly recommend.

 
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