Words & Numbers

In the debate over the future of public schooling in the U.S., charter schools may show the way forward. Similar to public schools, charter schools are open to all students and are funded by and answerable to state and local governments. Like private schools, charter schools are free to experiment with curricula and teaching styles, unencumbered by state and local government meddling. Pinnacle Classical Academy, in Shelby, NC, is one example of educational experimentation made possible by charter schools. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits Coronavirus and Subsidiarity https://reason.com/2020/03/25/despite-coronavirus-sweden-refuses-to-shutter-businesses-and-limit-gatherings/ Sweden’s Response https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus.html Baby Chickens https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/style/chicken-eggs-coronavirus.html

Lincoln Chafee is possibly the only politician in US history who has served as mayor, governor, and US Senator and been elected as a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent. Now Gov. Chafee is running to be the Libertarian Party’s candidate for President of the United States. Gov. Chafee brings the broadest of perspectives on American politics to this week’s Words & Numbers. Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com Quick Hits People Being Nice to Each Other https://lithub.com/big-hearted-strangers-turn-little-free-libraries-into-little-free-pantries/ IHOP to Go https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/westmoreland-restaurant-helping-out-churches-organizations-impacted-by-fish-fry-cancellations/ Best Buy’s Employee Solution https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akwq8a/best-buy-employees-work-voluntary-coronavirus-paid-two-weeks T-Mobile & Sprint Providing Unlimited

The laws of economics aren’t social conventions that we can choose to follow or ignore as it suits us. When demand for a product outstrips supply, the price of the product rises. Calling it, “price gouging,” and outlawing doesn’t make the price increase go away. It simply hides it in other forms. When it comes to price gouging laws, we only think we are choosing between a high price and a low price. We are actually choosing between a high price and a shortage. Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! https://isi.org/cooperation-and-coercion-preorder/ Quick Hits Dayton University Pepper Sprays Its Students https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200311/police-fire-pepper-balls-at-disorderly-crowd-near-university-of-dayton-after-coronavirus-dorm-closing-announcement People Calling 911 for Toilet Paper https://www.fox5ny.com/news/do-not-call-911-just-because-you-ran-out-of-toilet-paper-oregon-police-say Foolishness

When a person harms another, the harmed party can go to the courts to seek redress. But the Supreme Court sets police and prosecutors above the law. If someone who works in these professions harms you, you will likely be prohibited from suing the person. This week on Words & Numbers, Clark Neily joins us to discuss the ramifications of immunity protections. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Get your copy of Cooperation and Coercion now! https://isi.org/cooperation-and-coercion-preorder/ Quick Hits Price Gouging https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/amazon-works-to-remove-price-gouging/C761B7C8-0535-40E7-B039-3203306C789B Racism and Sexism https://reason.com/2020/03/06/sexism-didnt-kill-the-warren-campaign-the-warren-campaign-killed-the-warren-campaign/ Foolishness of the Week Lenin Statue https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/first-lenin-statue-western-germany-erected-gelsenkirchen Topic of the Week Terms of Engagement

Ten years ago, an explosion on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon killed almost a dozen people and resulted in the worst oil spill in US history. This week, economist and environmental and regulatory expert Peter Van Doren joins us to discuss the incentives in play that contributed to the tragedy. Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits California’s Universal Basic Income https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2712 Wal-Mart as a Health Care Provider https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-25/walmart-takes-on-cvs-amazon-with-low-price-health-care-clinics Foolishness of the Week Gender Neutral Stores https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article240601601.html Topic of the Week Deepwater Horizon https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html Peter Van Doren https://www.cato.org/people/peter-vandoren Join the Conversation Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.fa

Karl Marx’s thoughts on socialism are popular among politicians and humanities professors, but not so much among business people and economics professors. In this episode, Phil Magness, economic historian and author of The Best of Karl Marx, joins Words & Numbers to talk about how Marx’s teachings were on the way out but got resurrected by political leaders and academics. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Jeff Bezos Giving $10 Billion https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/jeff-bezos-giving-away-10-billion-in-grants-for-fighting-climate-change/ Coronavirus Threatens Chinese Economy https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/millions-of-chinese-firms-face-collapse-if-banks-don-t-act-fast Foolishness of the week Flat Earth Experiment https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/23/mad-mike-hughes-killed-homemade-rocket-crash-california/4849772002/ Topic of the week The Best of Karl Marx https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY

We’ve all experienced incivility on the Internet. But today’s incivility is more than people being rude to each other online. Political leaders have become less civil toward each other, and political parties have become more extremist. Middle America, meanwhile, is becoming less represented as people on the two political extremes listen less to and scream more at each other. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Dinosaur statue https://www.the-sun.com/news/375426/dad-accidentally-orders-19ft-carnotaur-statue-for-his-dinosaur-mad-son-that-was-dropped-into-garden-by-crane/ Car dealers encourage loan defaults https://www.wsj.com/articles/dealerships-give-car-buyers-some-advice-just-stop-paying-your-loan-11581762601 Foolishness of the week Florida man refuses dialysis https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/15/trump-cardboard-cutout-dialysis-treatment/ Topic of the week The hounding of Jordan Peterson https://spectator.us/jordan-

Many people imagine that, when the government bans something, the banned thing goes away. In fact, what banning does is to remove government protections against violence, theft, and fraud. Justification for banning things that harm no one other than, perhaps, the person who wants those things hinges on inequality - that some of us should have the right to tell others of us how those others should live their own lives. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Technological cure for macular degeneration https://scienceblog.com/513957/first-in-the-u-s-wireless-retinal-device-for-advanced-age-related-macular-degeneration/ Americans go to libraries more than to movies https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/americans-went-library-more-often-movies-2019-180974091/ Foolishness of the week Trump and Pelosi’s Incivility https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/05/pelosis-page-ripping-was-fitting-end-impeachment/ Topic of the week United

The Congressional Budget Office is tasked with forecasting the federal budget. Over the past twenty years, the CBO has tended to over-estimate future tax revenues and under-estimate future government spending. The result is that CBO paints an unrealistically rosy picture of the government’s financial future. If we take CBO’s forecasts and compensate for their historically rosy biases, we find that, where the CBO predicts trillion-dollar deficits forever, the likely reality is actually worse. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers  Quick hits Europe votes for standardized phone chargers https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgqwbd/europe-just-voted-in-favor-of-making-iphone-and-android-use-the-same-charger Pledge https://www.wgal.com/article/student-sues-lebanon-school-district-over-alleged-punishment-for-refusing-to-stand-for-pledge-of-allegiance/30732086 WV Board of Education v. Barnette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Educ

When most people say, “equality,” they mean income equality. Economists draw a finer distinction between income equality and wealth equality. Political scientists draw an even finer distinction between economic equality and equality under the law. Philosophers distinguish even more finely, looking at equality of opportunity and equality of outcome, and examining how equality itself is one of several elements that comprise justice. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers  Quick hits Half of the world is now middle class https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2018/09/27/a-global-tipping-point-half-the-world-is-now-middle-class-or-wealthier/ 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/auschwitz-holocaust-muslim-jewish-pray-a9299941.html Foolishness of the week A “just” Connecticut http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/looney-news/3045-looney-200122#sthash.xHba9oNB.n5oMRw3V.dpbs https://www.washingt

The rising cost of tuition is merely a symptom of a disease. The disease, which is much more complex, involves misplaced incentives from administrators to faculty to students to parents. Phil Magnus joins Words & Numbers this week to talk about his recent book, Cracks in the Ivory Tower. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Trial by combat https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2020/01/13/iowa-courts-david-ostrom-requests-trial-combat-swords-settle-dispute/4456079002/ The FBI wants access to your phone https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/two-iphones-or-privacy-billions-why-apple-vs-fbi-matters-n1118001 Foolishness of the week You may have to answer to police in Kentucky https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article239389143.html Topic of the week Cracks in the Ivory Tower https://www.amazon.com/Cracks-Ivory-Tower-Higher-Education/dp/0190846283 Review of Cracks in the Ivory Tower https://www.n

The 18th Amendment was ratified a century ago, beginning the United States’ fourteen-year experiment with prohibition. An Amendment was needed because the Constitution did not give the federal government the power to ban alcohol. Yet, today, the federal government bans recreational drugs and puts medicinal drugs under the control of the FDA. But, the Constitution also doesn’t give the government the power to regulate drugs. Either the 18th Amendment wasn’t necessary a century ago, or federal drug controls are unconstitutional today. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits The optimal GPA https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/study-says-there-is-optimal-failure-for-learning-more-efficiently/ Too many 4.0s https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-graduated-cum-laude-so-did-everyone-else-1530523801 Weed in Atlanta https://thefreethoughtproject.com/apd-disbands-drug-unit-fight-real-crime/ Foolishness of the week Bernie Sanders worked for his money http

“School choice” is much more than parents being able to choose which schools their children will attend. It is also teachers being free to design and teach their own curricula. It is principals being free to promote good teachers and to fire poor teachers. The problems we have with public education in this country have their roots in a lack of choice for all parties involved in the educational process. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Self-interest versus selfish https://simpleflying.com/delta-passengers-life-saved-when-passengers-gave-up-seats-for-liver-transplant/ Water limits in California https://finance.yahoo.com/news/correct-information-california-water-efficiency-222625943.html Foolishness of the week NYC parking meters https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/01/02/parking-meters-nyc-credit-cards/ Topic of the week Corey DeAngelis https://reason.org/author/corey-deangelis/ Corey DeAngelis on Twitter https://twitter.com/DeAng

It’s the New Year, a time when people like to make resolutions. In this episode, James and Ant look at surveys on what Americans pick for their New Year resolutions, how many fall off their wagons, and the role of resolutions, kept or not, in giving us hope for the future. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits How much do CEOs make relative to workers? https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2018/02/12/ceo-tenure-rates/ https://twitter.com/berniesanders/status/1190369125291503621 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/top-executives.htm https://www.thebalancecareers.com/average-salary-information-for-us-workers-2060808 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2014/04/03/americas-highest-paid-marketing-executives/#5490bbc68f55 Food from air https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/protein-from-air?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1 Foolishness of the week Nerds, geeks, and hate crime https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/17/nerd-geek-insults-shou

People tend to talk about income inequality as if it were necessarily a bad thing. In so doing, they often confuse inequality and poverty and, in the process, run the risk of justifying what is really envy. This week, James and Ant discuss the fact that poverty is a bad thing, whether inequality could be a bad thing, and that politicians use voters’ envy to expand the government’s power. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits HELPER https://www.marketwatch.com/story/rand-paul-to-offer-bill-allowing-families-to-use-retirement-savings-for-student-loans-2019-12-04 How much Americans have in 401k plans, by age https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/23/how-much-money-americans-have-in-their-401ks-at-every-age.html 401k returns https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/401ks/articles/what-is-the-average-401-k-return Student loan interest rates https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/student-loan-interest-rates/ Bernie’s now a millionaire

A year ago, FCC repealed net neutrality - the law that required internet service providers to treat all data passing through their servers the same. Proponents of net neutrality said that the repeal would yield higher prices and worse service. In this week's episode James and Ant ask what actually happened. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Billion dollar property tax error https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/business/ups-drugs-tucson-arizona.html Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin https://www.blueorigin.com/ Richard Branson’s first space passenger https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/richard-bransons-virgin-galactic-sends-first-test-passenger-on-spaceflight.html Amazon’s satellite constellation https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazons-project-kuiper-oneweb-raise-curtain-higher-satellite-plans/ Foolishness of the week UK to require that food labelling tell consumers how much exercise they must do to burn off calories https://www.bbc.com/news/health

Large countries, like the United States, span multiple time zones and have multiple climates. They also have multiple economies, each with different price levels. Prices in New York City are very different from prices in Boise Idaho - typically higher. But wages in New York City are higher also, but then so too are taxes, and so too is the likelihood of being employed. In this episode, James and Ant talk about differences in the costs of living across US cities. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits UPS drug runners https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/business/ups-drugs-tucson-arizona.html Average person can tolerate family members for four hours https://www.studyfinds.org/breaking-point-average-person-cant-last-four-hours-with-their-family-over-the-holidays/ Foolishness of the week Washington College cancels anti-rascist play https://reason.com/2019/12/03/washington-college-the-foreigner-censorship-students-kkk-racism/ Regional price p

One of the few enumerated powers that the Founders granted to the federal government was the power to issue patents. Patents are a compromise between two conflicting goals. On the one hand, we want to avoid the creation of government-protected monopolies because monopolies stifle innovation. On the other, we want entrepreneurs to have an incentive to innovate. And one way to incentivize entrepreneurs is to grant monopoly protection for their inventions. Patent law is an attempt to balance these two conflicting goals, but the balance presents trade offs. Weaker patent laws mean cheaper goods today but a lesser variety of goods tomorrow; stronger patent laws mean more expensive goods today but a greater variety of goods tomorrow. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Why did the South Bronx burn? https://www.latinousa.org/2019/02/06/decadeoffire/ A history of NYC rent control https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100610/BLOGS01/306109998/a-

Sometimes, the things we take for granted are the things we should be most thankful for. Football games on your television, climate control in your automobiles, and fully-stocked neighborhood grocery stores are among the many things we may not think about until they aren’t there. What do the data indicate about our modern standard of living? Who is responsible for the advancements in medicine and technology that have improved so many lives? Which historical scourges are functionally nonexistent today? Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan in giving thanks to the many improvements in life on this week’s episode of Words & Numbers. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Government grocery store https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/22/baldwin-florida-food-desert-city-owned-grocery-store/ Conservatism stresses students https://www.thecollegefix.com/intellectual-conservatism-group-denied-may-cause-stress-to-the-student-body/ Foolishnes

James and Antony record before a live audience at Truman State University, asking the question, “Is Capitalism moral?” Their answer wends its way through the definition of morality, whether morality requires a religious basis, whether markets beget or reflect morality, whether self-interest is immoral or a motivator that can be harnessed to encourage people to want to help each other. Show your support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick hits Chicago library drops fines https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/chicago-first-to-ditch-overdue-library-fees/ Ohio allows wrong answers https://www.newsweek.com/ohio-student-religious-liberties-act-1472008 Foolishness of the week Billionaires’ tears https://shop.elizabethwarren.com/products/billionaire-tears-mug Topic of the week: The morality of capitalism Paul Ryan’s Catholicism and the poor https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444375104577592892933747400 Ethics and the economy https://www.jstor.org/stable/