Words & Numbers

Union membership in the private sector has been declining for decades, while union membership in the public sector has been increasing. This is consistent with workers voluntarily choosing not to unionize to the point that unions must turn to government jobs where it is easier to force workers to unionize. Foolishness of the week: 04:20 Main episode: 10:03 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/climate-change-activists-blockaded-burning-man-accuse-police-excessive-rcna102370 Foolishness of the Week https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/pope-francis-conservatives-united-states-rcna102452 Topic of the Week Declining union membership https://www.statista.com/statistics/195339/number-of-union-members-in-the-us-since-2000/ https://www.statista.com/statisti

The Republicans held their first primary debate. What they said wasn’t interesting. What they didn’t say was. Foolishness of the week: 07:00 Main episode: 09:10 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4171633-ceiling-fan-efficiency-rule-draws-ire-of-house-republicans/ https://finance.yahoo.com/news/urban-doom-loop-could-pose-105045782.html Foolishness of the Week https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/biden-advisers-bristle-newsoms-plan-debate-desantis-rcna101799 Topic of the Week GOP Primary Debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPDCzJuLgI Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www

Economist Art Carden joins us this week to talk about his popular book, Strangers With Candy. Foolishness of the week: 04:27 Main episode: 18:01 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://fortune.com/2023/07/06/wealthy-leaving-china-education-school-sisb-stock-surge-singapore-thailand/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/372900/number-of-chinese-students-that-study-in-the-us/ https://www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/map?geozone=world&page=map&year=2020&countries=THA,CHN,USA https://reason.com/2023/08/21/chinas-industrial-policy-is-failing-will-american-politicians-take-notice/ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/21/american-workers-are-demanding-almost-80000-a-year-to-take-a-new-job.html Foolishness of the Week https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1693274613541671350 Topic of the Week

Michael Semanchik, Director of the Innocence Center, joins us to talk about freeing the wrongfully imprisoned, and reforming the criminal justice system to reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions. Foolishness of the week: 06:13 Main episode: 07:09 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/08/07/hawaii-news/emergency-declaration-prohibits-price-gouging-lawyer-says/ https://www.outkick.com/oliver-anthony-rich-men-north-of-richmond-song-lyrics-viral-video/ Foolishness of the Week https://sfstandard.com/2023/08/11/san-francisco-robotaxi-cruise-debauchery/ Topic of the Week Mike Semanchik https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-semanchik/ California Innocence Project Podcast https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/cipp/ Inno

The point of communicating is to transfer thoughts from one person’s brain to another. In most forms of human communication, words are the tools we use. But if the two people don’t share common definitions of words, then communication becomes clouded. The most extreme case is when two people speak very different languages. But miscommunication often happens when both people speak the same language. If we hope to resolve, or at least come to peaceful disagreement, over topics from gun control to gender, we have to make a concerted effort to agree on definitions before debating the topics. Main episode: 12:34 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits http://www.worldgovernmentbonds.com/credit-rating/united-states/ Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant

The Constitution sets lower age limits for members of Congress and the President, but sets no upper limits. Before modern medicine, this wasn’t as much of a problem as people’s bodies tended not to outlive their minds. Today, it’s becoming a problem. Foolishness of the week: 05:30 Main episode: 09:35 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Topic of the Week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_who_did_not_win_reelection https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Political_Science_and_Civics/Attenuated_Democracy_(Hubert)/08%3A_Electoral_Politics_and_Public_Opinion/8.07%3A_Chapter_55-_The_Advantages_of_Incumbency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_age https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2012/lr5a4.html https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-c

James and I both went to see the recent box office hit, The Sound of Freedom. I liked it. James didn’t. But we both were appalled at what appear to be seriously distorted claims made in the film about human trafficking. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Topic of the Week Human trafficking defined https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report/ World data on human trafficking (p. 78) https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Trafficking-in-Persons-Report-2023.pdf US data on human trafficking https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/human-trafficking-data-collection-activities-2022 Fraction of children in human trafficking (p. 48) https://www.unodc.org/documents/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf Drug trafficking statistics https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/drug-trafficking Critiq

Howie Baetjer, Rob McDonald, James Stacey Taylor, and Clark Neily join us to talk about gun rights, canceling the Founders, and animal rights. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan #AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This encore performance is of our most popular episode. This episode, in which we explore unintended consequences, first aired in September of 2019. Foolishness of the week: 06:19 Main episode: 10:54 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/maryland-sk-court-case-teen-sexting-child-pornography.html https://www.blackbusiness.com/2019/05/roy-allela-black-engineer-invents-gloves-turn-sign-language-audible-speech.html Foolishness of the Week https://reason.com/2019/08/28/de-blasio-advisory-group-wants-to-abolish-gifted-classes-in-nyc-public-schools/ https://reason.com/2019/08/28/de-blasio-advisory-group-wants-to-abolish-gifted-classes-in-nyc-public-schools/ Episode Topic https://www.wired.com/2008/12/a380-is-so-quie/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-cobra-effect-a-n

James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve broken the separation of powers,  Foolishness of the week: 06:41 Main episode: 03:53 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan #AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliber

James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve broken the separation of powers,  Foolishness of the week: 06:41 Main episode: 08:18 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan #AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliber

This week’s episode is a live recording of a panel discussion on free speech at the University of Washington. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Christin Gilmer https://www.linkedin.com/in/christingilmer Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan #AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastc

This week, historian Rob McDonald, Constitutional scholar and lawyer Clark Neily, philosophy James Stacey Taylor, and economist Howard Baetjer join James and Ant around a fire to discuss the indictments against former President Donald Trump. To accommodate the extended conversation, this week we forego our usual quick hits and foolishness of the week. We think you'll agree that, regardless of on which side you fall on the topic, the whole business with Donald Trump qualifies as foolishness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Weird things are happening. Retail sales have stagnated, savings are markedly down, yet unemployment is low, inflation isn’t as bad as it was. Have we reached a “new normal?” Foolishness of the week: 05:00 Main episode: 06:41 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/federal-judge-makes-history-holding-border-searches-cell-phones-require-warrant https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/his-township-spied-on-his-car-collection-with-a-drone-now-the-state-supreme-court-will-decide-if-they-violated-his-rights/ar-AA1c2djX https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65602519 Foolishness of the Week https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2023/06/04/are-chickens-really-related-to-t-rex-dinosaurs-peta-spotlights-evolutionary-link/ Topic of the Week https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RSXFS h

For decades and where the law is ambiguous, courts have invoked the Chevron doctrine in allowing regulatory agencies to decide for themselves the meaning of the ambiguous language. Unsurprisingly, agencies invariably interpret ambiguous language in their own favors. The Supreme Court recently agreed to reconsider the Chevron doctrine. Overturning the doctrine could call into question decades’ worth of regulatory rulings. Clark Neily joins us this week to discuss. Foolishness of the week: 06:10 Main episode: 08:37 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://dailyhive.com/toronto/the-anarchist-toronto-cafe-permanently-closing https://www.youtube.com/live/-B-9XOlMCks?feature=share https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-744499 Foolishness of the Week https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/to

People are saying that artificial intelligence will destroy jobs and enslave humans. We’ve heard this many times before. Before artificial intelligence, people said it about computers. Before computers, they said it about machines. Not only were people wrong before, they were spectacularly wrong. They’re likely wrong again. Foolishness of the week: 09:15 Main episode: 10:16 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits Foolishness of the Week Topic of the Week https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/should-the-laborer-fear-machines/380476/ Labor productivity (output per hour per worker) Up 2% per year since 1950 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRS85006092 Employees 1939: 30 million Today: 156 million https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS Employment population ratio (employees per people

Episode 327: To Vote or Not To Vote This week’s episode comes live from Sandy High School in Sandy Oregon where James and I give arguments for and against voting. Foolishness of the week: 07:56 Main episode: 08:37 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://apnews.com/article/facial-recognition-airport-screening-tsa-d8b6397c02afe16602c8d34409d1451f Foolishness of the Week https://www.wsj.com/articles/got-chocolate-milk-kids-washington-might-take-it-away-in-schools-b4c9b29e  Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitte

We hear that women make 80 cents for every dollar that men make, and that blacks earn less than whites. This week, we delve into the data and find these claims far more complicated and interesting than they first appear. Foolishness of the week: 02:50 Main episode: 03:25 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Apply for the Seminar on Classical Liberalism: Theory and Practice https://www.wabash.edu/stephenson-institute/summer-seminars Quick Hits Foolishness of the Week Topic of the Week https://www.bls.gov/charts/usual-weekly-earnings/usual-weekly-earnings-current-quarter-by-race-and-sex.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2021/home.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr71/nvsr71-01.pdf https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/g

One of the things that cryptocurrency has done is to prompt central banks to develop their own digital currencies. These will combine the downsides of private digital currencies with the downsides of government currencies. Foolishness of the week: 08:21 Main episode: 09:58 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Apply for the Seminar on Classical Liberalism: Theory and Practice https://www.wabash.edu/stephenson-institute/summer-seminars Quick Hits https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/07/21/are-you-in-the-global-middle-class-find-out-with-our-income-calculator/ https://apnews.com/article/drug-shortages-adderall-ozempic-855632a04a17c2bf75b6a89e4c08ef79 Foolishness of the Week https://news.yahoo.com/british-people-urged-swear-allegiance-223829342.html Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/group

The question, “How much do Americans earn?” seems simple. But there are so many moving parts below the surface that there is no single answer. For example, by “earn” do we mean “money from a job” or are we including interest income. What about Social Security retirement benefits? What about government welfare benefits? When we say “Americans” do we mean individual workers, or families, or households? When we say “How much” do we mean the average number or the median? Foolishness of the week: 02:43 Main episode: 06:00 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Apply for the Seminar on Classical Liberalism: Theory and Practice https://www.wabash.edu/stephenson-institute/summer-seminars Quick Hits https://globalnews.ca/news/9642634/psac-stike-remote-work/ https://www.dw.com/en/german-editor-fired-over-ai-created-schumac