Articles by Will Wilkinson
Neuro Wine in Old Bottles
In the September 18 edition of The New Yorker magazine, writer John Cassidy leads a fascinating tour through parts of the new field of neuroeconomics, the study of the neurological underpinnings of economic decision-making. Sadly, a number of the economists...
Read More
|
Solidarity: More Than a Feeling
Solidarity is one of the watchwords of the political left. In French, solidaire means "interdependent." In Latin solidus means "solid" or "whole." Solidarity as an ideal imagines a society in which "we're all in it together," whole, one. This is,...
Read More
|
Storms of Stupidity on the Op-Ed Pages
The tragedy and travesty of Katrina and New Orleans has three basic parts: (1) very, very bad weather hitting a perilously situated city; (2) government failure at the local, state, and federal level; (3) the poverty of New Orleans, ensuring...
Read More
|
Insuring Against the Inevitable
Do you think Social Security gives you a raw deal? I do. Every two weeks my wages are docked by 12.4 percent -- not chump change. If the Social Security system doesn't collapse under the weight of smug complacency, I...
Read More
|
The Anti-Market Protocols of the Councillor of Zion
Appearing as an eponymous "Councillor of Zion" in one of the Wachowski Brothers' botched sequels to The Matrix, Cornel West, a tirelessly self-promoting Princeton Professor of Religion, can be heard to exclaim: "Comprehension is not requisite for cooperation!" The
Read More
|
Meritocracy: The Appalling Ideal?
Did you know that John Edwards is the son of mill worker? Did you? Edwards's toothy display of hopeful vacuities at the Democratic National Convention moved socialist economist Max Sawicky to lament yet "another paean to the self-made man."...
Read More
|
Understanding Political Libertarianism
In his meandering July 20th essay, Edward Feser failed totally to demonstrate the "The Trouble with Libertarianism." It's hard to pin down the argument in Feser's convoluted dissertation. I count at least four loosely confederated claims: (1) 'Libertarianism' does
Read More
|
Ideology Is Infrastructure
On the Tigris river in Northeast Iraq, American construction giant Bechtel busies itself repairing the span of the Tikrit bridge on the road to Kirkuk. Down south in Umm Qasr, Bechtel dredges the port, gateway to the Persian Gulf...
Read More
|
