Plus the fate of Gen Z, the Revolt of the Elites, how to GiveWell, and more.

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** Econlib Newsletter
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October 2023
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In addition to all the new content we normally bring you on the first Monday of each month, today happens to be the first day of Banned Books Week. Given the challenges facing the freedom to read we keep seeing, we thought we’d take this opportunity to share some related content with you.

As is a publishing tradition, the first book ever published at Econlib was John Milton’s Areopagitica, an historic and revolutionary defense of freedom of the press. You can read Sarah Skwire’s Liberty Classic on this title ([link removed]) here.

What else are we reading?
* We’ll be checking in every day to see the Banned Book highlighted in the Reading Room ([link removed]) , the humanities-focused blog at our sister site, the Online Library of Liberty.
* Speaking of the OLL, you can also explore their Banned Books Collection ([link removed]) .
* In 2021, Caroline Breashears looked at Yevgeny Zamyatin’s famously banned book, We ([link removed]) . If you’ve not yet read it, this month seems like a good time!
* In 2020, we featured a #ReadWithMe series by Nikolai Wenzel based on Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater ([link removed]) . Vonnegut is one of our local heroes in no small part because of his stand against book-banning, of which he was often a target.
* Our No Due Date book club ([link removed]) subscribers are reading Don Lavoie’s Rivalry and Central Planning. We had a terrific virtual salon with our own Pierre Lemieux recently to discuss Anthony de Jasay’s The State. In November, we’ll turn to fiction. It’s never to late to join us.

We hope you enjoy the selections above and all the new content we bring you below. We wish you a terrific month, and we’ll be back next month with more.

Until then, stay well and stay curious.


** NEW Econlib Articles
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October 2023


** Glimpses of a
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** New Order
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By Arnold Kling

This month, Kling revisits a social science classic, which he finds read “like a prophecy about today’s cultural and political climate.”

Join Kling and special guest Stephanie Slade on October 24 at noon EDT for our monthly “From the Shelf” conversation based on Lasch’s book.

Free to all, but pre-registration is required ([link removed]) .

Read More ([link removed])
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** I, Pothole
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By D. Eric Schansberg

Just how much knowledge is required to fix a pothole???

You no doubt know the story of I, Pencil, ([link removed]) but this month’s Article offers a compelling new genealogy- one that explores the complexity of the production of a public good.

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** Americans Are Still Thriving
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By Jeremy Horpedahl

Has economic growth slowed down in recent decades? Are we worse off than a generation ago? Both regular Americans and economic researchers have been asking these questions a lot lately. The debate often slips into dueling anecdotes or—even worse—wonky discussions of income measures and inflation adjustments.

What’s the best way to look at this data and answer those questions?

This month, Horpedahl explains- and suggests we can worry less..
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** The Past, Present, and Future of Public Choice: Part I
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By Peter J. Boettke

Sixty years ago, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock published their landmark work, The Calculus of Consent ([link removed]) , and founded the Public Choice Society.

In this Article, Peter Boettke takes us on a tour of the evolution of public choice scholarship and suggests new avenues for future research.
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** EconTalk: Conversation for the Curious
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Elie Hassenfeld on GiveWell

When then-hedge fund manager Elie Hassenfeld ([link removed]) began his philanthropic journey in 2006, he knew that he wanted to get the most charitable bang for his buck. He quickly realized, however, that detailed data on charitable impact simply didn't exist. So he and Holden Karnovsky founded GiveWell, an organization inspired by effective altruism that identifies the charities that save or improve lives the most for every dollar given. Listen as Hassenfeld, GiveWell's CEO, explains to EconTalk's Russ Roberts ([link removed]) how GiveWell determines the small number of charities they recommend to achieve optimal impact.

Explore More ([link removed])

More Recent Episodes & Extras:
* Peter Attia on Lifespan, Healthspan, and Outlive ([link removed])
* Michael Munger on How Adam Smith Solved the Trolley Problem ([link removed])
* Mike Munger Extra: The Agency to Act ([link removed])
* Lydia Dugdale Extra: Addressing Your Existential Angst ([link removed])
* Judge Glock Extra: Competition in Zoning Create More Housing? ([link removed])
* Anupam Bapu Jena on Random Acts of Medicine ([link removed])
* Roland Fryer Extra: Difference = Discrimination? ([link removed])


** Virtual Reading Groups
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** H.G. Wells, Technocracy, and Liberty
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with Alberto Mingardi

Novelist H.G. Wells (1866-1946) is still beloved for some of the most brilliant stories of the early 20th century: from The Time Machine to The Invisible Man, quite a lot of his prose survived the test of time, has been brilliantly adapted by Hollywood and is still part of our collective imagination.

Still, Wells keeps being part of the contemporaneous discussion - albeit perhaps not so openly - as an early advocate for the scientific management of society. Close to the Fabians (with whom he had quarrels), a disciple of Thomas Huxley, Wells helped popularizing the idea that a better scientific understanding of reality needed planning.

For this very reason, he was a bete-noire of F.A. Hayek, who criticized him publicly and singled him out as an example of those conceited yet pusillanimous intellectuals he so often criticized.

Pre-registration is required ([link removed]) , and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions. Some readings must be acquired in advance. Click here to learn more ([link removed]) .


** Smith and Rousseau’s Competing Visions of Commercial Society
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with Edward Harpham

This VRG will investigate the competing visions and critiques of commercial society found in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith. The first two sessions focus upon close readings of Rousseau’s Second Discourse (1754), along with Adam Smith’s early review of the book, first published as a Letter to the Edinburgh Review in 1755-6. Session 2 will also discuss brief excerpts from Rousseau’s On the Social Contract (1762). The third and fourth sessions will discuss selections from Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations in light of Rousseau’s moral critique of commercial society. Among the topics to be discussed in these sessions will be the ideas of pity and sympathy, of benevolence and justice, the impartial spectator and the General Will, the division of labor, and the Natural History of Opulence.

Pre-registration is required ([link removed]) , and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions. Click here to learn more. ([link removed])

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