James Otteson Archives - Granite Grok

Notable Quote – Keep Your Nose Out Of My Wallet

July 14, 2021 Skip

What I am paid, and what jobs I am will to do for that pay and under what circumstances, is none of your business. What others are paid, and what others are willing to do for what pay and under what circumstances is their business and no one else’s. As equal moral agents they are entitled … Read more

Notable Quote – Statists Never Blame Government for ITS Lacking, Do They?

June 17, 2021 Skip

Economics is all about the study of scarcity and tradeoffs of which there are many. We know this because prices for different products are all different. Just because someone wants something doesn’t mean that it HAS to be available to them at their desired price point.

Notable Quote – May I Serve You?

May 29, 2021 Skip

Capitalism cannot just be summed up as voluntary acts of transaction in which both sides believe they have received the greater value.

Notable Quote – I Have to Keep Saying This Because So Many Haven’t Learned It

May 15, 2021 Skip

An objective look at the limitation of our knowledge – how difficult is it to know whether we are making good decisions even in our own lives, let alone in those of anyone else? – reveals that in fact we are typically in no position to judge what is good for others.

Notable Quote – This Is Why Decentralization of Society is so Important

May 2, 2021 Skip

The “Great Mind Fallacy,” or GMF … has two aspects. Its first is to believe that there is some person or group of people who possess enough information, and is endowed with sufficiently superior character, that we can safely entrust with the authority of crafting policy for citizens. Its second aspect is to endorse public … Read more

Notable Quote – Cooperation

May 1, 2021 Skip

What has changed over humanity’s recent history is not biology, psychology, physiology, ecology, or geography. What has changed, instead, is their attitudes. As economic historian Deirdre McCloskey has demonstrated in her magisterial three-volume investigation under the general title The Bourgeois Era, the most salient factor distinguishing the post-1800 era from everything that went before is the attitudes people held … Read more

Are You Listening, Governor Chris Sununu?

April 9, 2021 Skip

So few governors with access to such Kingly Pandemic Powers refused to use them. Those few who showed restraint are to be congratulated but Chris Sununu is not among them.