Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 36

Missed This In High School

“The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you people, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you people would go along with them on the assumption — the evil assumption —that all males lie, that all males are basically immoral beings, that all males are not to be trusted around women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber. Which, people, we know...

Backlash: The Last Refuge of an Immigration Moderate

Moderately pro-immigration thinkers often worry about “backlash.” Tyler Cowen’s the most energetic worrier, but Tim Kane said the same at my Cato book party. Backlash is what you bring up when none of the popular complaints about immigration make sense to you. Then you get meta and reflect, “Immigration does have one serious cost: it inspires bad arguments. Such arguments could ultimately lead to bad policies.”

The strange thing about the backlash argument is that the mechanism is totally...

Open Borders: Think of the Children

I love to see kids reading Open Borders. When my daughter was five, she read it over my shoulder as I wrote it – and I knew I was right to make it a graphic novel. Since then, I’ve heard about dozens of kids enjoying the book. When I advertise it and add #ThinkOfTheChildren, I’m not joking. I really would like to put Open Borders in the hands of every kid on Earth.

The uncharitable explanation is that I want to brainwash ignorant children with absurd dogmas. I predictably reject that...

Socialism: Playing With Fire

Imagine you’re a socialist. You read Kristian Niemietz’sSocialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies and declare him most unfair: “Sure, the typical socialist defended totalitarian regimes during their ‘honeymoon periods.’ The best socialists, however, spoke out at once. And it’s the best socialists who speak for socialism.”

A reasonable position. I don’t want my views judged by the quality of the typical person who shares my label, either.

Still, this raises a weighty question: How should the...

Reflections on Guatemala

I first journeyed to Guatemala 20 years ago, hosted by Universidad Francisco Marroquín. Two weeks ago, I returned for a delightful extended visit, accompanied by my Spanish-speaking elder sonsand former EconLog blogger Jim Schneider. I spent over a week doing guest lectures at UFM, then gave Friday’s keynote talk for the Reason Foundation’s Reason in Guatemala conference. During our trip, we were also able to visit the awesome Mayan ruins of Tikal and Yaxha. Here are my reflections on the...

Caplan-Weinersmith Mutual Interview

Here is an all-new pair of interviews with me and Zach Weinersmith. First, I interview him. Then, he interviews me. Very fun!

The post Caplan-Weinersmith Mutual Interview appeared first on Econlib.

Steyn on Our EU Bet

I missed Mark Steyn’s take on our EU bet (published on January 6, 2020), but here it is. Quite admirable; Steyn avoids any hint of “I really won” or “This proves nothing.” Instead:

So here we are on January 1st 2020. Bryan Caplan has nowannounced:

Since the UK remains in the EU today, it has clearlynotofficially withdrawn yet. End of story.

He is quite right. As of today, the United Kingdom is a (non-participatory) member of the EU. It will supposedly “officially withdraw” from the EU on...

Open Borders in the New Yorker

Zoey Poll has written my favorite review of Open Borders in the latest issue of the New Yorker. Why favorite? Because the review is not only accurate and enthusiastic, butvisually attentive: “The illustrations in “Open Borders” are playful, bright, and irreverent; their simple style evokes Caplan’s relentless optimism.” As far as I know, no other reviewer pays so much attention to our imagery. Examples:

What about poorer countries, with low returns on labor, from which immigrants would flow?...

The Fertility of City-States

Urban fertility is markedly lower than rural fertility. In the U.S., for example, rural women ultimately have about .3 more children than urban women. The obvious story is that (a) urban housing is more expensive, so (b) urban women live in smaller homes, which (c) makes having kids less pleasant. Raising my four children in a two-bedroom DC apartment would have meant much more stress and much less sleep than raising them in my suburban McMansion.

On second thought, though, perhaps this...

Moral Approximates

“I urge you to beware the temptation of pride–the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.” – Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” Speech

During the Cold War, folks like Ronald Reagan accused their domestic opponents of...