Now that I’ve finished writing Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, people keep asking me about my future research plans. My first order of business is to finish up the political responsibility project I’ve been working on with Ilya Somin, Wayne Grove, and Eric Crampton. The results are in, but I’ve still got a lot of writing and argument-crafting to do. The final product will be an article entitled “Systematically Biased Beliefs About Political Responsibility.”
After tying up that loose end, I’ve got three new books planned. I’ll be writing them in order:
1. The Case Against Education, my defense of the empirical importance of the signaling model of education.
2. Poverty: Who To Blame. Part 1: Crummy policy in the Third World. Part 2: Immigration restrictions in the First World. Part 3: Irresponsible behavior the world over.
3. Pragmatic Pacifism: The Realism of Idealism. This book will flesh out my philosophical/economic case for pacifism – and try to rescue the position from the wishful thinking that so often surrounds it.
These should keep me occupied for the next six years, minimum.
READER COMMENTS
Two Things
Sep 30 2010 at 3:13am
1. If your book about poverty doesn’t discuss IQ then it will be worthless, or nearly so.
2. If your book blames poverty in underdeveloped countries on the immigration policies of developed countries then it will have negative worth, because of the risk that some low-IQ reader might believe you. Even if you think bad institutions produce poverty, one country’s immigration policy cannot prevent the people of another country adopting better institutions.
SB7
Sep 30 2010 at 7:38am
I’m excited about all of these. Now go get to work!
Hume
Sep 30 2010 at 10:37am
How about an article developing an anarchist political theory based on ethical intuitionism?
Michael Wiebe
Sep 30 2010 at 9:40pm
Glorious tenure, eh?
J. Daniel Wright
Oct 1 2010 at 1:49pm
Epilogue: An extra wag of the finger to the impoverished themselves ?
Patri Friedman
Oct 2 2010 at 3:13am
Have you stopped, tried to let go of your attachment to these topics, and thought about what books would best advance your interests (changing the world, fun to write, advance your career, whatever your goals are)? It’s very easy to get hooked by certain topics, but before putting a lot of time into something, I hope you’ve done some objective strategic consideration about things like what impact they will have outside your peer group.
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