Words & Numbers

More frequently, politicians are talking about a wealth tax. As with the income tax back in the early 1900s, politicians promise that the tax will only be one or two percent and will only apply to the rich. But, as with the income tax, if politicians can convince voters to allow the government to impose a tax on wealth, it will be less than a decade before that new tax hits the middle class. Fooli...

A new outbreak of a communicable disease in China has officials there calling for masks and social distancing. This week, we talk about what lessons we learned from the last go around and how people might respond in this country to a reprise of social distancing and masking.  Foolishness of the Week: 07:23 Main episode: 11:23 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationand...

We recently moderated the South Carolina Libertarian Party’s Presidential debate. We had a great time and the candidates were serious people. But the contrast between our excellent experience in South Carolina and Libertarian party hijinx we’ve seen in the past spurred this conversation. Is the Libertarian Party a political party or a philosophical society? The latter’s goal is to delve deeply int...

Three former professors discuss the fraud that universities are perpetrating on students and taxpayers.. Foolishness of the Week: 11:59 Main episode: 15:20 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Topic of th...

Over ten years ago, we predicted that, as the Federal government approached insolvency, the Federal Reserve would start printing money to monetize the government spending, and that that would give us sustained inflation in the 5% plus range. We saw the 5% plus inflation and, as the Fed fought it, we then saw interest rates skyrocket. Trillion dollar plus deficits are the new normal, Social Securit...

An elderly couple, an antiques dealer, and an African mask spark a conversation about fraud, fairness, and value. Foolishness of the Week: 11:00 Main episode: 13:14 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Qu...

Composer and musician Josh Nichols was annoyed when, on an earlier episode, James referred to “high culture,” and Ant said, “you mean the snooty stuff?” Being a classical composer and, importantly, making money at it, Josh joins us to set the record straight as to why we should all be more appreciative of “the snooty stuff.” Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandc...

Fans are applauding Taylor Swift for contributing billions to the country’s GDP. Yet Taylor Swift (three-quarters of a billionaire) is doing less for the economy than what many billionaires, who we vilify, do. Why do we applaud one business person and vilify the other? Foolishness of the week: 09:33 Main episode: 14:24 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercio...

More than a decade ago, experts decided to change how students are taught to read. Without testing whether the new method worked or, apparently, even checking in with actual teachers, the experts forced the change. What resulted was a generation of children with reduced reading abilities. The experts have now reversed course. People make mistakes like this all the time. When the people who are mak...

From time to time, listeners write to tell us what we’ve gotten wrong. This week, we go back through predictions and analyses we’ve made that have turned out to be wrong. Main episode: 12:09 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patr...

Attorney Vince White joins us this week. Vince’s law firm does more workplace harassment and sexual discrimination cases than any other US law firm. His firm also handled some of the Harvey Weinstein cases. Interestingly, Vince is James’ former student. Foolishness of the week: 05:30 Main episode: 08:39 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More A...

Robert Reich (not an economist) recorded a video recently in which he claims that the rich are not paying their fair share of Social Security. But the calculations he uses to prove his point are fundamentally flawed. Foolishness of the week: 09:54 Main episode: 12:57 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumb...

Economist Bryan McCannon gives us two things to think about this week: his research into whether covid mask mandates saved lives, and that journal editors were afraid to publish his results. Foolishness of the week: 08:04 Main episode: 11:49 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support...

Burning Man, a modern day Woodstock, occurs each year in the desert. This year brought 87,000 people together to live, if only for a few days, in a cooperative nirvana. We take some time to look at the Burning Man principles for living and ask whether they make any sense. Foolishness of the week: 05:21 Main episode: 11:44 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoer...

Union membership in the private sector has been declining for decades, while union membership in the public sector has been increasing. This is consistent with workers voluntarily choosing not to unionize to the point that unions must turn to government jobs where it is easier to force workers to unionize. Foolishness of the week: 04:20 Main episode: 10:03 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion...

The Republicans held their first primary debate. What they said wasn’t interesting. What they didn’t say was. Foolishness of the week: 07:00 Main episode: 09:10 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick...

Economist Art Carden joins us this week to talk about his popular book, Strangers With Candy. Foolishness of the week: 04:27 Main episode: 18:01 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Quick Hits https://for...

Michael Semanchik, Director of the Innocence Center, joins us to talk about freeing the wrongfully imprisoned, and reforming the criminal justice system to reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions. Foolishness of the week: 06:13 Main episode: 07:09 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Y...

The point of communicating is to transfer thoughts from one person’s brain to another. In most forms of human communication, words are the tools we use. But if the two people don’t share common definitions of words, then communication becomes clouded. The most extreme case is when two people speak very different languages. But miscommunication often happens when both people speak the same language...

The Constitution sets lower age limits for members of Congress and the President, but sets no upper limits. Before modern medicine, this wasn’t as much of a problem as people’s bodies tended not to outlive their minds. Today, it’s becoming a problem. Foolishness of the week: 05:30 Main episode: 09:35 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant...

James and I both went to see the recent box office hit, The Sound of Freedom. I liked it. James didn’t. But we both were appalled at what appear to be seriously distorted claims made in the film about human trafficking. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Number...

Howie Baetjer, Rob McDonald, James Stacey Taylor, and Clark Neily join us to talk about gun rights, canceling the Founders, and animal rights. Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Words & Numbers Back...

This encore performance is of our most popular episode. This episode, in which we explore unintended consequences, first aired in September of 2019. Foolishness of the week: 06:19 Main episode: 10:54 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https:/...

James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve broken the separation of powers,  Foolishness of the week: 06:41 Main episode: 03:53 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support...

James and Ant field questions from students at Brookfield Academy on possible fixes for Social Security, the politics of taxation and spending, and how we’ve broken the separation of powers,  Foolishness of the week: 06:41 Main episode: 08:18 Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support...