So I finally gave in and coughed up a donation for Wikipedia. It was no trouble at all, and felt good. Now I have a sense that I’m a partial owner – a stakeholder of sorts – in this apparatus that I use every day.

And the other day, I did the same for a small choir that sings great stuff. And there’s a museum in town that’s cool so I gave a bit there.

There was a side project that I really believe in (sung English propers for liturgy, if you must know) and I headed a campaign for that and raised $5,000 in one week. It was wonderful.

I’ll be interested in seeing how this discussion turns out: Bryan Caplan hypothesizes that a lot of conservatives are most passionate about the issues on which they are least libertarian: immigration and war. This is a case where vivid experience is suggestive but not conclusive; hence, he opens the door to bets and empirical tests. Bryan admits that he doesn’t know many religious conservatives, and my car radio is tuned to a local Christian talk station (AM 640).

[Why do so many people made rich by the market try so hard to bite the invisible hand that feeds them? In this passage from the The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1954), Mises explains the petty jealousies of the anticapitalistic rich.]

The idea that the benefits of economic growth have accrued primarily to the rich is an important part of the conventional wisdom, and it is supported by official income statistics. I would argue that technological change and economic growth over the last several decades (or centuries) has made us more equal, not less. Here are two ways we are more equal: 1. Communication technology. 2. Access to information.

potentia est” (“knowledge is power”)–Francis Bacon’s famous expression. For thousands of years, the human standard of living was flat. It finally started significantly increasing with the Industrial Revolution–with the rise of capitalism (strong, systematic protection for property rights) and with the spread of technology and scientific knowledge.

Great post by Mike Masnick on Techdirt (h/t Pat Tinsley). (For more on the First Sale Doctrine, see my posts posts Supreme Court lets ban on “gray market” imports stand; Leveraging IP; Supreme Court lets ban on “gray market” imports stand; Why Netflix Won.)

Lately the supporters of big government have deployed an interesting twist to their arguments, claiming that it is a dirty right-wing lie that government has grown under the Obama administration. Unlike arguments over economic theory, surely this should be an objective exercise in looking up the facts.