Cool

I don't always agree with economist Tyler Cowan, principal blogger at Marginal Revolution. And I'm also not always a big fan of reading books about economics, as important as it is to understand the subject since few elected officials seem to have any hankerin' to.

But I may buy his new book Stubborn Attachments anyway, as Cowan decided he would donate his entire share of the book's earnings to a man he met in Ethiopia who wants to start his own business. The main idea of Stubborn Attachments, according to a couple of blurbs that I've read, is that our reason and common sense can help us get rid of concepts and ideas that hold our entire society back, and that we can improve things through cooperation and relationships. The choice to donate his profits to the man who helped guide him around a village in Ethiopia, he said, is a way to live out what the book argues we should be doing.

Now, as to whether or not I read it is another matter entirely, of course. Thomas Sowell helped me understand economics as a discipline. But even he couldn't get me to enjoy it.