Category: Economics

Social Science and Fiction Part 1: Why Bother?

You can create reasonably immersive, fairly convincing setting by remembering a simple five-letter acronym.

MERPS: Social, Political, Economic, Religious, and Military.

From tiny little subsistence bands to mighty intergalactic empires, from sword-and-sorcery barbarian epics to swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, these five dimensions allow you to cover every major aspect required to create conflict and a memorable story.

Walmart

Can Walmart Compete (in Streaming Video)?

Ordinary Times regular contributors Mark Krieger (@musepolisci) and Andrew Donaldson (@four4thefire) break down the news that Walmart is looking to launch their own streaming service, and fall on opposite sides when it comes to projecting the retail giants success.

Education and Making a Good Living

How necessary is to go to college in order to make a good living? Are we getting what we are paying for? Who doesn’t need to go to college in order to make a good living, indeed, even to get rich? Those are the issues I explore here while reflecting on Bryan Caplan’s new book that argues for austerity in education and how a friend of mine is doing quite well in business without a college degree.