The Nappy Cat Chronicles

I like Will Wilkinson’s blog a lot. But, if there’s one thing about think-tank types that’s for certain it’s that they’re at least a decade behind anecdotal experiences. Recently, Will appeared on NPR’s Marketplace and made the following claim:

In his 2005 book The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, Harvard economist Benjamin M. Friedman shows that time and again, economic expansion has fostered greater opportunity, tolerance, social mobility and a concern for fairness. Meanwhile, economic contraction has gone hand-in-hand historically with xenophobia, self-defeating trade protectionism and the political persecution of minorities.

This is a great argument, except I made it, like, 10 years ago while riding with my father. I told him that the correlation between economy and social tolerance is a lot like driving: When the roadway is humming along, we tend to let people into our lanes easily even though too much of this will inevitably lead to congestion due to increasing demand for road and a withering supply. On the other hand, when the roadway is congested, we tend to stand our ground and stay close to the car in front of us because, even when a little portion of our resource is lost (e.g., one minute of our time), the anxiety we experience is exaggerated when the net loss is unknown and uncontrollable.