Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

 In a television commercial for an insurance company, a child (9 ish?) causes some consternation. After the adults around him start bemoaning "the economy," the child asks, "what's the economy?"  They can't answer, and he ends up deciding to 'Google it.'  Let's try to answer. It is a question from a child [actor], but not a childish question.  Even a 9 year old is probably familiar with the catch-all term "society".  How about telling him that "the economy" and "society" are the same fact, looked at from two different points of view. Or, if he doesn't know either word so this doesn't help, speak to him in single-syllable bits, and tell him they are "two names for the fact that folks all have to find ways to work and live with folks."  When we refer to society as "the economy," we're thinking about this living-together thing in terms of limits, and choices made in awareness of limits.  ...

"Suppose some of the people in your neighborhood (there are 364 other adults) have found a public address system and decide to institute a system of public entertainment. They post a list of names, one for each day, yours among them. On his assigned day. . .a person is to run the public address system, play records over it, give news bulletins, tell amusing stories he has heard, and so on. After 138 days on which each person has done his part, your day arrives. Are you obligated to take your turn? You  have  benefited from it, occasionally opening your window to listen, enjoying some music or chuckling at someone’s funny story. The other people  have  put themselves out. But must you answer the call when it is your turn to do so? As it stands surely not.” This is important, and a response to the "muh roads" arguments of statists. Yes I benefit from the existence of roads created by government edict. Yes, I plan to continue using the roads while arguing for anarch...