These essays argue that to have good character one needs to have at least developed a sense of empathy and self control.

In The Market Experience, Robert Lane restates the central criticism of economic views of human satisfaction?namely, that they define welfare as utility and, in practice if not in theory, use money as the measure of utility, while in reality utility (or welfare) ought to be defined as happiness. In exploring the implications of this noneconomic definition for our assessment of markets, Lane summarizes the evidence about how people assess their own happiness more successfully than he clarifies the meaning of that (...) word. Since increases in income above a certain minimum do not increase happiness, work must be made more meaningful. (shrink)

Donald A. Wittman's Myth of Democratic Failure attempts to show that government is more rational than is often believed. For instance, Wittman argues that voters are tolerably well informed and that politicians are responsive to the voters’ will. Unfortunately, Wittman's argument proceeds at the level of economic theory, which is often contradicted by empirical reality (and by non‐economic theories that take account of political reality). It is no better to defend democracy on a priori grounds, as Wittman does, than to (...) attack it on those grounds, as other economists who turn to the analysis of politics tend to do. (shrink)