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August 22, 2006
Lice Guys Finish First
Russell Roberts
Hayek made the essential point in The Fatal Conceit that family life and market life require us to be schizophrenic:
Part of our present difficulty is that we must constantly adjust our lives, our thoughts and our emotions, in order to live simultaneously within the different kinds of orders according to different rules. If we were to apply the unmodified, uncurbed, rules of the micro-cosmos (i.e. of the small band or troop, or of, say, our families) to the macro-cosmos (our wider civilisation), as our instincts and sentimental yearnings often make us wish to do, we would destroy it. Yet if we were always to apply the rules of the extended order to our more intimate groupings, we would crush them. So we must learn to live in two sorts of world at once.
We continue to blur those lines as this report from the San Francisco Chronicle makes clear:
These days, it's possible to outsource nearly every part of parenting -- except maybe the hugs -- as a burgeoning industry springs up in the Bay Area and major cities around the country to help busy, well-financed moms and dads who lack either the time or the self-confidence to do what past generations of parents did by themselves.
This new growth industry also includes potty trainers, party planners who specialize in the under-10 set and lice removal experts. Yes, Bay Area parents can even hire someone to come to their house and pick the nits out of their loved ones' locks.
Posted by Russell Roberts in Markets in Everything | Permalink
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Comments
Pity those children.
Posted by: save_the_rustbelt | Aug 22, 2006 4:14:15 PM
Its a natural dichotomy visible to all who will see. Tiny "cells" of socialism within the market. Look at nature. Increasing entropy is a law of physics. Yet all around there are these little "cells" of anti-entropy we call life.
In the end its a struggle between "us" and "them". The difference between socialists and libertarians is where they draw the line between "us" and "them".
Posted by: Keith | Aug 23, 2006 8:27:17 AM
Perhaps we should call this It Takes a Paid Village to Raise a Child.
Posted by: David | Aug 23, 2006 9:17:29 AM
@ Keith
"In the end its a struggle between "us" and "them". The difference between socialists and libertarians is where they draw the line between "us" and "them"."
'Us' is anyone for whom my hand goes in my wallet, voluntarily and uncoerced; 'them' is every other time there's hand in there.
Posted by: Trevor | Aug 24, 2006 12:04:25 PM
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