by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:

People who lack meaningful fulfillment in their lives seek to exercise power over others as a distraction. As this becomes detrimental to liberty, finding true meaning for one’s life becomes a foremost means of creating a better future.

(American Institute For Economic Research) One of my more memorable exchanges with a student came in a principles of economics class. Part of the assignment for that week was chapters from Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. Ridley compared the living standards of an average worker today with those of The Sun King, Louis XIV, in 1700. Some of my more ahistorical students were incredulous at Ridley’s description of the grinding poverty of the average person just a few centuries ago.