New (to me) blog that you should subscribe to

The Melangerie.

For example, this one. Adam Smith said he believed in the labour theory of value but the implication of other things he said is that he believed in reality in the subjective theory of value.

Or this, which I wish I\’d thought of:

But easily the dopiest thing we were told this time by the nef was that research in the affluent West showed that people who lived frugally were no less unhappy than those who engaged in the famed conspicuous consumption, and Simms concluded from this that we could force everyone to live more frugally without affecting people\’s happiness.

This is not just nonsense on stilts, it\’s nonsense with a silly nose and a squirty flower. The reason that our happiness is not affected by frugality or profligacy is that we are making the decision for ourselves, and we tend to choose that which makes us the happiest. We don\’t necessarily choose that which makes Andrew Simms happiest, unless we are Andrew Simms. I may wish that we were freer still, but this isn\’t North Korea, and our freedom to choose is one of the fundamental reasons that we are happy.

So if we are naturally inclined to find happiness in frugality, we live frugally; if we are naturally inclined to find happiness in liberality, we spend liberally; if we are naturally inclined to find happiness in one great credit-fuelled binge before a Day of Reckoning, we should run for public office.

I have a feeling I\’ll be stealing ideas from there for some time to come.