This difference between shame and guilt affects the way people treat strangers. In many clan societies, a household is expected to be a generous host to strangers, offering the household’s best food and sleeping quarters. Not to do so would bring shame upon the household and on the entire clan. However, in a commercial transaction with such a stranger, there is no sense of guilt from failing to live up to one’s bargain or from cheating the stranger.

In the West, the value system is reversed. We feel no obligation to show ultra-generous hospitality to strangers who come to our neighborhood. However, we would feel guilty about cheating a stranger in a commercial transaction.

Our complex economic system requires that strangers deal honestly with one another when they exchange goods and services. Such a system functions more naturally in a Society of Contract than in a Society of Status. In the former, commercial obligations are inherently binding, regardless of the identity of the party with which one deals. In the latter, there is little sense of obligation in dealing with members of a different kinship group.

The emphasis is mine. Please do go read the whole thing.

I light of the whole Jason Richwine flap, and posts like this one this one from Bryan Caplan. I find it somewhat amusing that Arnold put his essay on the Library of Economics and Liberty web site. Is this an intentional tweak of those bloggers?

So while I am generally on the side of complete liberty, I do not want people from Clan or Status Societies moving into my neighborhood. I have but one life and it won’t last the generations it will take these newcomers to adjust to being a member of a Contract Society. I will also say that I don’t really expect my government of doing a fair job of deciding whether or not any particular immigrant belongs to one type of society or the other. Government is, though, the only tool at my disposal. I do not have enough money to create one of Caplan’s bubbles to wall myself off from undesirable Status Society lowlifes. If you don’t believe these people exist, just tour part of the world outside the U.S. (probably should go outside Northern Europe, too).

Also, I do not intend to disparage any particular individual, I just know which way I’ll bet when it come to having immigrant neighbors from one particular country or another.

It was such a great act of misdirection Hillary should have worn spangled tights and sawn Stevens’s casket in half.

While that line is funny, no one in any position of real authority is going to pay a price, especially Hillary, for that debacle.

Sen won the Nobel prize in Economics in 1998. This is the 60th anniversary of the publication of that important work.

HT: Tyler

Every time I come across that line, I am reminded of this (stolen from TJIC):

In an extraordinarily fast-paced and dynamic environment I bet it’s hard to get any real work done.

Back in the Marines, we had a little poem for this sort of activity:

Green side out
Brown side out
Run in circles
Scream and shout

Somebody calling themselves Chicago:

That seems to be something that can be broadened to include the US whereby some groups that were caterpillars in their home country are expected to become butterflies in the US.

One of the many Anonymous:

The only densely populated country in North-Africa is Egypt and Egyptians are famously stationary.

Praise be to Allah.

The comment about Egyptians being stationary was up thread from this comment. I have no experience with Egypt. I do have one friend that told stories about her trip to Egypt that made it very clear to me that my daughter will never go there.

From Cail Corishev

It’s one thing to believe the lie that Americans just won’t pick vegetables in the hot sun. It’s a lot harder to believe that people who went to college and took on loans to get IT degrees just won’t do IT jobs in nice, air-conditioned offices.

I like that one. Especially in light of the Zuckerberg campaign for immigration.

From someone that claims to be a guy from Italy:

I have a theory that the big problem in the US is the first-past-the-post system, which restricts choices to just 2 parties which end up being identical. Now that is what makes it impossible for a fringe group to get heard. If the US had a more democratic electoral system, everybody – libertarians, secessionists, anti-immigration people – would be a meaningful force in Congress and the media would then be forced to take them seriously.

Hmm… He might be on to something. I don’t want to go off and endorse this idea just yet, I’m going to have to give this some more reading and thought.

From The Judean People’s Front:

The fall of Italy to multicultural barbarism entails not only the loss of a unique European culture, but the loss of a source of inspiration, solace, and renewal for the great minds of ALL European nations. Italy has animated the western spirit for centuries, and is the repository and source source of much of the west’s accumulated glory. It may sound cheesy, but in a sense Italy is the soul of the west. While I view 19th century German culture as perhaps the apogee of human development, there is something very,very special about Italy.

Sailer has a good group of readers and commentors. There are some that are idiots, but that happens everywhere.

Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, from Boratstan but Straight Outta Cambridge

The caption made me laugh. Well, I at least gave it the Instapundit “Heh.” The post and comments are worth your time.

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this 1. I mean, I know it was my option to read, but I in fact thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is really a bunch of whining about something that you could fix should you werent too busy searching for attention.

The above was from someone that would like you to click through to his web site in order to purchase knock off shoes or handbags. SWMBO would probably click through.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was once a huge fan of this guy. Lost interest over the years, but this remains a favorite song of his.

There are all kinds of jobs posted. There are even jobs posted that I might enjoy.

The problem is that the employers want very exact experience. I’ve yet to find an employer looking for someone with international education experience that can design and install a high end kitchen and also evaluate and purchase a portfolio of loans on equipment.

How long will I have to wait for someone to show up looking for my set of skills and experience?

Impressed, aren’t cha…

The Dallas Stars do this thing on game day where they have a bunch of guys play a game in the afternoon. They then feed us and booze us for a while and then we watch the Stars play. It’s a really good time. The food, however, has taken a big decline from previous seasons. No body that played that afternoon was thrilled with the meal.