The Nuclear Family's Implosion, Modern Dying, and Why Some Goods Are Now Cheaper

The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake | David Brooks in The Atlantic

From the article: "If you want to summarize the changes in family structure over the past century, the truest thing to say is this: We’ve made life freer for individuals and more unstable for families. We’ve made life better for adults but worse for children. We’ve moved from big, interconnected, and extended families, which helped protect the most vulnerable people in society from the shocks of life, to smaller, detached nuclear families (a married couple and their children), which give the most privileged people in society room to maximize their talents and expand their options."

This is a lengthy, thought-provoking article. It’s long enough that I’m forgoing a few articles to give you more time to read it.

Chart of the day… or century? | American Enterprise Institute

A chart from Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that the cost of goods in industries subject to regulatory capture (like healthcare and education) have increased, while those more subject to market forces (like clothing and phones) have decreased. I'd like to see a chart with more information; this one, while probably accurate, could still have been cherry-picked.

You Have Thought Up the Wrong World | Front Porch Republic

On death and medically-prolonged life: "And when we come to that point, the naked lust of modernity is revealed as the dehumanizing system that it truly is."