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The Thought Provoker

Matt is up first. Recently, Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay over $148 million to two Georgia election workers for defamation. This all stems from lies he told about the 2020 election being stolen in Georgia. As a lifelong Republican, I see Rudy Giuliani as a metaphor for what has happened to the GOP. In 2001, Giuliani was America’s Mayor—beloved for his response to the 9/11 attacks in NYC and Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. In 2008, he was the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for President. He was seen as a moderate Republican who could woo independents and moderate Democrats. Now, he is a joke, a fraud, a liar, and has no respect. How did this happen to him? Does the GOP risk having the same thing happen to them?

Next up, Sam: A Texas woman's fetus was diagnosed with something called trisomy 18 and it causes abnormalities in the development of the brain, heart and other internal organs. And so here's the stats in almost all cases, at least 95%, the pregnancies and then miscarriage and stillbirth, birth, according to the Cleveland clinic. And then the Texas state Supreme court came back and said, you can't have it. And ultimately while they were going back and forth, she decides to leave the state and have the abortion out of state. So from a latter day lens standpoint, we members of the church of Jesus Christ, a latter day saints protect life. I mean, we value life. What is the latter day lens on this Texas case?
Should she have been allowed to pursue and have an abortion in the state of Texas or does that violate our beliefs?
FYI, abortions are up in the US after Roe vs Wade was overturned.

Finally, Shawn. The invisible hand is a metaphor for how, in a free market economy, self-interested individuals operate through a system of mutual interdependence. This interdependence incentivizes producers to make what is socially necessary and of most value to society, even though their primary concern may only be their own well-being. Seeking our self interest through free exchange with each other drives us to provide value for each other.  Is there a place in society for people who are in professions that don’t create value for trade? Or do you feel that capitalism requires that humans offer something of value to others or it won’t work and leaves people behind. What about those less able who would offer value but cannot? 

The Big Question: You guys like to talk about how academics live in a fantasy world. Well, billionaires seem to have even crazier ideas than what we come up with. New Zealand has become a home for billionaires who want to build prepper bunkers, Jeff Bezos wants to build colonies on the moon to mine resources for planet earth,  Elon Musk wants to build 100 starships per year for the next ten years to begin the colonization of Mars. Do you agree that the billionaires get the headlines, but the government bureaucrats who tell them “no” are