Reflect upon your present blessings
RWL #370
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and like you, I am thinking about the things I am grateful for. I asked Uncle Google for some good Thanksgiving quotes and it came up with this one:
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.”
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
I do have so many present blessings. And yet despite that, I also dwell too often on my (rather mild by any reasonable measure) past misfortunes. I suppose that is why we have to have a holiday like Thanksgiving: to remind us to focus on the good because it is far too easy, far too natural, to focus on what we do not have.
Let me say, along with my family, my friends (some of both who are reading this), I am grateful for my students, my colleagues, for the privilege of my job, for the LHH, for being alive today and for living in America, and of course I am thankful for all of you for reading this newsletter. Your virtual presence gives me purpose and I appreciate you.
I hope tomorrow brings you the blessings of connection and community, and that you are able to reflect on your present blessings.
(Pic above is from behind the LHH this week. The leaves are mostly down, though I will probably have to do a couple more rounds with the leaf blower before we are done.)
As usual, willing good for all of you, and see you Sunday with a new essay!
**
Read
What: KFF Health News, Facing Financial Ruin as Costs Soar for Elder Care
Why: I had the opportunity to interview Paul Forte, the CEO of FedPoint this week. FedPoint is a benefits administrator for long-term care insurance - the kind of insurance that pays for you to go into a nursing home if you become unable to care for yourself. As I was doing research for the interview, I came across this excellent but very sad article about how most of us face potential financial catastrophe if we or a loved one needs long-term care. The LTCI industry is challenged in a variety of ways - one of which is we mostly do not have accurate expectations of the probability of our needing long-term care.
I don’t know what the solution is to our long-term care needs as a society, but I do know we’re going to need more of it. This is a very well-written article that appeared first in the NYT.
**
Watch
What: Zeihan On Geopolitics, Why the Port of Savannah Is Poised for Success (5 min)
https://zeihan.com/why-the-port-of-savannah-is-poised-for-success/
Why: This is a good news story that I was not aware of. The Port of Savannah (Georgia) is poised to be the heart of shipping into the East Coast of the US. This will become more important if we continue to decouple from China and go back consequently develop (even) more robust trading relationships with Mexico. What we really need to do is get rid of the Jones Act.
**
Listen
What: The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie, Russ Roberts: Life in Israel Since October 7 (71 min)
Why: Roberts is the host of the podcast EconTalk, episodes of which I have shared many times in RWL. He was a professor at George Mason when I was doing my PhD there - I wish I had gotten to know him when I had the opportunity. Today he is the president of a small liberal arts college in Israel. In this interview he talks about what life is like in Israel since the barbarous attacks by the terrorist group Hamas. I’m grateful my family is not there, but Roberts says the country is more unified now than it has been in a long time. Worth a listen to be reminded what to be grateful for.