That man loves freedom. Some friends and I have this meme, where when we see someone doing something awesome, we say, "That man (or woman) loves his freedom!" Clearly, this applies to guys with bad-ass mustaches, but also to basically anyone who goes against the grain.
When you see a guy in a beat-up pickup truck cut off a guy in a BMW, that guy loves his freedom. That's why freedom is this elusive thing.
Bar Stool Economics
I got this story in a chain email today. I don't usually give much thought to these types of messages, but this one is pretty good.
With everyone speculating about the economy these days, everyone seems to have a different idea on how to fix it. The problem is, these 'armchair economists' don't seem to understand how the economy really works. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't understand how it works. I've even heard people with graduate degrees in economics say that they don't understand how it works enough to confidently suggest solutions to the issues we are facing.
My speculation on this speculation (meta-speculation, if you will) is that no one understands the entire system. Most people don't understand even one part of the system in any depth. Some people do understand certain parts of the system. There exists someone who understands, in depth, each part of the system. But no one person understands every part of the system.