When I Arrived At Harvard, I Wanted

Some Parents Expend Great Efforts To Get Their Kids Into The Right Nursery School Or The Right Preschool, With The Thought That That Will Set Them On The Path To Success, To Competitive Success Especially.

The Other Effect That I Worry About Is The Effect On The Parent, That The Moral Teaching Of Humility And Of The Limits To Our Control That Parenthood Teaches- - That That Will Be Lost And That We Will Begin To Think Of Children More As Consumer Goods Than As Gifts That We Can't Fully Control And For Which We Aren't Fully Responsible.

I Think Very Often When We Think We Are Aiming At The Best For Our Children, What We Are Really Doing Is Trying To Position Them For Competitive Success In An Intensely Driven Kind Of Society. I'm Not Sure That Always Leads To The Good Life Or To Happiness.

Today If You Look At Most Economic Textbooks, Economics Is Not Defined By Subject Matter. It's Presented As A Science Of Social Choice That Applies Not Only To Material Goods - Not Only To Flat-screen Televisions - But To Every Decision We Make, Whether It's To Get Married, Or To Stay Married, Whether To Have Children And How To Educate Those Children, Or How To Look After Our Health.

I'm A Supporter Of Embryonic Stem Cell Research. I Do Think There Are Very Important Moral And Also Religious Questions At Stake In The Debate Over Embryonic Stem Cell Research.