I’m perversely partial to reading the Becker Posner blog, a dialogue on various themes between Economics professor Gary Becker and Law professor and judge Richard Posner.

Posner’s worldview, is always worth a chuckle, were it not for the fear lurking at the back of your mind that he actually means even half of what he writes.

In a recent post Prof. Posner turned his judicial eye to the question of why there have been so few large scale protests against the war in Iraq, at least in comparison with the protests against the Vietnam war.

Posner identifies five reasons, other than the fact that now there is no draft involved in military recruiting, for the diminished tendency to protest publicly. In at #2 is the wonderful ‘opportunity cost’ is higher today than in the 60s: “This is partly because of higher wages, especially for educated people, and the fact that a higher percentage of women are employed. The greater competitiveness of the economy discourages people from taking risks with their careers by protesting. It discourages college students as well as the employed, because someone who gets the reputation in college of being a violent protester, or is suspended or simply gets very low grades because of the distraction of engaging in protest activities, will see his opportunities for a good job diminish.”^[1]

So those middle class hippies protesting in the 60s were doing so because they had little to lose, and nothing more profitable to do with their time. Genius.

Then again, judging by the huge protests in Italy against the war, and the virtually non-existent opportunities for full-time employment for University graduates here, perhaps the Judge has stumbled upon something…

¹ – Becker Posner Blog