Ice-9: Linkages, Path Dependency, and The Logic of Capitalism

I normally do not like it when writers use a personal scale to talk about the economics of countries. If you see that rhetorical move in the wild, you know that it is about to be used as an excuse as to why we have no policy that somehow takes care of a broad base of people but oddly can still funnel contracts to arms dealers and remove social obligations from society’s wealth winners. I’m going to talk not about a household with its simplification, but myself as an economic actor.

When I was a younger man, I had wanted to be a poet. I took the classes and studied the literature, but not too hard. I also wanted to go out with my friends and drink as much as I could almost every night and be told I was clever. I wanted that poet’s life. So, when I was close to graduating from undergrad, I applied to MFA programs so that I could continue that life. I only applied to four programs and did not get into any of them. I then sat around in the town I was trying to leave for a whole year and waited on the application cycle to come back around. This time, I told myself I was being smart and pragmatic and leveraging my skills for a future that was more certain than being a poet. I was going to get a master’s in literature. I know it sounds strange now, but at the time an MA in literature made sense from a pragmatic standpoint. This was in 2005, times were different.

I got into a program and was funded so that I could justify moving halfway across the country with me and my truck and my dog. I…