… is from an EconLog blog post from earlier today by Art Carden – a post entitled “The Most Bourgeois Place on Earth?“; Art was inspired to write this post by a recent visit that he paid to the Mall of America near Minneapolis-St. Paul; (I correct the quotation to rid it of what appears to be a formatting error):
As an undergrad, I took an interesting introductory American Studies course. During one lecture, the Professor lamented the fact that elderly men now gather at shopping malls where elderly men of previous generations would gather in front of the courthouse. I think this is a sign of progress. As symbolic spaces go, courthouses are emblems of conflict. Malls are emblems of cooperation. That modern life’s dominant public space is a house of commerce rather than a house of conflict is something to be celebrated, not lamented.
Yes indeed.
