Medicare is immune from the competitive pressures that force private insurers to pay attention to what patients and doctors want. — Virginia Postrel Attention Copy Share Image
What makes a loft authentic isn't its layout or its history but its ability to give people a true home - a… — Virginia Postrel Ability Copy Share Image
Habituation is indeed a fact of human psychology. That's one reason we like novelty, including different cuts of jeans. — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Cosmetics makers have always sold 'hope in a jar' - creams and potions that promise youth, beauty, sex appeal, and even love… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The United States government approaches patient choice in medication as Singapore does free speech: its pronouncements sound reasonable and tolerant until you… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The Elgin Marbles were supposed to be on the Parthenon. For many works of art, a museum is an artificial setting -… — Virginia Postrel Art Copy Share Image
Rich people in poor places want to show off their wealth. And their less affluent counterparts feel pressure to fake it, at… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Lofts were never supposed to be homes. They were vacant old factories and warehouses, taken over by artists looking for cheap space… — Virginia Postrel Artists Copy Share Image
From the days of biplanes and silk scarves, the aviator has been the archetype of masculine glamour. Aviators have personified national ideals,… — Virginia Postrel Admiration Copy Share Image
The mere existence of 'Buffy' proves the declinists wrong about one thing: Hollywood commercialism can produce great art. Complex and evolving characters.… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
“Functionality still matters, of course. But competition has pushed quality so high and prices so low that many manufacturers can no longer… — Virginia Postrel Aesthetics Copy Share Image
Neon signs don't consume much power, but they look like they do. A cousin of fluorescent lighting, neon is actually quite energy… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Grassroots techies - the mostly unknown people who write code and start companies that don't make the headlines - hate, loathe, and… — Virginia Postrel Business Copy Share Image
In Shakespeare's world, characters cannot trust their senses. Is the ghost in Hamlet true and truthful, or is it a demon, tempting… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The Internet ethos of diversity and competition runs exactly counter to uniform, gatekeeper-oriented medical culture - the technocratic philosophy of the 'one… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
In the fall of 1978, I left the religious, conservative, biracial, slow-paced culture of South Carolina for the secular, liberal, multi-ethnic, intense… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The children who are 'our future' will inherit a world created not just by parental devotion but by the sort of zealous,… — Virginia Postrel Child Copy Share Image
We know beauty when we see it, and our reactions are remarkably consistent. Beauty is not just a social construct, and not… — Virginia Postrel Beautiful Copy Share Image
If you default on your Visa bill, nobody comes to repossess your refrigerator or auction off your shoes. The biggest penalty you'll… — Virginia Postrel Auction Copy Share Image
We are material creatures who spend much of our lives on material pursuits (even building a cathedral or writing a novel requires… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Through the 1990s, 'Reason' was a voice of 'dissident feminism,' upholding the equal dignity of both sexes and supporting the rights of… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
At the basic consumer level, the profusion of fonts appeals to a culture that celebrates expressive individualism. — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Bill Clinton has done some incredibly reckless, irresponsible things as president. But his campaign to expand Medicare entitlements has to rank among… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Scientists appear most often in horror movies. Through childlike curiosity or God-defying hubris, they unleash destructive forces they can't control - 'Forbidden… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
In a dynamic, decentralized system of individual choice and responsibility, people do not have to trust any authority but their own. — Virginia Postrel Authority Copy Share Image
We know we need bosses and deadlines to help us get work done. But sometimes we can also use an external push… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
By reshaping or decorating our outer selves, we express our inner sense of self: 'I like that' becomes 'I'm like that.' — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The evergreen story of people in debt becomes even sexier in an economic downturn, when debts inevitably get harder to pay. — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The definition of an 'operating system' is bound to evolve with customer demands and technological possibilities. — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
When I was in college, I wanted to be editor of 'Reason' when I grew up. It was an impractical ambition, especially… — Virginia Postrel Ambition Copy Share Image
The low point for neon came in 1982, when Holiday Inn did away with its signature 'Great Sign,' replacing the neon extravaganza… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
For designers, the rigidity of an alphabet presents a never-ending artistic challenge: How do you do something new and still preserve the… — Virginia Postrel Alphabet Copy Share Image
I like kids, but I don't expect to have any of my own. I'm 40 years old and spend most of my… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Some of the higher price of L.A. real estate does reflect the intrinsic pleasure of living there, as I'm reminded every time… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
When Baby Boomer women started choosing hotel-like birthing centers over hospital delivery rooms, hospitals quickly wised up. Now even rural hospitals offer… — Virginia Postrel Baby Copy Share Image
Like Disneyland, luxury retailers have long had to figure out how to overcome customers' natural inertia. Unlike less pricey stores, they tend… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The glamour of air travel - its aspirational meaning in the public imagination - disappeared before its luxury did, dissipating as flying… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
At the simplest level, only people who know they do not know everything will be curious enough to find things out. — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
By binding image and desire, glamour gives us pleasure, even as it heightens our yearning. It leads us to feel that the… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Kidney disease is a low-profile, unglamorous problem, a disease that disproportionately strikes minorities and the poor. Its celebrity spokesman is blue-collar comedian… — Virginia Postrel Blue Copy Share Image
