Socialism is about claims of justice, and it is also about money: about wealth, income, physical and financial capital. It is an… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
By giving unusual people an easy way to find one another, the Internet has also enabled them to pool rare talents, resources,… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Like the skyscraper, the automobile, and the motion-picture palace, neon signs once symbolized popular hopes for a new era of technological achievement… — Virginia Postrel Abundance Copy Share Image
As borrowers, we may feel guilty about running up debt, anxious about making payments, and resentful of the constraints that old obligations… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
“Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design… — Virginia Postrel Beauty Copy Share Image
When 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' premiered on the WB Network in 1996, American culture was in trouble. Americans were bowling alone, pursuing… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Loft living is the antithesis of suburban domesticity, if only because the open spaces don't easily accommodate family life. Lofts also offer… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The Internet exposes a diversity of opinion, experience, and taste we'd been led to believe didn't exist. If you were unusual in… — Virginia Postrel Anomaly Copy Share Image
The Dallas model, prominent in the South and Southwest, sees a growing population as a sign of urban health. Cities liberally permit… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Glamour is a beautiful illusion - the word 'glamour' originally meant a literal magic spell - that promises to transcend ordinary life… — Virginia Postrel Beautiful Copy Share Image
Airline glamour never promised anything as mundane as elbow room, much less a flat bed, a massage, or an arugula salad. It… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Chains do more than bargain down prices from suppliers or divide fixed costs across a lot of units. They rapidly spread economic… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The profusion of fonts is one more product of the digital revolution. Beginning in the mid-'80s and accelerating in the 1990s, type… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Abundant choice doesn't force us to look for the absolute best of everything. It allows us to find the extremes in those… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Americans hate their cable companies - for bumbling installers, on-again-off-again transmissions, peculiar channel selections, and indifferent customer service. The only thing cable… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Living with a single kidney is almost exactly like living with two; the remaining kidney expands to take up the slack. (When… — Virginia Postrel Advantage Copy Share Image
With its fluctuating forms and needless decoration, fashion epitomizes the supposedly unproductive waste that inspired 20th-century technocrats to dream of central planning.… — Virginia Postrel Art Copy Share Image
In post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, skeptical voters demand full disclosure of everything from candidates' finances to their medical records, and spin-savvy accounts of… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
As a general rule, durable-goods production tends to be the most volatile sector of the economy. Since people usually have a stock… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
Our demand for good looks, expressed in the biting comments that ensue when public figures fall short of perfection, puts enormous pressures… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The Taliban outlawed wearing polish in the late 1990s, punishing some offenders by amputating a fingertip. Importing polish was banned only in… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
More than two decades after the birth of Louise Brown, and all the hysteria that surrounded her 'test tube' conception, we should… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
The Y2K bug is a genuine technical concern, consuming the energies of many specialists. But the prophecies of doom represent a broader… — Virginia Postrel Ambition Copy Share Image
Just as producers often give consumers things they want but didn't think to ask for, consumers sometimes come up with surprising uses… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
A world of few choices, whether in jeans or mates, is a world in which individual differences become sources of alienation, unhappiness,… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
European nations began World War I with a glamorous vision of war, only to be psychologically shattered by the realities of the… — Virginia Postrel Battle Copy Share Image
Y2K hype taps our native discomfort with the realities of a dynamic, evolving social order. It elevates personal, local contact over the… — Virginia Postrel Copy Share Image
