The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance

At the beginning of May, Laura hasn’t spoken to Sam substantively since the disastrous dinner party. To get grading done, she sets up in an unused classroom in the basement, which is separated with a partition from an in-use classroom. She overhears Sam’s elective senior class, in which he is having the class play a game. They each get to be a dictator and make one and only one law. The rule is that the law must function within both the laws of nature and the laws of economics. The students start proposing laws. For each one, Sam pushes the students to consider the drawbacks of that law.

Laura is rapt. Eventually the students demand that Sam give his law. He tells them that he does have a law that he believes would unquestionably improve society. However, even if he were a dictator and could pass whatever law he wished, he wouldn’t pass this law. He challenges the students to understand why. The law would be to ban television. He explains how detrimental he believes television is and what immense societal and individual benefits would come from banning television. He reminds them, however, that he still wouldn’t pass the law.