Next up in our series is Dr. Art Carden, my colleague in the Economics and Business Department at Rhodes College. Art is a regular contributor to the econ-blogs Division of Labour and The Ludwig von Mises Institute as well as an essayist for the online version of Forbes Magazine. I think I can say with some confidence that Art, who I consider a good friend, is my most unlikely friend. We disagree about almost all things economic and philosophical, but what I really appreciate about Art is that he (like myself) absolutely loves an intelligent, inspired, agonistic debate. Last spring, I served as the moderator for Art’s paper presentation at the ACS Women’s and Gender Studies Conference and then, in the fall, I was on a panel with him where we traded volleys over the topic “What’s Wrong With The World Today?”. In both sessions, we disagreed pretty dramatically, but I learned in those exchanges just how valuable “the unlikely friend” can be to one’s intellectual growth. Art is a man of passionate conviction, good humor and considerable erudition who, perhaps best of all, seems at total ease outside the echo-chamber of those with whom he generally agrees. More than once, we’ve both remarked that perhaps the only thing more entertaining than our (often animated) ideological disputes is our students’ relentless attempts to stoke that fire. Unfortunately for them, you won’t find Art and I getting ugly with one another, if only for the reason that we both love a good debate almost as much as we love Memphis. And, speaking of Memphis, here’s Art’s story:
“Why did we choose Memphis? First, Rhodes College was my target liberal arts job when I entered the market in 2005-2006. Second, it’s about halfway between a lot of our very good friends in St. Louis and our families in Birmingham. It offers us the best of all worlds: it’s a major city, it’s close to family, real estate prices are almost absurdly low, and it offers a unique intellectual and cultural environment. You know that band you like so much? They probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the Memphis music scene. It’s pretty easy to get almost anywhere from Memphis. It was easier when it was still a Northwest hub, but if you want to go to Europe, there’s a direct flight to Amsterdam. There are still direct flights to most major cities. Need to drive somewhere? US 78 will get you to Birmingham, I-40 will get you to Little Rock and Nashville, and I-55 will get you to St. Louis and Chicago in one direction and Jackson and New Orleans in the other. Memphis is especially interesting if you like economic history. Like any good academic, I have a couple of papers about this. In addition to its achievements in music and cuisine, Memphis has also been home to some game-changing entrepreneurial innovations. Self-service grocery stores and “every day low prices”? Those got their start at Piggly Wiggly. Standardization, branding, and cutting-edge information technology? Holiday Inn. New standards for auto parts sales and service? AutoZone. Overnight shipping anywhere in the world? FedEx. In addition, Chris Coyne and I are questioning whether government provision of police services is necessary and looking at new theories of institutional change by studying the Memphis race riot of 1866. This is a city with a history of unspeakable tragedy, to be sure, but it is also a city with a history of innovation and experimentation.
Memphis is also a great place to have a young family. We live just north of a shopping center where we can get groceries, books, clothes from Old Navy, Starbucks coffee (at an actual Starbucks and at a Bookstar Cafe across the street from the Starbucks). We can drive to the absolutely wonderful Children’s Museum of Memphis in about five minutes. I once clocked myself at eight minutes from leaving my neighborhood to parking my car at Rhodes, and I think I hit two red lights on the way. Perhaps most importantly, we can afford to live comfortably (albeit not luxuriously) on my earnings as an economics professor at a liberal arts college. We probably wouldn’t be able to do that in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
On Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law told us about a King of the Hill episode in which one of the characters asks his illegitimate son “what’s the bad part of Memphis called?” His son replies “Memphis!” Is there a grain of truth to that? Sure. But it obscures a lot of important truth. When you get right down to it, this is a pretty neat place to live.”
We’re creating quite an archive with all these Why I Chose Memphis stories! If you’ve got one that you want to share, send it to me here.