Last week I heard Charles Murray speak at the AEI annual dinner and the topic of his remarks was "The Happiness of the People." I thought it an extraordinarily insightful and challenging speech, especially for someone with strong law & econ instincts like myself. It is really a remarkable statement on what exactly it means to be human and to engage in a "life well-lived" as he puts it. Almost every reader will find something to disagree with in it (I know some of the people at my table did). But at its root I think that Murray is onto something important about what it means to live, flourish, and be happy as a human being. For me, at least, after 43 years on this planet I think I'm coming to appreciate many of the things Murray has to say about what makes a satisfying, rewarding life much better than I did in my younger days.