In 2019, my wife, Alanna, and I traveled the Scottish Highlands—some of the greenest, loveliest territory we’ve ever seen. My ancestors came from various hellholes in Eastern Europe, but as an economist, Scotland is my professional homeland—the birthplace of modern economics. My focus is the economics of healthcare, and Scotland played an outsized role in the creation of modern medicine—especially considering the country’s small population and modest income levels historically. This article uses our journey to provide a series of lessons on economics and healthcare (plus lots of quirky Scottish lore).
Thus far, the most popular article ever published on Bastiat’s Window is “1,200 Years of British Royalty in 5 Charts”—nearly 12,000 views so far. The charts (thumbnails above) represented my research on British history, in preparation for our then-upcoming trip. I crammed the entire history of the Scottish, English, and British thrones into five dense flowcharts that may be helpful as you read this article, as we encounter a formidable array of monarchs whose names can confuse. Some readers had a particular fondness for Chart #5, which tells the often-hair-raising stories of how every Scottish monarch died.
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