Arendt and Plumbers

Hidden Truths

Robert Zaretsky | American Scholar | 13th August 2026

Review of a new biography of Hannah Arendt, published half a century after her death. Since the 2016 US presidential election, her work on totalitarianism has surged in popularity and she has been "canonised" by a generation of political commentators. And yet many of her manuscripts still remain unpublished and her time as "a young Zionist" complicates the more familiar version of Arendt in later life (1,600 words)

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Why Are Plumbers Paid More In The US?

Philippe Lemoine | Stream Of Randomness | 13th August 2026

Plumbers in rich countries aren't substantially better at plumbing those in low-income places. They might access to better equipment and materials, but this isn't enough to explain the vastly different levels of pay. What they do have is a higher "value productivity", because workers in other sectors produce more than the equivalent people in low-income countries, raising the price of plumbing services (16,000 words)