Fun little item in the paper the other day; actually it was an advertisement in the local news section of the Chicago Tribune, which said, “After 31 years of renting office space in downtown Chicago, the Heartland Institute is moving to Arlington Heights in May.” Moving, and hiring 10 new staff members “who are excellent writers and committed to free-market ideas.”
So I said, “hey, that’s my neck of the woods!” and “hey, I’m an excellent writer who believes in the free market! This is it, my chance to make the move from actuary to policy analyst without needing to relocate.”
Now, they’re moving to the north end of Arlington Heights, in an area heavy on low-rise office buildings, so it’s not quite as perfect as if they were moving, say, to some of the vacant office space in the center of town. Here’s their description of their plan — basically, it’s the American dream: for the same as they’re paying in rent in downtown Chicago, they can purchase a space and pay it off, and end up with lower operating costs and an asset.
And who is the Heartland Institute? Well, that’s the problem. Their claim to fame seems to be climate-change denialism, and multiple left-wing sites announce that they’re in the pocket of the Koch brothers. Not that I would necessarily want to give too much credence to that, but they just don’t seem to have much of a reach outside their opposition to environmental regulation. Heck, unlike Heritage or Cato, I had never heard of them, and, for what it’s worth, they have fraction of these other groups’ twitter followers.
So part of me thinks, “hey, send them a resume. What’s the worst that could happen?” and part of me worries that I’d be, figuratively, at least, selling my soul just for the sake of making a career change.
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