BUYING THE RIGHT TO DISENGAGE. In the middle of a meditation on the use and abuse of laptop computers, University Diaries at Inside Higher Ed lays the smack on the it's-my-money-I'll-do-what-I-want justification for slacker behavior.

The student is indeed an adult, but unless she's financially autonomous, her tuition is paid by some combination of the university, her parents, and the American taxpayer. She's wasting a good deal more than her own chance at an education -- she's thumbing her nose at the generosity of well-meaning people. And her behavior harms more than her financial sponsors. Her indifference to the professor and her fellow students, and the public nature of her screen images, add up to something distracting, demoralizing, and angering for other people.

The Prussian in me leads me to endorse laptop bans. The Pigouvian (as one would expect of an economist with a Wisconsin Ph.D.) wonders if there isn't an optimal tax on laptop use.