While Alex Levy ’08 may have won a lifetime supply of Legos at the age of 10, his life’s achievements certainly do not stop there. He just recently finished a senior thesis in Economics on the estate tax, spent his junior year abroad studying at the London School of Economics, and even dressed to the nines in suit and tie for this interview. Read on to find out more about this musical-loving aspiring economist.
Cory Baldwin: Hey, nice getup you’ve got there. Did you dress up for the interview?
Alex Levy: No, I’m about to have my senior portrait taken, so I dressed myself in the clothes that my mother thinks I should be wearing, you know.
CB: Very cute. So Alex, let’s start with something that I really want to hear more about: at the age of 10 you won a lifetime supply of Legos? How?
AL: Yes, I was very into Legos. We had a whole room of just Legos, it was called “the Lego room.” I created a fictional city-state named Merlimane led by a benevolent monarch, Merlim. So what I specifically won for was that I created a socialist semi-utopian society. I mean, I didn’t know what that was, I just had vague ideas of what would be good for people living together. It’s funny, actually. The government of Merlimane created these public housing projects. They were actually very beautiful. But, even though they were all provided by the government, there was still a distinction of classes—low-income, middle class, and upper class housing all paid for by the state. You got into your class based on your profession, so if you had a skill you could move up. The biggest problem with my society was that there were no girls. I only had three women to 180 men. Girls were a hot commodity in Merlimane. They sold Lego sets in girl versions and boy versions, and the girl Lego sets were pink so my mom wouldn’t buy them for me.
CB: This is all very interesting, but how did this get you free Legos?
AL: There was a Lego magazine for real Lego-maniacs. Every year they name somebody Lego-maniac of the year. I entered my Merlimane government-funded houses. I was Lego-maniac of 1996.
CB: I love the name of your city.
AL: Yeah, they used to sing it too, the guards would go, “Merrrlimaaaaaame!” I think I was drawing from the musical “Pippin,” when they would go, “Charlemaaagne!” My childhood was pretty much defined by Legos and musicals.
CB: So you created a fictional city-state as a child, and, as a government major, your interests still seem to be somewhere in the same place. But you wrote a thesis outside of your major. Can you tell me a bit about that?
AL: I wrote an Econ thesis, it was about the estate tax. People sort of have this knee-jerk reaction when they hear the word “tax,” and they think it’s dreadfully boring. But my thesis was actually very lively.
CB: What’s it all about?
AL: Well, there was this huge concerted effort in the late ’90s, started out grassroot and became a mainstay of Republican dogma. They renamed the tax as the “death tax,” and portrayed it as economically disastrous and morally repugnant. What I did was basically examine the history of the tax, the economics of the tax and the philosophy of the tax in this very detached, non-political way. And then for the big finish, I went through all of the arguments made by the repeal advocates and showed how every argument they make is just empty. None of them have any grounding in economics, philosophy or history.
CB: That’s pretty cool. Are you going to stick with economics after Wesleyan?
AL: Well, next year…if I decide to cop out and do more schooling I will go back to London and get my masters at the London School of Economics. But that is unlikely. It’s more likely that I would take a job in D.C. at a think-tank or on Capital Hill. What I really wanna do is do something with my thesis, because it is still relevant today. In 2001 Bush tax cuts phased out the estate tax, but these expire in 2011. So in 2011, the estate tax will once again be a huge issue. I want to position myself with enough street cred to be kind of an expert on that when 2011 rolls around. But I don’t know. My mom wants me to go into insurance.
CB: By the way, I’ve been wondering…you are quite a dynamic speaker. Do you do any acting?
AL: Well, I love musicals but I’m completely tone-deaf. I did a show my freshman year, David Ives’s “All In The Timing.” It’s a bunch of shorts; we did six one-acts. They’re kind of lame. A lot of high schools do them. But no, I’ve never really broken into Wesleyan theater. But I do a lot of speaking at the info sessions for admissions, where I work as a senior interviewer. I love doing them. A lot of the parents visiting Wesleyan are like middle-aged, upper-middle-class Jewish women from the suburbs, which is kind of my number one demographic. They love me. They eat my jokes right up.
CB: Alright, well that’s about all we have room for, but I generally try to allow WesCelebs some famous last words, or something. Do you have any?
AL: Alright. Here it is: Just because someone wears a lot of J. Crew, it doesn’t make them a conservative. I never have and never will be sympathetic to Republican causes, despite what some people may think here at Wesleyan.
CB: Yeah. But you are looking pretty good in that J. Crew.
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