Oct 27
This week saw major stories in many newspapers about the growth of protests and riots throughout the world. The Guardian published a detailed expose’ of protests in Hong Kong, Paris, Chile, Iraq, Ecuador and elsewhere which suggested the root cause of all these protests was young populations angry about “income inequality.” Reuters published a detailed …
Oct 26
Reason’s Brian Doherty is out with an article on city governments that use “taxation by citation” as major components of their income. Doherty cites a study from the Institute for Justice, “The Price of Taxation by Citation.” The study looked at 3 Georgia cities which derive 14 to 25 percent of their revenue from petty …
Sep 20
Michigan’s government, like governments elsewhere, requires new clinics and hospitals to get government permission before opening or offering new treatments. The State’s “Certificate of Need” Commission determines if a new startup clinic might bring unfair competition to preexisting, entrenched hospitals. (And people wonder why health care costs are so high!) On Thursday, Michigan’s government commission …
Aug 14
The United States grew from a poor fledgling nation in 1789 to become the earth’s most powerful country by the twentieth century. It got there with no income taxes and a very low level of regulatory burdens. But by 2019, the United States is drowning in violent police, regulations, and taxation levels which hover around …
Aug 14
Government regulations are increasingly imprisoning the poor in cages from which there is no escape. An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has found that the likelihood of a household rising into the top 10 percent U.S. income bracket from lower brackets has BEEN CUT IN HALF in just the past few years. …
May 16
Government policies such as progressive income taxation, central banking and Social Security aggressively punish savers. And year after year, Americans reluctantly submit by saving nothing and investing very little. Now a new Marketwatch report shows that 50 percent or more of Americans are just one paycheck away from serious financial disaster. Roughly two-thirds of households …
Sep 16
Socialists and government trusters are seeing all of their proposed policy ideas implemented in Venezuela. And the results are predictable. The South American socialist regime has driven out most productive industries. Inflation is way above 200 percent. Starvation and disease are rampant. Basic commodities cannot be found. Millions have fled. Men die in brutal fights …
Aug 08
“Welfare” in the popular sense originated in the 1960s with President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” By the 1980s, profound research by academics documented that households which accepted welfare payments were WORSE OFF 5 years later compared to similarly-situated households which did not receive welfare “benefits.” (Much of this research was PAID FOR BY THE …
Jul 30
The GDP of the U.S.–the total economic output of the country annually–is about $16 trillion annually. (And this is deceptively large because it includes government spending in addition to private spending–and government funds are actually taken (and therefore reduced) from the private sector). A new study predicts that Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan would …
Jul 04
Forget the overuse of the terms “liberal” and “democratic.” A more accurate description is pro-government. California’s “leaders” have driven its policies in an extreme pro-government direction for 30 years. One-third of the nation’s welfare recipients are in California, which has only one-eighth of U.S. population. See here. “What Happens When Democrats Run Your State?” California …
