All Posts Tagged With: "politicians"
The Cancer of Regulation
Politicians care about poor people. I know because they always say that. But then why do they make it so hard for the poor to escape poverty? Licensing, for example, prices poor people out of business. Take taxis: in New York City, you have to buy a license, or “medallion.” New York restricts the number [...]
24Aug2011 | John Stossel | 3 comments | ContinuedShakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy against the American Taxpayer
Politics has one feature that sets it apart from all sorts of voluntary action: It employs coercion. Politicians can raid the wallets of taxpayers, forcing them to part with money they would rather spend, donate, or invest according to their own desires. Much of the money thus confiscated is then spent to succor special-interest groups [...]
22Jun2011 | George C. Leef | 5 comments | ContinuedSix Political Illusions: A Primer on Government for Idealists Fed Up with History Repeating Itself
You don’t believe in magic, do you? Magicians employ a variety of tricks to deceive audiences into thinking that something has happened that can’t. They are masters of illusion. Adults know that they’re being fooled when the rabbit seems to materialize out of an empty hat. Magic is harmless fun, but the government is not. [...]
25May2011 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedHad Enough Yet?
Regarding the looming fiscal disaster, it’s best to keep one’s eyes on the forest and not get lost in the trees. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the numbers, but one thing looks certain: Most everyone understands the current situation is unsustainable in the ruling establishment’s own terms. If nothing changes, in perhaps a little [...]
25May2011 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Kid and the Benevolent Bully
The kid had eighteen cents. The benevolent bully had a buck-forty-nine. The kid went to the corner candy store and bought a licorice pipe and a jawbreaker for two cents. He was giving serious consideration to the chewable wax lips when he overheard a big kid at the fountain ordering a large lemonade for a [...]
21Apr2011 | Roger Koopman | 8 comments | ContinuedCan Government Manage the Economy?
A doctor says he can cure illness by waving birch wands over the patient. We are skeptical, but being open-minded we agree to give him a chance with ailing Uncle George. He waves a red wand and chants something. The patient shows no improvement. “Let me try a green one,” he says. We’re still tolerant. [...]
21Apr2011 | James L. Payne | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Progressive Income Tax and the Joy of Spending Other People’s Money
On August 31, 1910, Teddy Roosevelt traveled to Kansas to make a stirring speech in support of a federal income tax. “The really big fortune,” Roosevelt said, “the swollen fortune by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men [...]
21Apr2011 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 5 comments | ContinuedMalts in the Cafeteria
When I was in sixth grade, three of my classmates and I ran for student council president. The entire student body would vote, and the one with the most votes would be president; second-most, vice president; third, secretary; and fourth, treasurer. Looking back, I suppose the other three offices were mostly for show. The presidency [...]
22Oct2010 | Tracy Stone Lawson | 2 comments | ContinuedRegulatory Failure by the Numbers
Between the current financial mess and the debate over carbon dioxide emissions controls, there is a lot of talk about regulation these days. We are told, for example, that the recession would have been prevented if proper regulations had been in place. While it is true that (by definition) the “right” regulations would have prevented [...]
25Aug2010 | and Robert L. Bradley Jr. | 5 comments | ContinuedFinancial Regulation Snake Oil
Recent turmoil set off by the threat of Greek insolvency shows how fast markets change. Fear about the inability of European governments to pay their debts caused the 2010 turbulence. By contrast, the 2008–2009 havoc was rooted in the collapse of property values. The next crisis will be about something else, possibly another government’s debt. [...]
25Aug2010 | Chidem Kurdas | 1 comment | ContinuedGo Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything
In the gigantic theater that is American politics, one of the favorite roles for politicians to play is that of the tough guy who is determined to “crack down” on something or other. Such actions are predictably cheered by whatever voting groups the politician wants to curry favor with. An often-heard campaign line is, “Vote [...]
13Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedGovernment as Consumer
Destutt de Tracy, as I discussed in the June issue, was a French economist whom Thomas Jefferson did his utmost to bring to the attention of America. The first part of Tracy’s A Treatise on Political Economy (1817), the translation of which Jefferson arranged, is a primer in economics that will satisfy any aficionado of [...]
29Jun2010 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Art and Science of Pseudology
The common belief that the scientist’s job is to reveal the secrets of nature is erroneous. Nature has no secrets; only persons do. Secrecy implies agency, which is absent in nature. This is the main reason the so-called “behavioral sciences” are not merely unlike the physical sciences but are in many ways their opposites. “Nature,” [...]
29Jun2010 | Thomas Szasz | 8 comments | ContinuedThe Forgotten Robber Barons
Conventional wisdom, which often is mostly convention and very little wisdom, confidently instructs us that rapacious capitalists dominated and victimized American society in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The white knight of government then rode to the rescue of hapless workers and consumers. The message: business bad, government good. Honest, objective historians of [...]
19Apr2010 | Lawrence W. Reed | 1 comment | ContinuedLegends of the Fall: The Real and Imagined Sources of Our Bubble Economy
Preface The Foundation for Economic Education is pleased to announce that Richard W. Fulmer of Humble, Texas, is the winner of the second annual Eugene S. Thorpe writing competition. Mr. Fulmer holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University and for over 20 years has worked as a systems analyst in [...]
24Mar2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 13 comments | ContinuedHarry Reid – “Taxation Is Not Coercive”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirms in this interview what some of us have long suspected–namely that politicians are mostly those individuals too out of touch with reality to be capable of finding employment anywhere else!
11Dec2008 | Mason Drake | 0 comments | Continued
Andrew Mellon: The Entrepreneur as Politician
Rarely do spectacular entrepreneurs leave their realm of business for the political arena. One exception is Andrew Mellon, the third-wealthiest American of his era, who left a dazzling career in American industry to become secretary of treasury under Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Mellon established his career in Pittsburgh as a successful [...]
1Dec2008 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 4 comments | Continued-
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