Our most frustrating and dangerous political problems are emerging from the tension between complexity and liberty. The rising tide of crazy sweeping across our political landscape reflects a single core difficulty. The 20th century bureaucratic regulatory state simply does not…
Operating an industrial boiler requires skill and experience in addition to the significant capital outlay required to obtain them. It also requires something else – adherence to a lengthy set of operating rules laid out and frequently updated by the…
Porn is free. Accelerating advances in communications technology combined with changing social norms have transformed the market for pornography, leading to the sudden collapse of business models that just a few years ago were generating tens of billions in revenue.…
Twenty trillion dollars is a lot of money. Absent a major course-correction or a sudden increase in economic growth, the US Federal debt will reach that level by 2017. Americans would consistently prefer to have Republicans, rather than Democrats address…
We often hear that incomes at the middle and lower tiers have been stagnant since the 70’s. It is true, but that statistic misses some important nuances. We can measure incomes and compare them to an inflation rate, but that…
For conservatives, one of the central arguments against a minimum income or even a minimum wage is the notion that employment is a value in and of itself. Taking a low-paying job, no matter how menial or “dead-end” is supposed…
When Congress passed the Johnson-Era Civil Rights Acts, America began an unprecedented expansion of personal liberty that reached far beyond the black community. For the first time ever, the meritocratic ideals that have always rested at the foundation of the…
Marijuana has been available for sale legally in Colorado for a couple of weeks now. As predicted by some, legal marijuana is driving people toward some shockingly idiotic public behavior, but so far none of it is coming from the…
Florida Senator Marco Rubio today commemorated the 50th anniversary of Johnson’ War on Poverty with a speech outlining a new approach to the social safety net. What that approach actually is remains to be seen, but his vague comments hint…
The software company VMware has roughly the same market value as General Motors. VMware has 13,000 employees. GM employs almost a quarter of a million people. In addition to the current workforce, GM supports roughly half a million retired workers…
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