Archives

More money hasn’t made public schools better

From an editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch So education vouchers are constitutional after all. At least that’s what the Supreme Court says, and they’re the only ones that count. So forget about the legal issues for now and focus on the educational impact of voucher programs. Are they…

What Do Farmers Want From Me?

From Ideas on Liberty You’d think in a democracy that the greater the number of people on your side of an issue, the more likely it will be that you’ll get your way. But it ain’t necessarily so. As Mancur Olson, Gary Becker, and others have pointed out, in politics,…

Napsternomics: What’s the Most Effective Way to Protect Intellectual Property?

In the heyday of Napster, you could steer virtually any song onto your computer desktop. Without much additional effort, you could then download it onto an MP3 player or burn a CD. Both methods allowed the listener to enjoy high quality music akin to a purchased CD but without having…

Savings vs. Debts

Audio (click to listen/download)

Farm Aid

Text from National Public Radio, Morning Edition Audio I suspect the irony was lost on the President. On the same week he signed the farm bill, he was in the midwest advocating tougher workfare requirements for welfare moms. Six years ago, Congress passed the Freedom to Farm Act promising to…

No Picnic on the Prairie

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch You’re stuck in traffic en route to that soccer practice, the radio blaring, cell phone ringing. You’ve had it. You’re tired of the frantic pace of your life. You need to simplify. Live a more grounded, elemental way of life. Five thousand families had…

No Fat Tax

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch I wish I weighed a little bit less. Or a lot less. And I often fear, to paraphrase Kingsley Amis, that I’m heading in the wrong direction, that inside of me is an even fatter me waiting to get out. I’m not alone. A…

Take My Used Book, Please!

From the Wall Street Journal The Author’s Guild is mad at Amazon—the online bookseller. Getting mad at the river might have been more productive. It seems that Amazon is helping its customers sell—kids, cover your ears—used books. With increasing frequency, when shopping for a book at Amazon, you’ll find that…

In Praise of That Ugly Box On the Edge of Town

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch Wal-Mart has become the biggest corporation in the world, measured in annual sales. To some, Wal-Mart’s success is the ultimate symbol of the hollowing out of the U.S. economy. We were once the workshop of the world. Now we’re nothing but a service economy…

We Can’t Get Rich Doing Each Other’s Laundry

From Ideas on Liberty Since World War II, manufacturing employment as a fraction of total employment has declined steadily. In the middle of the war, it was over 40 percent of the work force. By 1966 it dipped below 30 percent for the first time. By 1985, it dropped below…

If They Hawk It, You Will Come

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch Oprah and Martha appear as different as night and day. One is African-American. The other is whiter than white. One is chatty and informal. She seems like one of us. She has weight problems. The other one seems almost too perfect. Everything is handmade,…

Is Bethlehem Steel the Canary in the Economic Mine Shaft?

Bethlehem Steel recently announced that it was declaring bankruptcy. Bethlehem Steel? What’s next, General Motors? That’s the impression I got from friends who were alarmed by the announcement. When a legendary company like Bethlehem Steel goes bankrupt, the whole economic system could be at risk. Should we be alarmed that…

Cipro and Price Controls on Pharmaceuticals

From National Public Radio Audio The critics say it’s immoral for Bayer to profit from fear and disease. After all, other pharmaceutical manufacturers have said they’ll give away their antibiotics in the fight against anthrax. Tommy Thompson of the Department of Health and Human Services even threatened to ignore Bayer’s…

Social Security—Where do they put our money?

Text from National Public Radio, Morning Edition What do you think of when you hear the phrase “raid Social Security?” I see an elderly person, maybe a nice white-haired Grandma about to take a spoonful of soup on a cold winter night. Suddenly, someone grabs the sweet old thing’s wrist…

America and the World’s Resources

From Ideas on Liberty At the heart of almost all economics is the idea of mutually beneficial exchange. When two people voluntarily engage in an activity, economists assume that both parties are better off. Otherwise, one of them would have refused the deal. It doesn’t mean people don’t make mistakes—sure…

Categories