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And the more things government touches, the more people will have interests in touching, and wheedling, government. Progressives purport to be scandalized by modern Washington, which is indeed an unlovely maelstrom of interest groups maneuvering to maximize their rent-seeking. This is, however, the Washington that progressives should have known they were making. But they only … Read more
Emphasis mine: As far as I am concerned, I wish to choose for myself and do not want anyone else to make choices on my behalf, against my will that is all. And if someone claims the right to substitute his judgment for mine in matters that concern me, I will ask to substitute mine … Read more
It is, however, an iron law: The more government does to influence the flow of money, the more money will be spent to influence elections. -George Will ( The Conservative Sensibility) (H/T: Cafe Hayek) As Government controls more resources and takes/spends more money, the stakes keep increasing. The lure to control that money flow is irresistible … Read more
A progressive’s work is never done because everything is progressivism’s business. -George Will (The Conservative Sensibility) How true – they never stop in their efforts to institute top-down control because THEY don’t believe YOU can control your own life. They are, by mindset, unable to leave others alone. It’s like they think they’re royalty or sumptin…
“Trump’s speech revealed a far more ideologically conservative Trump than he was is 2016. When Trump ran for the presidency, he was not ideological. His leanings appeared to be towards the left. He probably thought conservatives were a bit paranoid and over-the-top sounding the alarm about how Democrats seek to undermine our country’s best interests. … Read more
If we open our minds, we cannot but realize that, for the most part, the elaborate barriers designed to minimize the role of government force in our lives have over time been increasingly ignored. Those very few powers granted to the federal government have been so broadly construed as to become meaningless. -Gerrit Wormhoudt (Opting … Read more
The doctrine of sustainability assumes that current rates of use of a resource may be extrapolated into the future until it rams into a ceiling. The implication is that we must switch to a renewable resource that can be replenished at the rate we use it, indefinitely. In reality, societies have always abandoned a resource … Read more
[Bernie Sanders says that] Socialism is for compassion, justice, and love. Well I don’t know what nation on Earth where socialism has ever achieved those objectives. Freedom achieves those objectives but socialism has brought, to 10s of millions around the world, instead, is oppression, injustice, and scarcity. This is what socialism delivers. -Ari Fleicher (Fox … Read more
…Turning to the Equality Act, Biden said, “I promise you if I’m elected president it will be the first thing I ask to be done. It will send a message around the world, not just at home.” “This is our soul, da*mit, this is who we have to be… This is our real moral obligation,” … Read more
To assess the degree of liberty individuals do enjoy, [Herbert] Spencer argued, what matters is “whether the lives of citizens are more interfered with than they were; not the nature of the agency which interferes with them.” That we elect our rulers does not necessarily mean that they rule us well, nor that they respect … Read more
Just so, when it comes to political philosophy and what the state should be doing, the issue shouldn’t be our substantive concerns, but rather what kinds of things we should be using threats and violence to compel those around us to do. -Dan Moller (Governing Least) Unfortunately, Moller is right. While it may sound to … Read more
The danger, of course, is that competition for consumers will be replaced by competition for political pull. There are thousands of instances of companies lobbying for tariffs, price supports, subsidies, and restrictions on their competition, all for their own self-interest and profits of course. When such lobbying is successful, capitalism becomes about sucking up to … Read more
A longish one but given that “Let’s all go pagan and worship Mother Earth” (otherwise known as Earth Day) was yesterday, a note of optimism instead of the Doom, Gloom, and Socialism by the Eco-ists: • Since 1980 indoor air pollution — mostly from home cooking and heating — has steadily fallen in every region of … Read more
I had mentioned to my foreign friend something I’ve heard from several of you readers of this blog who are conservative academics: that as long as old-school liberals remain in charge of faculties and academic institutions, there will be a place for right-of-center scholars. But when the Jacobin-like younger generation moves into leadership, that will … Read more
Consider this scenario: Say a million of us have gardens; instead of spending our money to maintain our gardens, we are forced to give that money to the government so that it can decide how the money should be spent on our gardens. Ridiculous, right? We know that most of our gardens would be less … Read more
With its utopian quest for a society cleansed of all traces of bias or inequality and its politicization of everything from art to family life, social-justice leftism is in some ways the modern heir to 20th-century communism. While it does not command totalitarian regimes, its effect on Western liberal institutions — especially the media and … Read more
Markets provide a platform through which firms compete for both resources and customers. How effectively firms perform these tasks depends primarily on how open the markets are, including the markets for factors and products, and how freely firms can be created and compete with each other. Essentially, firms’ effectiveness depends on how smoothly and quickly … Read more
Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are the big programs that the Democrat socialists tout as “American policies” that are indeed socialist. If we are uncomfortable with socialism, they taunt, why don’t we suggest getting rid of these policies. But we have, in fact. Though he went on to expand Medicare, George W. Bush campaigned on … Read more
Emphasis mine: Here’s the thing about the Postmodern Left: They don’t give a damn about jobs, wages, or really even any particular government program or Green New Deal or Five-Year Plan, or whatever it is they’re peddling this week. They’re just cynically cashing in on the system they pretend to disparage and despise. (Actually, the … Read more
Emphasis mine: For years now, angry Americans have been lashing back at Washington overreach. That is the genesis of the Tea Party movement. But it’s even worse than we thought. The ultimate evil of the bureaucratic state, Howard argues, is that Americans no longer feel free. Americans no longer breathe the fresh air of freedom … Read more