It was a wild week. Here are some highlights! Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute speaks on the philosophical foundations of the Constitution in this podcast. NYT criticizes Gary Johnson for Aleppo gaffe, misidentifies Aleppo three times. Read the story of how refugees in Hong Kong helped hide Edward Snowden for weeks following the NSA leaks. […]
Here are some links to round out your week and send you off into the long weekend: San Francisco 49er’s Colin Kaepernick on why he’s refusing to stand for the national anthem. Veterans have come to Kaepernick’s defense against his critics. In a bizarre ruling, the 9th Circuit ruled that medical marijuana patients have no second amendment […]
The real world is a complex, messy, and difficult place and helping those who need it the most requires not just good intentions, but careful planning, advice from those who came before, and, most importantly, strict attention to the wishes and needs of the people themselves, since they are the ones who understand, more than anyone, what they truly need.
Here are some links to interesting stories to close out your week! The Federal Reserve’s new Facebook page the immediate victim of internet trolls. France’s highest court suspends “Burkini ban” in win for religious freedom. CEO at center of EpiPen price hike is the daughter of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin. Who will build the roads? […]
Raising the cost of making bad decisions makes bad decisions occur less. Conversely, subsidizing poor decisions increases their occurrence.
Policies backed with even the best of intentions can still have detrimental effects on those they aim to help. The “Welfare Cliff” is one such example.
What activists don’t see is that, by trying to eliminate child labor, they are taking away one of the few tools that children in impoverished countries have to escape bad situations.
Abby Hobbs [name changed for privacy] is not the type of person you’d classify as lazy or naïve. As a digital strategist at a small marketing firm, her enthusiasm for and knowledge of her industry are obvious whenever she talks about her job. But, as she told Learn Liberty, getting there wasn’t easy. As a […]
The news from Venezuela just keeps getting worse: runaway inflation, rolling electricity blackouts, shortages of even the most basic goods, people dying in hospitals waiting for care that just doesn’t ever arrive. The world looks on, appalled at the spreading miseries, and asks: “Why is this happening?” And, “What can be done about it?” These […]
Social Security is incredibly difficult for politicians to cut or reform—any changes in the program would deprive a large portion of their voting base of benefits, which could cause politicians to lose the next election. The problem would only be worse with a universal basic income,
A small group of workers walked out at Walmart on Black Friday 2012, and the company has been for a few decades now a leading emblem of what is supposedly wrong with the modern global economy. Shouldn’t Walmart just be more generous? Not necessarily. First, the managers of corporations are answerable to their shareholders. This […]
Does child labor help the children in poverty who work because they need that extra income to support their families? What are the alternatives? Could the power of free markets eventually raise their living standards? Economics Professor Benjamin Powell offers up a surprising analysis.
Does the “Made in Bangladesh” tag on your shirt—which could just as easily be read as “Made by Child Labor”—make you feel bad? There’s no question it should make us reflect on the incredible standard of living that we enjoy. But as Texas Tech Professor Benjamin Powell explains, we shouldn’t feel bad or unethical for […]
There was an amazing, squirmingly funny Saturday Night Live skit (Season 10, 1984), with Eddie Murphy, called “White Like Me.” In it, the Eddy Murphy character dresses in “white face,” and travels around New York City. He finds that the disparity in racial treatment is even larger than he expected—and it takes the form not […]
Americans across the country celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. this week. And while this is an opportunity to remember all that MLK has done for the civil rights movement, it’s also a chance to reflect on the progress that still needs to be made. Exhibit A: the criminal justice system. In the […]
The government “smoking police” are at it again. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently proposed a rule that will force more than 3,100 housing agencies in the United Sates to become smoke-free. Specifically, the regulation will prohibit “lit cigarettes, cigars and pipes in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and […]
Economics: Is raising minimum wage to $15 a bad idea? Professor Don Boudreaux explains why raising minimum wage actually hurts the economy instead of improving an employee’s chances of maintaining and getting a job. Join us for LIVE discussions of the minimum wage debate Friday, January 15th at 1:30PM (EST) and Tuesday, January 19th at 2:30PM […]
In this On Demand Program, our professors will explain the means and ends of arguments for social justice through the lens of classical liberalism. You’ll learn more about how to adapt your own arguments to fit the critiques of markets and individual liberty that come from advocates for social justice. Then we’ll look at the […]
There’s a very good chance that Finland will become the first country to implement a nationwide Universal Basic Income (UBI). The country’s Social Insurance Institution (Kela) is studying proposals to replace most of its existing welfare state programs with a simple cash grant – 800 euros for every Finnish citizen, regardless of whether they work, […]
If you want to get the full picture of the topic of income equality check out this Learn Liberty On Demand program. We’ve pulled together a list of mind-blowing videos, featuring professors like Sean Mulholland, Steve Horwitz and others who explore the subject from many perspectives. We’ve made sure that each video builds on what […]
The following blog post by Abigail Hall appeared on the Independent Institute’s blog on September 3rd, 2015. Below is an excerpt. Some people look at the conditions in Venezuela and point to oil prices as the source of many of its problems. The Venezuelan government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, blames opposition leaders for the […]
Without economic freedom, we cannot exercise our other freedoms. The freedom to speak is meaningless if the government prevents us from traveling from our homes or paying for a phone call. The freedom to write is meaningless if the government prevents us from selling newspapers. The freedom to worship is meaningless if the government forces […]
The US federal government spends well over six hundred billion dollars a year on welfare spread across more than a hundred and twenty different programs. When you add in spending at the state and local level, total welfare spending in the United States amounts to over a trillion dollars a year. That’s over $20,000 for […]
Between 1950 and 2000 western governments and NGOs spent 2.3 trillion dollars on foreign aid. But many development economist wonder whether that money was spent in ways that actually led to real lasting improvements in human well-being. Is there a better way? Most foreign aid programs are based on a top-down model with governments NGOs […]