As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, many governments are imposing (or reimposing) mandates, lockdowns, and in general, restrictions on business activity and personal behavior. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has stood (mostly) firm in opposing government mandates.
More than 80 wealthy individuals are petitioning for higher taxes on the rich to help pay for the billions in new government programs made necessary by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is petition is disingenuous at best. If the wealthy want to pay more to help fight COVID-19, they can choose to do so themselves....
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The question about whether governments have been too restrictive, or not restrictive enough, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will likely never have a definitive answer. We can see what governments actually did and what actually happened, but we can only conjecture about what would have happened if governments had done things differently. In...
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In 2008 Al Gore said climate change threatens to “destroy the future of human civilization.” He continued, “We are facing a planetary emergency which, if not solved, would exceed anything we’ve ever experienced in the history of humankind.” To address the problem will “require us to end our dependence on carbon-based fuels.” Not everyone...
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Milton Friedman said there’s no such thing as a free lunch. If some people are consuming health care, someone has to pay for it. But that’s not my point here. Many people think that Medicare for All would mean the government would pay for everyone’s health care, so those receiving health care would have...
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People tend to view taxes in one of two ways. One view is that taxes are the price people pay for government goods and services. The other is that taxes are a penalty levied on people who earn income or have wealth. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax takes the second view.
My hometown of Tallahassee, Florida, has the highest crime rate of any city in Florida and is plagued with gun violence. Why? The headline of this article says, “Pot dealers blamed for local gun violence.” Larry Keefe, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District in Florida, is quoted in the article as saying “the vast...
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Are policies to reduce inequality beneficial to those who are least fortunate? Sometimes they are; sometimes they are not.
Almost two centuries ago Tocqueville observed that the “political world is metamorphosed [and] new remedies must henceforth be sought for new disorders.”
The war on drugs makes it far too easy for corrupt police officers to plant evidence on people.
