NBC Boston’s multi-episode coverage of the Free State Project included a naysayer complaining that the movers to New Hampshire are only doing so because they are minorities in their home states. I ask, does this make the project illegitimate?
This seems to be the way of the world in my estimation. Here’s a sampling of several similar minorities who moved in some coordinated mass of one kind or the other:
When my friends and I landed in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (USVI) in the summer of 2023, we assumed getting around would be a breeze. It is a US territory, after all. We were unpleasantly surprised to find this was not the case. Instead—too young to rent a car—we were met with no rideshare apps (Uber, Lyft, etc.) and left with only a handful of dirty, expensive, dubiously safe, and slow-to-arrive taxis.
The government has essentially handed control of ride services on the islands to a cartel of licensed taxi drivers—and they abuse this crony privilege to the fullest.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Paul Heyne (1931–2000) began his higher education as a divinity student at the local Concordia Lutheran Seminary and became an ordained minister, though never a pastor. He then earned a master’s degree in economics at Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD in Ethics and Society at the University of Chicago. He spent most of his adult life teaching economics while retaining a deep interest in questions of ethics.
China’s rise is often portrayed as unstoppable. It dominates global supply chains, pours money into research and development (R&D), and boasts some of the world’s largest tech companies. But scratch beneath the surface of this economic juggernaut, and a picture of structural inefficiencies, inflated innovation claims, and deep technological dependencies emerges. For all its ambition, China is caught in a trap: it is trying to act like a high-tech superpower while stuck with the productivity levels and export profile of a middle-income country.
In January 2023, the Cochrane Library—one of the world’s most respected institutions for systematic evidence reviews—published an updated analysis on the effectiveness of masks in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses. The conclusion, cautious in tone, was devastating in substance: wearing masks “probably makes little or no difference” in reducing infections like the flu or COVID-19.
[Human Rights: Fact or Fancy? by Henry B. Veatch (LSU Press, 185; xi + 258 pp)]
Over the past years, traffic in Costa Rica has become a daily ordeal, profoundly altering the behavior of our society. In this article, I briefly examine how the inherent failures of the interventionist state lie at the root of Costa Rica’s traffic crisis—and, by extension, the growing driver aggression among its citizens.
Traffic jams are so frequent that many Costa Ricans have adjusted their routines to deal with this phenomenon, treating it like a chronic illness. In certain areas, especially during peak hours, traveling just one kilometer can take over thirty minutes.
