One of the principles of good public policy is to focus efforts on understanding social problems and searching for effective responses where those problems are serious, not where they are minor or missing. Local problems justify locally focused and decided policies, problems that have effects that are more widely spread justify geographically
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. Racism has, tragically, raised its ugly head throughout history. And American has certainly seen its share. But after all the other things that have been called racist, with everything connected to them bearing guilt by association, it is nonetheless stunning that some are now calling
One of the political trends of the past few years has been an expanding disconnect between political unity rhetoric and the increasing disharmony politicians’ proposals create. The root of this beltway cognitive dissonance is the rapid increase in government power. Unity rhetoric helps mobilize candidates’ political bases and can sway some
Various fearsome characters will soon be chanting “trick or treat” at doors all over America. That peculiar threat would seem to be a long way from the dismal science, but actually, Halloween reflects economics’ central precept that people choose by comparing the benefits and costs they expect to bear as a result. Modern jack-o-lanterns are carved
Over the weekend I watched “ Flags of our Fathers “ and one quote stuck out (among others). It comes from a Treasury Department official (Bud Gerber) who is trying to convince the flag raisers of Iwo Jima to use their celebrity status in assisting him in a new bond drive. He laments: You know what they’re calling this bond drive? The Mighty
Various Democratic politicians, including Diane Feinstein , are considering reviving the fairness doctrine to rein in talk radio’s “unfair bias.” Unfortunately, it is just the latest abuse of a perennial political weasel word—fair. Fair is a great weasel word because no one will admit to being against fairness, despite massive differences in what
With its title of Freedomnomics , some might dismiss John Lott’s latest book as just some slanted ideological rhetoric to be ignored. That would be a mistake. Having known him since graduate school at UCLA, I can attest that he is not an ideologue trying to abuse logic and statistics to confirm prior assumptions. He is someone who does his best to
On December 15, America celebrates the anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Of those rights, the 1st Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech is perhaps the most celebrated. If so, there is a good reason. After surviving a critical test from the Sedition Act of 1798, which tried to muzzle political opposition by making it illegal to ‘combine or
That there are inherent benefits in diversity is a common article of faith in our democratic/populist times. We hear it in and about universities, businesses, politics, entertainment, etc . Typically, though, we hear about it in terms of forcing more diversity on those whose diversity in a particular dimension doesn’t measure up to someone else’s
At least since I first read George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language , I have been a student of the use of weasel words. I have joined what he called the “struggle against the abuse of language,” because “Political languageis designed to make lies sound truthfuland to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” I even found the
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.