For years, housing advocates have argued that landlords who refuse to accept housing vouchers are engaging in a form of racism because the majority of voucher users are black. Since I am a landlord who refuses to accept vouchers, in the eyes of many, I am a racist. In my twelve years as a landlord,…
A new “pro-choice” movement is being promoted by Leftists. As is often the case, the stated goals of this movement are a masquerade. While the policies advocated by the movement are presented as promoting freedom of choice, those policies are an attack on that freedom. As one example, housing advocates and their political supporters are…
It is rare that a book can objectively present the facts and then draw all of the wrong conclusions. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017, is one such book. Author Matthew Desmond follows eight low-income families and their landlords during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. He chronicles…
Ayn Rand often pointed out that businessmen have long been blamed for the disasters caused by government intervention in the economy. If one considers an issue out of context, such blame might seem plausible. But if we examine the full context, we will see that government frequently incentivizes bad behavior. The collapse of the housing…
“In a democracy,” Aristotle wrote, “the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” In a democracy, the poor and their supporters can vote for politicians who promise to provide free food, education, health care, and housing. In a democracy, the…
An inevitable result of government’s growing intervention in economic matters is a conflict between various policy goals. An example of these conflicting goals is the goal of preserving historic buildings and the goal of providing affordable housing. A common feature of preservation ordinances is that repairs to an existing building must use “in-kind” materials. For…
An opinion piece in The Dallas Morning News correctly notes that SB12, which would force social media platforms like Facebook to publish content the company finds objectionable. Can you imagine a law that forced someone who plants a yard sign supporting a Republican candidate to also place one for the Democratic opponent beside it? That’s…
Imagine for a moment, that you want to open a restaurant in an impoverished neighborhood in your city. When you apply for the necessary permits at the Health Department, you are told that you will only be allowed to open your restaurant if you agree to sell a percentage of meals below your costs. You…
For nearly a century, Americans have been told that we face an affordable housing crisis. Despite an endless number of government schemes purported to address the problem, it has only grown worse. Why? The simple answer is that supply has failed to keep pace with demand. But the simple answer doesn’t explain why developers and…
Housing advocates frequently claim that racism explains the large gap in home ownership between whites and non-whites. To overcome this racism, they call for government programs to help non-whites purchase homes. It is true that past racism did deter home ownership among non-whites, but that fact must be considered in the full context. The source…
Many attempts to defend property rights are founded on the wrong premises. The result, unfortunately, is ultimately destructive to the cause. Consider an essay titled “A primer of private property” by Eric Schansberg, a professor of economics at Indiana University Southeast. The essay begins reasonably well, noting that property rights are important to all individuals….
Leftists have a tactic that is often effective in generating support for their policies. They tell a really sad story, sprinkle in some horrifying statistics, and then evade relevant facts. A story about the eviction crisis on The Appeal illustrates this tactic. The article begins with a story about Samantha, a mother who worries where…