Nearly forty years ago I read Ayn Rand’s essay “Man’s Rights,” for the first time. I was new to Rand’s writing, and indeed free market thought in general. Rand’s claim that, “Without property rights, no other rights are possible,” struck me as a gross exaggeration. I became determined to discover whether that claim was true….
In opinion piece Andrew P. Napolitano presents us with the false alternative of dictatorship or dictatorship: One is not truly free if one cannot leave the government. This applies to people as well as to political subdivisions. The forced retention of people or geographical units under the government’s monopolistic jurisdiction is totalitarian. Without the threat…
Last week, I wrote about the elephant in the room regarding the affordable housing crisis for low0income households. The media and housing activists regularly subject us to sob stories to promote “renters’ protections,” but they say nothing about the choices that many low-income households make. An example comes from an article in The Fresno Bee….
Rancher and columnist Amanda Radke correctly notes that freedom and property rights are inseparable. And then she promptly attacks property rights because she picks the wrong enemy: We have a real David and Goliath story happening in agriculture right now. Independent farmers and ranchers are being thrown to the wolves in favor of the corporate…
In “Hotel California,” Don Henley tells us that, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” It turns out that these words might be more than clever lyrics for a song. Hundreds of thousands of Californians are checking out and fleeing to states with lower taxes and fewer regulations. But…
We are often told that a worker making the minimum wage can’t afford the rent for an apartment. As an example, a website covering housing issues in Massachusetts tells us that a minimum wage employee must work 104 hours in order to afford a studio apartment. Whether a particular article supports a higher minimum wage,…
In my book, The Affordable Housing Crisis: Causes and Cures, I provide numerous examples of how racism has prevented non-whites from owning a house and building wealth. Zoning, occupational licensing, eminent domain, and numerous other government policies have often been founded on racism. All of these policies, and many more, are a violation of property…
For years, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (TPWC) has leased 1,800 acres of privately owned land to operate the Fairfield Lake State Park. The owner of the land wanted to sell it, and for a year TPWC attempted to negotiate the purchase of the land. When those negotiations failed and the land was sold…
California legislators are considering a bill that would make the “right” to housing a part of the state’s constitution. Not surprisingly, supporters of the bill are unable to define how this alleged right would actually be implemented. Equally unsurprising, non-supporters of the bill are not challenging the fundamental premises underlying it. The author of the…
An editorial in the San Antonio Express-News declares, “STAAR test fails Texas students and needs to go—but not as part of school vouchers.” The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) was first implemented in the 2011-2012 school year. The test is used to determine promotion to the next grade, as well as graduation….
The title—“Government attacks free will when it assaults property rights”–of an opinion piece by Andrew P. Napolitano was intriguing. Unfortunately, while the former judge presented two false alternatives of dictatorship, he said virtually nothing about free will and its relationship to property rights. I will correct that oversight. The right to property means the freedom…
While proponents of property rights were celebrating two unanimous victories at the United States Supreme Court in May, another ruling that month garnered little attention. Yet, it could have an impact as far reaching as Tyler v. Hennepin County and Sackett v. EPA. The Court upheld a California law that prohibits the sale of pork…