In 2018, accordionist Tony Barilla had a simple desire. He wanted to play his accordion on sidewalks in Houston’s Theater District. Though busking is outlawed throughout the city, it is legal in the Theater District. However, Barilla was unable to obtain the requisite permit to busk because city officials did not know the process for…
In 1850, the French economist, Claude Frédéric Bastiat, wrote an essay titled “That Which is Seen and That Which is not Seen.” The essay is timeless, and it is particularly enlightening at a time when government spending has reached new levels of profligacy. The introduction to the essay lays out its central point: In the…
Producers have long been under attack around the world. The pandemic has intensified those attacks. Perhaps the most notable target are housing producers and vaccine producers. We must not, the attackers declare, put profits before people. But the fact is, attacking producers is an attack on human life. Producers have enabled mankind to rise from…
About 24 hours after the Supreme Court struck down the CDC’s latest eviction moratorium, housing advocates assembled in at least twenty cities to protest. The protests were organized by Cancel the Rents for the purpose of demanding that Congress enact an eviction moratorium for the duration of the pandemic. Cancel the Rents (CTR) called for…
In recent years, it has grown increasingly popular to attack real estate investors. Whether they are flippers, landlords, or developers, a coalition consisting of property owners, organizations like Black Lives Matter, and housing advocates denounce investors as villains who destroy neighborhoods and place profit before people. Unfortunately, many investors offer apologies for their actions, rather…
Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave Americans permission to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA’s action came three weeks after the company submitted a request for Emergency Use Authorization. During those three weeks, nearly four million new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the United States, and more than 40,000 Americans died from…
Nearly a week after Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine began being used in Great Britain, the vaccine will start being used in America today. The delay was caused because Pfizer had to obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it could release the vaccine. In the meantime, an unknown number of Americans died from…
In the late 1970s, FedEx unveiled its slogan, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” Today, Amazon operates under a similar slogan: “When you absolutely, positively need it tomorrow.” But sometimes, tomorrow isn’t soon enough. Last weekend, I was preparing an Indian dinner for some friends. One of the dishes I wanted to…
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, government officials have repeatedly told us that their primary objective is to save lives. And to accomplish that goal, they have forced businesses to close or operate under less than ideal conditions. Not surprisingly, many workers–more than twenty million–have lost their job, their livelihood. The government’s efforts to save lives has…
The values that human life requires are not simply laying around for us to pick up. They must be produced. Food must be grown, harvested, processed, and shipped to our grocer. Shelter must be built, and that requires countless industries and tradesmen. We can’t survive without consuming values, and we can’t consume values that haven’t…
The values that humans need to survive and prosper must be produced. Every value from food to smart phones, from shelter to medicines, from clothing to automobiles, must be produced. In their zeal to stop the spread of COVID-19, government officials are destroying America’s productive capacity. The restrictions and controls on production and trade are…
In the mass paranoia over COVID-19, supplies of surgical masks are being depleted as non-surgeons seek the false comfort of covering their mouth and nose. Of course, individuals should be free to engage in useless activities, but their use of surgical masks poses a potential threat to health care professionals. Some health care professionals are…