The Ford Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently committed $1.6 million to the HouseUS Fund. The fund, according to one of the co-directors, is not about building housing or building homes, it’s about building power. We are looking at the broader definition of housing and approaching it as a right rather than a commodity….
A character in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Man and Superman” utters a sentence most of us have heard: “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” That statement, of course, is not true. However, an adaptation of that statement is perhaps much more accurate: Those who can produce values, do; those who can’t, become a…
Companies like Airbnb and Vrbo have captured a lot of business that would have previously gone to hotels and resorts. Unable to compete with short-term rental (STR) companies like Airbnb, hotels and resorts are using their political connections to ban, regulate, and/or tax STRs. Nevada is the latest state to consider regulating and taxing STRs….
Many government policies are intended to protect the foolish, though few politicians or bureaucrats would admit as such. Instead, they tell us that their policies are promoting or protecting the “public interest.” In truth, there is no such as the “public interest.” There are only the interests of individuals, and individuals do not have monolithic…
Defenders of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believe that government regulation is necessary to prevent pharmaceutical companies from selling “snake oil” and ineffective drugs. But it turns out that the profit motive is a better regulator than the FDA. This week nine pharmaceutical companies announced that they won’t be releasing vaccines for COVID-19 until…
A recent study conducted in New York State concluded that 13.9 percent, or about 2.7 million, of the state’s residents have been infected with the coronavirus. That number is ten times higher than the state’s official count of 269,000. While government officials were quick to point out that these are preliminary results, it supports a…
There is no group of individuals in America more denounced, despised, and misrepresented than businessmen. In movies, books, and articles they are routinely portrayed as greedy swindlers willing to do anything to make money. Yet, these are the individuals who produce the values that we need and desire. We should celebrate these individuals, for they…
When I make a statement that some government program or agency should be abolished, I am often asked how certain values will be provided by the private sector. Recently, one of the most common topics of such conversations is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). How, I am asked, would we ensure that our food…
A pair of bills have been introduced in the current Texas legislative session that would limit the regulations that local governments can impose on short-term rentals (STRs). A coalition of organizations involved in STR support the bills, but those organizations are short-sighted. Rather than oppose any controls and regulations on their economic freedom, these organizations…
On January 3, Tucker Carlson delivered a diatribe ostensibly attacking the ruling class in Washington. But his real message was much more subtle, and much more sinister. It was, first and foremost, an attack on the free market. Like many other pundits, Carlson looks at the myriad problems plaguing America and blames the pursuit of…
Earlier this year, President Trump signed legislation a “right-to-try” bill, which allows those with life-threatening illnesses to bypass FDA regulations and take experimental treatments. At the time, CNBC reported that, “Critics say the legislation undermines the FDA’s authority to regulate drugs and could leave patients vulnerable to medicines that might not work or may even…