This was originally posted on Live Oaks on April 7, 2010. Comments have not been migrated. Advocates of government regulations often argue that government intervention is necessary to protect consumers from unscrupulous businesses. They ignore the many ways that individuals can make informed decisions and protect themselves from fraud and similar practices. An interesting example…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on March 17, 2010. Comments have not been migrated. Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg demonstrates what happens when an individual chooses to rely on government rather than exercising his own judgment. She decries the state’s licensing requirements for day care operators: Hours required to give a manicure: 600. Hours…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on March 3, 2010. Comments have not been migrated. David Crossley, of Houston Tomorrow (HT), demonstrates what happens when one drops context in an attempt to promote a political agenda: Standard of living is basically about stuff and working hard to get it, while quality of life is…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on December 17, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. I recently purchased a rental house in a suburb of Houston. (For now, the city will remain nameless.) When I called the electric company to have power turned on, I was informed that I needed a permit from the…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on December 9, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. During this era of job losses and exorbitant government spending to “create” jobs, it is interesting to note the lengths to which government goes to prevent job creation. This is worse than just another example government hypocrisy–it harms consumers,…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on August 21, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Economists and pundits like to defend certain government interventions–such as the regulation of utilities and the provision of roads–on the grounds that “perfect” competition cannot exist for certain services. The argument is similar to that used to defend “natural”…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on July 31, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Electric companies are popular targets for politicians who seek to score points with voters. Nobody likes high electric bills or power outages, and politicians can use all manner of threats, arm twisting, and explicit force to compel utilities to…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on July 12, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. In keeping with its unstated policy of supporting any idea or policy that increases government control, on Saturday the Chronicle editorial supported the city’s new restrictions on signs: Houston brings out the nagging mother in us: She’d be such…
This was originally posted as a series on Live Oaks in May 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Death and taxes, we are often told, are two inevitable facts of life. However, a crucial distinction exists between the two—death is a metaphysical fact, while taxes are a man-made fact. As such, death is in fact…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on December 16, 2008. Comments have not been migrated. I have previously written how the Texas Open Beaches Act may be used to prohibit beach front property owners from rebuilding their homes in the wake of Hurricane Ike. This is bad enough, but California officials are attempting to…
This article was published in the February 1988 issue of The Freeman. $ $ $ Proponents of government regulation often overlook the many ways in which the free market itself polices producers, without the need for government involvement. Let us make a quick survey of these ways, in the hope that it will help us…