Politics & Rights

Just days ago the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund pressured the government of Cyprus to blatantly steal up to ten percent of the savings accounts of everyone with money in the country. Reuters reports the results: “People rushed to banks and queued at cash machines that refused to release…

In his recent New York Times article "On Questioning the Jewish State," University of Massachusetts philosophy professor Joseph Levine attempts to make the case that we should question whether Israel has a right to exist. Levine’s main argument is that only certain kinds of groups of people have the right…

As a slew of intrusive gun bills wind their way through the Colorado legislature, some of the discussion about those bills raises fundamental questions about the proper function of government. Last week, a woman who was the victim of a rape testified against a bill banning the concealed carry of…

Today New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling blocked the New York City soda ban, pointing out that it is “arbitrary and capricious.” The ruling significantly restricted the ability of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, acting through the city’s Board of Health, to regulate people’s consumption of foods. Kudos to Judge Tingling…

Free market economists and conservative activists point out that minimum wage laws harm the very people they are supposedly intended to help: unskilled workers. A recent article from the conservative Heritage Foundation, for example, makes this point. The economics is straightforward: Employers are not willing to pay people more than…

Fred Deluca, founder of Subway restaurants, recently noted that “If I started Subway today, Subway would not exist.” Recalling the early days of Subway, he said, “I had an easy time of it in the ’60s when I started,” but today “I just see a continuous increase in regulation.” CNBC…

These are shocking statistics: Among Americans ages 18–29, people tend to have a negative view of capitalism and a positive view of socialism. As Pew reported in 2011, people in this age group saw capitalism negatively by a margin of 47 to 46 percent, and they saw socialism positively by…

Conservatives are against new taxes—unless they are for them. The unprincipled conservative approach is most recently illustrated by a February 14 release from the American Conservative Union (ACU) urging Congress to sanction Internet sales taxes. In the release, ACU president Al Cardenas says the federal government should allow states to…

Kudos to Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke, actors in the Oscar-winning film Zero Dark Thirty, for bringing attention to the plight of Shakil Afridi, the doctor imprisoned in Pakistan for helping the United States locate and kill the terrorist Osama Bin Laden. As Fox News reports, Clarke said, “It’s wrong…

Starting in Scotland and England in the late 1700s and quickly expanding to America and beyond, the Industrial Revolution opened the floodgates of innovation and wealth creation, leading to rapidly improving living standard and increased life expectancy among the general population. But, as economist Charles Robertson writes for CNN, “Africa…