Be Like Sweden

This is a common rallying cry among Americans (e.g., Bernie Sanders) who are disturbed by income inequality in the U.S. and the supposed excesses of capitalism. So what can the United States learn from Sweden? Swedish author Johan Norberg writes, As a native of Sweden, I must admit this makes me Feel the Bern a bit. … Read more

Freedom in the Interstices of Power Among the Elite

Francis Fukuyama from The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution: In Hungary, the absolutist project initially failed because a strong and well-organized noble class succeeded in imposing constitutional limits on the king’s authority. The Hungarian Diet, like its English counterpart, made the Hungarian king accountable to itself. Accountability was not sought … Read more

Fixed-Pie Fallacies and Tax Loopholes

Closing tax “loopholes” has been a major talking point of both presidential candidates as of late. But this kind of language distorts the conversation from the get go. As columnist David Harsanyi explains, Basically, all of life is a giant loophole until [politicians] come up with a way to regulate or tax it. In its economic … Read more

Paying Their Fair Share

Making “the rich” pay their “fair share” has been a talking point for some time and became a bit of a slogan during the presidential race. Drawing on the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent report, the Tax Foundation posts, One of the main takeaways from this year’s report is that the richest Americans pay a … Read more

The Social Science of Military Intervention

Stephen Walt, the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University, has an older, but still incredibly relevant article in Foreign Policy on the social science of military interventions. “Before France, Britain, and the United States stumbled into its current attempt to dislodge Muammar al-Qaddafi from power in Libya,” asks Walt, …did anyone bother … Read more

Raising the Drawbridges

“Is Poland’s government right-wing or left-wing?” asks a recent article in The Economist. Its leaders revere the Catholic church, vow to protect Poles from terrorism by not accepting any Muslim refugees and fulminate against “gender ideology” (by which they mean the notion that men can become women or marry other men). Yet the ruling Law and … Read more

The Preferences of Non-Voters

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how important it is to vote. Supposedly, if you vote for alternative Candidate X, then it is a de facto vote for Candidate Y. This Candidate Y could be either Trump or Clinton depending on the ideology of the one spewing this rhetorical nonsense. Nevermind that this line of argument … Read more

In Defense of the Middlemen

The middle man gets a bad wrap. Take this video from Purple (the mattress retailer) which bears the title, “Purple Saves You Money by Skipping All the Freeloaders”: According to the video, all the people in the value chain between the producer and the customer (sales people, retail store owners, corporate managers) are “freeloaders.” It’s the kind … Read more

How Much Are You Willing to Pay For Free Stuff?

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about some polling data on millennials and their (un)willingness to redistribute wealth. A recent poll by Vox and Morning Consult found that while most Sanders supporters (80%) are willing to pay more in taxes, how much more they are willing to pay paints an interesting picture. “When we polled voters, we … Read more