Category: Role of government
The Williams rules
The kind of rules we should have are the kind that we’d make if our worst enemy were in charge. My mother created a mini-version of such a rule. Sometimes she would ask either me or my sister to evenly divide the last piece of cake or pie to share between us. More times than…
The Plunder of the Legislative Process
It is amazing to read the words of Bastiat, written over 150 years ago, but applicable today: Your principle has placed these words above the entrance of the legislative chamber: “whosoever acquires any influence here can obtain his share of legal plunder.” And what has been the result? All classes have flung themselves upon the…
I have nothing to offer
One of the appeals of big government is that is has so much to offer everyone. Those, myself included, who want government to radically reduce its size, intrusiveness, and power have nothing to offer except freedom and liberty. Sadly, those things don’t seem to matter to many people today. Or perhaps people have forgotten what…
What to do with others’ money
In a June 20, 2006 Wichita Eagle editorial, Rhonda Holman writes about the WaterWalk project in Wichita. Evidently there is controversy over the public not knowing the name of the “destination restaurant” that is being courted and favored with a gift of $1 million. To me, the controversy is not the identify of the restaurant…
Government harms those it means to help
A column by economist Thomas Sowell Preserving a Vision–at the Expense of the Facts tells just how harmful big-government liberalism is to those it aims to help. In particular, black families have been harmed. “… the black family, which survived centuries of slavery and generations of discrimination, has disintegrated in the wake of the liberal…
A Return to republican (small “r”) government
Would you rather live in a republic or a democracy?
The descent of the good column
Last week I explained how a column in The Wichita Eagle (see How a Good Column on the Bad Lottery Fell Apart) started out well but took a sharp turn downwards.
Political Decision Making Increases Conflict
A column by economist Walter E. Williams (Why we’re a divided nation) strongly makes the case for more decision making by free markets rather than by the government through the political process. When decisions are made through free markets, Dr. Williams says, both parties win, because in a free market, parties voluntarily enter into only…
Attacking lobbyists wrong battle
Professor Williams explains to us that given the “awesome growth of government control over business, property, employment and other areas of our lives” Washington politicians (and I would add state and local politicians too) are in the position to grant valuable favors. “The greater their power to grant favors, the greater the value of being…