Regulation Policy & Welfare

The Disastrous World of the New York Subway, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger March 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Here is one thing government enterprise has undeniably delivered: There are no more serious debates about greed. How can there be greed when government enterprises such as the subways and Amtrak almost always lose boatloads of money? For example, in a recent Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) annual report, the ...

The Conservative Reform Game

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2006

Here we go again. The reform game. In the wake of the federal government’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is unveiling “reforms” that will ensure that such federal disasters never happen again. Yawn! Just more standard conservative “reform” claptrap. This is par-for-the-course ...

Bush Speaks Nonsense on Energy

by Sheldon Richman February 10, 2006

Despite the bravado in his State of the Union address, President Bush actually admitted that his efforts in the Middle East are destined to fail. Here’s what he said: “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” He then unveiled billions of dollars in new ...

The Disastrous World of the New York Subway, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger February 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 New York City just went through another egregious subway strike. Again. Yet this was a strike of public workers that was never supposed to occur. The workers are covered by the state’s Taylor law, which isn’t much of a law, since the workers repeatedly violate it. (There were ...

Hurting Wal-Mart’s Employees

by Sheldon Richman January 20, 2006

Government is little more than a coercive transfer machine. If you can’t acquire something through consent and exchange, you ask politicians to compel others to provide it. This goes on every day. Never was it more blatant than when the Maryland legislature passed a law to compel Wal-Mart to spend at ...

The Separation of Charity and State

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2005

The primary function of the federal government these days is to help out others with federal welfare assistance. The assistance is dispensed in a variety of ways — directly, in the form of a money payment (Social Security); indirectly, by helping people with payments to third parties (Medicare and Medicaid); subsidies to government entities and private organizations (grants to ...

Hoover’s Second Wrecking of American Agriculture

by James Bovard December 1, 2005

My last Freedom Daily article traced how the federal government wrecked the agricultural sector after World War I and how the Agriculture Department became a permanent lobby for “socialism in one industry.” But President Calvin Coolidge steadfastly resisted the push to have the feds take over crop pricing. Unfortunately, his successor ...

I Vote Against Bond Issues

by Gregory Bresiger November 11, 2005

In the private sector, there is every incentive to economize to provide the best products at the lowest possible prices to ensure customer loyalty. That is the road to profits. It is a road that can take years of painstaking work to build. In the public sector, the incentive is always the opposite. It is to win elections, which happen ...

Who’s Your Daddy?

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 7, 2005

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that President Bush isn’t a brilliant politician, one who has mastered the psychological intricacies of the welfare-warfare state that conservatives and liberals have imported to our nation. The latest proof of Bush’s political brilliance and insight into human nature occurred recently when he ...

How the Feds Took Over Farming

by James Bovard November 1, 2005

I appreciate all the feedback from readers from last month’s article, “Harebrained Pot and Wheat Decisions.” That piece showed how the Supreme Court this year justified banning medical marijuana on the basis of a 1942 Supreme Court decision involving wheat subsidies. This essay will seek to answer some of ...

The Failure of Amtrak Reform

by Gregory Bresiger November 1, 2005

End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America’s Passenger Trains by Joseph Vranich (American Enterprise Institute, 2004); 264 pages. With Amtrak officials’ recent threats to shut down unless Congress increases its subsidy and with the Acela fiasco, was there ever a more relevant book than End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform ...

Mr. Bush, Mind Your Own Business

by Sheldon Richman October 21, 2005

So President Bush wants us to conserve gasoline by driving less. Cut out the nonessential car trips, he says. It seems to me that the quintessential American response is simply this: With all due respect Mr. President, mind your own business. You see, in America (why doesn’t he know this?) ...