In the mid-1970s, my grandparents volunteered to help a family of Vietnamese immigrants settle in their town, Chambersburg, PA. The Vietnamese father – I don't remember his name, so I will call him Mr Nguyen – had been an officer in the South … [Read more]
When is a Cake Just a Cake? Masterpiece Cakeshop vs Colorado Civil Rights Commission
Sometimes a wedding cake is just a baked mixture of flour and milk and sugar. My first prediction for 2018: The United States Supreme Court will rule in favor of the gay couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, in the “Masterpiece Cakeshop” case … [Read more]
The Poor and a Successful Anti-Poverty Program
In 1859, Joshua Norton, an Englishman living in San Francisco, took the unusual path in life of declaring himself Emperor of the United States. He issued “manifestos” proclaiming his decisions on this and that (at one point he announced that he had … [Read more]
Health Care, Taxes, and the Slump in Business Start-Ups
Do you ever dream of having your own business? Being your own boss, the captain of your own ship, making a go of it independently? In recent years, fewer Americans have been making that leap to self-employment. According to the US Census Bureau, … [Read more]
Becoming Libertarian
When I was 30 years old I would have laughed if you had told me that by the time I was 35 I would no longer be liberal. The liberal world-view made sense to me. Liberals, I believed, were clearly the enlightened ones. We were the caring ones. … [Read more]
Free Markets and the Common Good
A criticism often directed at the free market economic system is that it encourages individualistic "self-interest" rather than the “common good.” Economist John Kenneth Galbraith said free market advocates are “engaged in one of man's oldest … [Read more]