Tag: Capitalism

  • ‘Not Evil Just Wrong’ filmmaker tells of harms of radical environmentalists

    Watching the film she made, I became angry. After talking with her, I feel better, but I’m still angry. She’s Ann McElhinney. The film she made is Not Evil Just Wrong. It’s a very powerful antidote to former vice president Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth and the extremism it has generated.

  • The real right to medical care versus socialized medicine

    In 1994, George Reisman wrote a pamphlet explaining the problems with America’s health care system. He criticized the Clinton plan for reform, and offered an alternative based on freedom and markets rather than government interventionism. It is a brilliant work, and still relevant today: “I wrote this essay to help defeat the Clinton plan for…

  • Privatization of Wichita city parks

    In a post concerning the possible privatization of City of Wichita parks maintenance, I called for, in a rather oblique way, privatization of city parks. A commenter picked up on this and wrote “I’m wondering how the parks would be decided by the market. Wouldn’t the parks have to charge an entry fee in that…

  • Profit motive in health care is essential

    I wonder: who has the greater incentive to avoid wasting money on useless overhead? The government, or a private company who can keep the money saved as profits?

  • In Wichita, special assessment financing gone wild

    At today’s meeting of the Wichita City Council, a privately-owned condominium association is seeking special assessment financing to make repairs to it building.

  • Environmental myths of the Left

    One of the powerful stories radical environmentalists — or any environmentalists for that matter — tell is how the river in Cleveland caught on fire. Water burning: that’s a real environmental disaster. Government must step in a do something! Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute tells the true story. It turns out that it was not…

  • Wichita facade improvement plan updated

    Programs like this are government planning. It’s our city government saying that investment in certain areas of town are more desired than investment in other parts of town. Since people aren’t investing enough to fulfill the city’s plan, the city must correct this alleged market failure by giving gifts of taxpayer money.

  • John Stossel: The Reason.tv interview

    As the co-anchor of the long-running and immensely popular ABC News program 20/20, auteur of a continuing series of specials on topics ranging from corporate welfare to educational waste to laws criminalizing consensual adult behavior, and author of best-selling books such as Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, Stossel brings a consistent message of liberty to…

  • ‘Story of Stuff’ video attempts to shame us into depression

    A video claiming that American-style capitalism is ruining the earth is making its way into our nation’s schools as “a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation,” according to a story on the front page of the New York Times in May. It’s produced by one Annie Leonard, described in the Times as “a former…

  • Seven principles of sound public policy

    Lawrence W. Reed, now the president of the Foundation for Economic Education, has a short booklet available that can help citizens analyze whether a government policy is sound. Titled Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy, it’s a comfortably short pamphlet of just 11 pages. But it’s full of a lot of wisdom.

  • Sedgwick County land development will harm private sector

    As Sedgwick County considers whether to enter the industrial land development business, there are many considerations that must be weighed before proceeding. My greatest concern is the impact that government land development will have on the private sector in Wichita. … Government has advantages that the private sector doesn’t. It has access to free capital.…

  • New audio version of “I, Pencil” makes case for freedom, not government planning

    The Foundation for Economic Education has released a new audio version of the booklet I, Pencil. Written by FEE’s founder Leonard E. Read and first published in 1958, its message proclaiming the importance of freedom has not diminished with the passage of time. This audio recording, which you can listen to on your computer or…