Tag: Role of government

  • Let markets fund arts and culture

    Former Wichita City Council member and present Arts Council chairwoman Joan Cole wrote an article titled “City needs dedicated arts funding” that appeared in the March 16, 2006 Wichita Eagle. This article advocates continued and increased government funding for arts in Wichita. In her article Mrs. Cole mentions a policy that she seems to approve…

  • Economics In One Lesson, 50th Anniversary Edition

    This book, first published in 1946, explains common fallacies (a false or mistaken idea) that are particularly common in the field of economics and public policy.

  • Separation of Sport and State

    I recently discovered that all over the country there are taxes being directed to Sports teams and Arenas. So, I created a site www.separationofsportandstate.com Please visit, and contribute by emailing the administrator.

  • 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…

  • How government makes us unhappy

    Arthur C. Brooks, associate professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs, has a commentary in the December 8, 2005 Wall Street Journal titled “Money Buys Happiness.” Rich people, the author tells us, are much more likely to say they are happy. Although we are becoming richer as a whole, the percent of people…

  • Big government is thoroughly entrenched

    Faced with even this barely noticeable reduction in spending, advocates of big government are in full fighting trim: “Their Congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, have denounced even these paltry GOP savings as ‘shameful’ and ‘immoral.’ They even brought a dozen Katrina Hurricane victims to Washington, trotted them out in front of the national…

  • How government destroys self-reliance

    There is a problem when government interferes with what people should be doing for themselves. Government can destroy the incentive to provide for yourself and your family.

  • How government insurance destroyed New Orleans

    In the September 3, 2005 New York Times, columnist John Tierney educates us on the difference between private insurance and government insurance. Currently, the flood insurance that’s available through the federal government, because the premiums are so low, doesn’t fully reflect the costs of assuming that risk. And even as cheap as the flood insurance…

  • Book Review: Winning The Future

    This book by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich outlines his prescription for what America needs to do to avoid decline. The five threats Gingrich identifies are Islamic terrorism, that God will be driven from American life, that America will lose its patriotic sense of self, that America will lose its economic supremacy to…

  • George W. Bush leads in discretionary spending

    George W. Bush is one of the biggest spenders of all presidents.

  • Randy Scholfield and less government

    The dictionary defines laudable as “Deserving commendation; praiseworthy” or “Deserving honor, respect, or admiration.” Mr. Scholfield’s past writings don’t treat the goal of less government this way. In fact, it doesn’t seem there is a single government program that Mr. Scholfield doesn’t like and praise.