It’s easy for politicians to demonize rich corporate executives and demand they fund solutions. Most of us aren’t rich and thus won’t have to chip in, making for an easy sell. But a lack of money is often not the biggest problem, and solutions that ask more people to contribute force public officials to maintain some fiscal discipline.
This piece first appeared on Independent Institute. The 91st Academy Awards turned out to be a good night for liberty and individualism, although many would have been surprised based on the lead up to Hollywood’s most glamorous night. Strong buzz for The Favourite, Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice, and A Star Is Born suggested that movies featuring liberty and freedom as central themes would …
If you like the idea of municipal broadband, you’re not getting it. But all of the talk of “we might change our mind in the future” has the potential effect of degrading the quality of existing non-municipal broadband services. As an alternative, the City could formally disclaim any interest in municipal broadband and examine, in consultation with private broadband providers, if there are current city policies that are barriers to broadband upgrades. “Stir, or get away from the pot” indeed.
George Washington began his presidency two centuries before Ross published her book. But he would likely agree with her conclusion that “the central problem of American social science (is) the fate of the American republic in time.”
The Supreme Court could weigh in on whether these reversals should impact the amendment’s addition to the Constitution. But, it is not clear that it would. In fact, the Supreme Court opted not to rule on a rescinded ratification in 1939 on the Child Labor Amendment whose ratification period had expired.
So what exactly causes the flow of wealth to reverse? Children have not somehow suddenly become expensive, unproductive creatures. What has changed is that their parents have lost control over that productivity. Contemporary market economies have systematically dismantled all legal and customary direct obligations that children once had towards their parents, a dismantling that is still going on in some parts of the world.
The voices of the poor are often not heard. Governmental systems devised to assist the poor focus on top-down poverty identification through definitions, biometrics, surveys, and measurements, over which people have little say. And programs to assist the poor are administered through opaque and difficult to navigate bureaucracies. Gram sabhas have the potential to change that by facilitating what we have termed “oral democracy”, a political system powered by citizens’ voices, where direct verbal engagement is the modality and narratives are the main currency.
A few weeks ago, I attended a speech given by Doby Flowers at the Multicultural Leadership Summit hosted by The Center for Leadership and Social Change at Florida State University. Doby Flowers is one of three individuals featured in FSU’s Integration Statue on the Legacy Walk pathway that runs through the heart of campus. Doby …
This piece first appeared in Forbes. America’s infrastructure is often described as crumbling, broken-down, and out-of-date by politicians from both sides. While the reality isn’t so dire, there are obvious infrastructure issues throughout the country, such as New York’s subway, D.C.’s metro, and almost any road in Michigan. So even though the country’s infrastructure is not as bad as some suggest, we …
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Our book is one of few English books focusing on the issue of ecological sustainability in China. It includes a selection of the best papers presented at the Jinan Forum on Geography and Ecological Sustainability held in Guangzhou, China, from 17 to 19 February 2017, as well as several invited papers.
