Today’s political parties lack ideas. The Republicans define themselves as opponents of Democrats. Yet many of the GOP economic policy positions resemble, with minor variations, those of Democrats. Meanwhile, the Democrats repeat the same simplistic refrain: “solve” every problem with…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — To give credit where it’s due, California’s government — through the state auditor’s office, Legislative Analyst’s Office, and various inspector generals and oversight bodies — does a remarkable job producing reports that chapter-and-verse the scandals, mismanagement, incompetence,…
You know you’re getting old when you go out one night and convince all your friends to walk to the other side of town to a wonderful little pub you know, only to find out that it is now a…
When a first-time mother searches frantically for specialized formula for her newborn, does she feel like the United States government is compassionate? How about the working parents who had to leave grade schoolers at home to do isolated learning because…
Imagine your governor made a secret deal with third-party groups that influenced your state’s elections — and, worse, didn’t inform the public until after the election passed. That’s exactly what happened in Kansas in 2020 when Gov. Laura Kelly secretly…
The Sooner State just gave abortion a sooner end to its existence in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Legislature passed a bill that would outright ban abortion in the state. The bill, House Bill 4327, was approved in a landslide vote, with…
Ludwig von Mises’ Yale University Press classic Bureaucracy explains in a relatively few pages the difference between public and private-sector bureaucratic management. The private sector can measure what is going on in large hierarchies of bureaucracy below its CEO simply…
One can improve one’s lot in life even in troubled times.
It was a shock Tuesday to learn of P.J. O’Rourke’s passing. I didn’t even know he was ill. His leaving us is truly sad news. The world is a less funny place without him. Few have ever combined intelligent observations…
Dylan Matthews, writing in Vox, poses an excellent question: “Can randomly selected citizens govern better than elected officials?” Who knows? Maybe it’s worth a try. Whether you call it sortition or lottocracy, it’s a very old idea, dating back to…