war on poverty

Central Planning Ignores the Needs of Women

"An American visiting the Communist Bloc in the 1980s would be aghast to find most women still doing laundry the way they had in the United States 50 years prior, without washing machines. The communist system didn’t produce machines to make women’s lives easier for the same reason it neglected their other needs and wants. For all the complaints about the profit motive, markets incentivize people to satisfy each other’s preferences through voluntary exchange, while state-run economies provide no such incentive. There is no shortage of soaring communist rhetoric on gender equality, but that cannot make up for the pervasive and sexist shortages under central planning."

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Washing Machine Tariffs Will Hurt Americans

"The protectionist move against LG and Samsung comes, perversely, just as those companies are set to employ thousands of Americans in Tennessee and South Carolina. It may also inadvertently put the final nail in the coffin of one of the longest-standing bastions of the American service industry, Sears Holdings Corp. Trump should reject the remedy proposal put forth by the International Trade Commission. Making it more expensive for LG to import the washers it produces for Kenmore, one of Sears’ most popular product lines, will jeopardize the retailer’s efforts to revitalize its brand."

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How occupational licensing laws inhibit interstate mobility

"The new study adds to the already substantial evidence indicating that licensing laws are a major obstacle to geographic mobility, particularly for poor and lower-middle class people seeking to move to areas with greater opportunity. We have gotten to the point where some 30 percent of Americans have to have licenses to legally work in their respective fields, including even some states that license florists and tour guides. The evidence also suggests that most of these laws do far more to suppress competition than protect consumers."

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Pennsylvania Drug Warriors Turned A New York Man’s Life into a Living Hell

"Ramos remained in jail for 158 days until he was found not guilty in Lehigh County Court after blood tests showed no illegal substances or alcohol in his system. While Ramos was jailed, he was fired from his job and lost his home. He lost his car, too: The tow truck operator notified Ramos by mail about a deadline to retrieve his vehicle, but because Ramos was in jail, no one was at his residence to receive the letter. Ramos' lawsuit charged that Troopers Summa and Vanfleet conspired to falsely arrest him despite finding no evidence that he was impaired or had drugs in his car."

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A Government That Gives Licenses Won’t Hesitate to Take Them Away

"Without a license, one is no longer legally permitted to work. This is to say, barbers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and pilots (the list is extensive) who are otherwise skilled at their occupations can be removed from the legal workforce if the governing body deems their student loan repayment unsatisfactory."

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Judge halts Indiana city’s code-enforcement property seizure racket

"The judge had particularly harsh words for Hall, who indicated in emails that it would be 'financially disastrous' for residents to try to improve their homes, because the homes would be demolished anyway. Such statements, coupled with the city’s policy of not levying fines against LLC-owned homes, undermine the goal of maintaining safety, Mount said."

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Occupational Licensing Is Just Another Form of Cronyism

"Special interests argue that occupational licensing somehow protects people, yet we have real-world examples for all 102 professions of states that have zero licensing restrictions and we don’t have examples of people dying or being harmed because of unregulated florists or rogue cosmetologists."

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Cubans Are Starting Small Businesses, but the U.S. Is Hurting Them

"The embargo is a failed foreign policy that’s only served to punish the Cuban people and isolate the United States internationally. And rolling back Obama’s opening there is a major blow for diplomacy, people-to-people ties, and — most of all — Cuba’s new private businesses."

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