In 1950, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America on a per capita income basis. Today, the Census Bureau reports that it is the nation’s 2nd poorest major city, just “edging out” Cleveland.
Could it be pure coincidence that the decline occurred over the same period in which union power, the city government bureaucracy, taxes and business regulations all multiplied? While correlation is not causation, it is striking that the decline in per capita income is exactly what classical economists predict would occur when wage controls are imposed and taxes are increased.
Yes, ignore theory, and ignore empirical evidence. It’s the Democrats’ war on science.
Is that what Media Matters will become? Let’s hope. Except this time, it needs to be made an actual campaign issue, instead of wimping out on it as McCain did.
It’s no wonder Media Matters’ head David Brock comes off as an unhinged paranoid in the story. When you stake your career on dirty tricks and smear tactics, you start expecting everyone else is out to do the same to you. As the Caller reports, Media Matters was apparently so obsessed with digging up dirt on Fox News it considered hiring detectives to track its employees. To Brock, the declaration that his organization was at “war with Fox News” wasn’t hyperbole – his personal assistant reportedly carried a Glock to prove it.
It will be interesting to see how successful the White House is in putting daylight between themselves and this nut job.
Of course, this is par for the course for this president. His budget documents have all been studies in the dereliction of duty. And it’s true that this particular act of dereliction has in it more elements of class warfare and punitive and economically damaging targeted tax increases than the past ones. But as we take note of that added layer of misguided political economy, we should not lose sight of the underlying scandal—the president’s complete lack of interest in addressing the mounting fiscal crisis which his policies have so severely exacerbated, and his readiness to allow our government’s finances to collapse around him (or rather around his wretched successor) and to burden our children with an unprecedented and unbearable burden of debt.
I don’t think these people even understand the meaning of the word.
I agree that it’s not obvious that they are any less so than Homo Sapiens sapiens. It is an interesting question as to whether cloning one would be ethical, though.
Item 3 is certainly a minority viewpoint – one professed by the Catholic Church but adhered to, in all likelihood, by a small minority even of Catholics. But it is a moral judgment, rooted in a traditional and long-held understanding of human nature that sex and marriage are inextricably linked to each other and to family — meaning children. It is not a policy prescription. The only policy prescriptions above from Santorum add up to contraception should be neither banned nor subsidized.
Which is actually a — dare I say it? — libertarian position. Don’t tell Rick.
This is a problem for at least two reasons (one of them is that it is illegal, yet they continue to do it). But as the commenters indicate, it’s also a result of a lack of competition in the medical profession in general, because the industry has captured the regulators.
Obamacare, and the hundreds of waivers the administration continues to issue, represents a new form of corruption, as well as cronyism, that I believe was invented by the Obama administration. The idea is to pass a terrible piece of legislation, and then exempt your friends from it, so that only those without political influence have to suffer from the lousy statute you imposed on them.
So that is a very quick overview of the kinds of corporate cronyism that have emerged during the Obama administration. This private sector cronyism is, I think, much more damaging than the public sector cronyism of the 19th century. Why? Because it doesn’t just waste money, it distorts the entire private economy. It is notable that the era when traditional cronyism flourished was also the time when the United States experienced its most explosive economic growth.
This ought to be the theme of the campaign, but it probably won’t be, at least with any of the current candidates.