University of Colorado sociologist Dr. Jay Coakley, in his book Sports in Society, explains that we mistakenly believe that sports builds character for two reasons.
Michael Moore wants socialized medicine in the United States, as his film Sicko proves. But Moore's plan would result in worse, not better, health outcomes for Americans – including the poor and underserved.
Amidst the anti-inflationary policies presently pursued by most of the world's important central banks, the global economy continues to grow impressively. Even a number of Europe's lackluster economies are beginning to register respectable growth-rates.
Despite – or precisely because of – soaring tuition costs and record-high post-graduation debt levels, 2008 presidential campaign rhetoric is rife with promises of more federal aid for college students.
Whenever a price floor is raised, the tendency is to create a surplus of goods beyond which there might not otherwise have been. Whenever a wage floor is raised, it creates a surplus of workers who otherwise might have had jobs. At the microeconomic level, the effects are real and tragic.
Legally enforcing a wage-price above the natural market wage is likely to cause unemployment among low-income and entry-level workers: that is, those who most need steady employment and those trying to break into the labor market to begin their working life.
Government wealth redistribution schemes, larger labor unions, and expanded government social programming have never helped the poor in the past and will continue to fail the truly disadvantaged in the future.
Of all things, an indiscreet tampering with the trade of provisions is the most dangerous, and it is always worst in the time when men are most disposed to it; that is, in the time of scarcity. Because there is nothing on which the passions of men are so violent, and their judgment so weak, and on which there exists such a multitude of ill-founded popular prejudices. (Edmund Burke, “Thoughts and Details on Scarcity,” 1795)
Because of the widespread use of corn products in U.S. food, less land for other crops due to an increased need for corn fields, and the higher cost of corn feed for livestock. In the first quarter of this year, food prices rose at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Think of it as a regressive tax on the consumer.