Before the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), where Philip II of Macedon prevailed over a common Greek alliance, the city-states had been weakened by years of social and economic turmoil. To read the classical speeches in the Athenian assembly is to learn of the democracy’s constant struggles with declining revenues, insolvency, and expanding entitlements. Rome […]
Europe has become the model for how democratic capitalism can give way to the welfare state. Following a surge of market-driven growth after World War II, there was a rise across the continent in income redistribution and regulations intended to protect workers and consumers, and to achieve “fairness.” From the 1960s onward, high tax rates […]
What is it with this obsession that liberals have with rewriting the history of the 1980s? Answer: not one bit of what really happened fits the left wing narrative about how things work in the real world. The latest attacks on the Reagan legacy comes from Barack Obama, who is starting to wistfully defend his […]
If you want to see welfare-state socialism in action, go to bankrupt Puerto Rico. Let’s hope Bernie Sanders’ voters are paying attention to what their worker paradise dreams turn into in real life. Puerto Rico is a financial basket base with the island’s $75 billion debt now eclipsing 100% of its output. The government is […]
Thanks to 24-hour coverage of the current presidential contest, we can’t avoid becoming acquainted with each candidate’s plans and platforms. Of course, by this point it’s no secret that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders would like to raise taxes exponentially. Analyst and author Rick J. Newman calls Sanders’ plan “so utopian as to be hopeless,” noting […]