Every Friday, we bring you the best ideas from our blog and around the web. This week’s collection includes a conversation with Governor Scott Walker, a critique of the War on Poverty and more.
The war America lost: Almost 50 years later, William McGurn of the New York Post discusses the culture of dependency that Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” has created.
You can’t raise people up absent the wealth-creation that only the market brings. As the Herald-Leader story shows, notwithstanding all the government aid and government attention, the communities the federal government tried to get going “can’t stand on their own.”
Unintimidated: A conversation with Governor Scott Walker: Visiting AEI this past week, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker provided insight into his new book “Unintimidated.” He talked about leadership, collective bargaining reform and his tumultuous time in office.
Would You Support the Affordable Healthy Food Act?: Jacque Isaacs illustrates a world where the principles of the Affordable Care Act are applied to the food industry. The implications might surprise you.
Unelected experts decide what constitutes a healthy diet, and all of us are required to purchase food in the amounts and variety that comply with these guidelines. Not only does this mean you will be forced to purchase a certain amount of brussels sprouts when you would rather just buy more kale, but you also are required to purchase nuts—despite the fact that you have a severe peanut allergy.
Welcome to the New Corporatism: The Acton Institute’s Samuel Gregg comments on the cronyism that has merged economic with political systems, hindering economic growth and benefitting well-connected insiders.
And that perhaps is what’s so disturbing about the new corporatism in America. It’s not just the Tammany Hall-like political shenanigans or the economic Detroitification which it facilitates. The new corporatism’s most worrying aspect is that it suggests that large swaths of America’s political class (and their legion of enablers that stretches far, far beyond the Beltway) isn’t, deep-down, especially interested in freedom and opportunity for all, and perhaps hasn’t been for some time now.
Bill Gates’ Plan to Improve the World: Reacting to an article written by Gates, Dr. Jay Richards of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics points out the good and bad of the wealthy philanthropist’s approach to poverty alleviation.
I suspect that the good work of the super wealthy like Bill Gates would be more effective if they would remember the lessons they learned as budding entrepreneurs, before they became established philanthropists.
