Syndicated Columnists
Hey, Uncle Sam: Stop Paying People for Not Working
- By Stephen Moore
A policy question these days that has befuddled federal lawmakers is why so many millions of people have not returned to the workplace in the post-COVID-19 era. The labor force participation rate among employable adults is near a record low today. There are at least 2 million to 4 million employable adults who could and should be working but aren't.
Very few people with even minimal skills can credibly say they can't find a job. Employers report some 10 million job openings. Small business owners say their biggest problem is finding competent workers.
There are many explanations for why so many people aren't working -- fear of COVID-19, the skills mismatch, more people taking early retirement, and so on. But a major factor is that the federal government is back to doing what it did in the 1970s and 1980s. The welfare state today is paying people not to work -- even a single hour.
- Hits: 234
Michigan Is Headed Back to Rust Belt Poverty
- By Stephen Moore
Since the early days of Henry Ford, Michigan was the proud symbol of America's industrial might.
But then, starting in the 1970s, things went south -- in part because of the might of the unions that ran the state's political machine. That's when Michigan transitioned into the sad symbol of closed factories: the American "Rust Belt." Flint, Michigan, became a ghost town.
- Hits: 264
Honey, Joe Biden Just Shrunk Our Pension
- By Stephen Moore
President Joe Biden recently issued his first veto since taking office on Jan. 20, 2021.
Biden rejected a bipartisan bill that would have required investment fund managers to take politics out of their investment decisions and to stay focused on providing the best return to their clients as much as possible.
Why should you care? Because Biden was, in effect, saying it was permissible for fund managers, who have control of trillions of dollars in pension accounts, to take into consideration a company's ESG score (related to how it stands on racial justice, climate change and LGBT issues) when they decide where to invest the money.
- Hits: 213
Death Taxes Are Immoral. Even Worse, They Don't Work.
- By Stephen Moore
"I have no respect for the passion of equality," Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., one of America's great jurists, once declared, "which seems to me merely idealizing envy."
But envy, and its sister vice, greed, are very much back in fashion today when it comes to the progressive Left. Just listen to President Joe Biden, who wants $2 trillion of new taxes, mostly paid by millionaires, so that the rich will "pay their fair share." In seven blue states, including California, Illinois and New York, new wealth taxes and higher income tax rates on people such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Taylor Swift have been proposed by liberal lawmakers.
- Hits: 393
America's $100 Billion Climate Change Flop
- By Stephen Moore
For at least the last 20 years, politicians in Washington, at the behest of green energy groups, have spent some $100 billion of taxpayer money to fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How is that going for us so far?
A recent Associated Press story, based on the latest data on global carbon emissions, provides a pretty accurate report card: "Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reached a Record High in 2022."
The article tells us: "Communities around the world emitted more carbon dioxide in 2022 than in any other year on records dating to 1900, a result of air travel rebounding from the pandemic and more cities turning to coal as a low-cost source of power. Emissions of the climate-warming gas that were caused by energy production grew 0.9% to reach 36.8 gigatons in 2022, the International Energy Agency reported Thursday. (The mass of one gigaton is equivalent to about 10,000 fully loaded aircraft carriers, according to NASA.)"
- Hits: 373
Scholars Rank Biggest Spending Presidents as the Greatest
- By Stephen Moore
Before President Joe Biden entered the White House, he consulted with several prominent historians about how to be a great commander in chief. Their answer: Grow government. Spend, spend, spend. Don't worry about blowing up the debt.
It was the worst possible advice, and that meeting no doubt contributed to our economic calamity.
So, I wasn't surprised to read about a poll of more than 100 of America's most prominent academic historians who rated the greatest and the worst presidents. This is a farcical popularity contest that the Siena College Research Institute conducts every few years.
- Hits: 368
It's Now or Never for School Choice Everywhere
- By Stephen Moore
This story could bring tears to your eyes. In Baltimore, Maryland, there are 23 schools in which not one single student tested "proficient in math."
Can we all agree these are schools that aren't proficient in teaching math -- or just about any course, for that matter?
A Fox News investigation calculated that Baltimore spends an average of $21,000 per student. How could the teachers unions possibly spend that much money and accomplish almost no learning?
- Hits: 396
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