by Dan Mitchell | Dec 7, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I gave a speech last night at the University of Texas Arlington on the topic of “Is America turning into Greece? How the growth of government and debt risk creating a dismal future for young Americans.” Not a very succinct title, I realize, but I wanted to warn...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 6, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Crime, Society
When I explain to people how the government’s War on Drugs violates the rights of people to do dumb things to their own bodies, they intellectually understand but they’re usually not convinced. When I also explain why the Drug War causes additional crime and enriches...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 5, 2017 | Big Government, Blogs, Regulations
Too much government can be hazardous to your health. But I’m not talking about government killing you because you bet on a football game. And I’m not talking about government killing you for selling an untaxed cigarette. Nor am I talking about government killing...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 4, 2017 | Blogs, Economics
The late Mancur Olsen was a very accomplished academic economist who described the unfortunate tendency of vote-seeking governments to behave like “stationary bandits,” seeking to extract the maximum amount of money from taxpayers. I’m not nearly as sophisticated, so...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 3, 2017 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation
As part of yesterday’s column about the comparatively tiny – and temporary – tax cut in the Republican tax reform plan, I quoted a leftist columnist for US News & World Report, who argued that there should be a big tax increase (including a big tax hike on...