In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman assess the Justice Department's nonsensical antitrust case against Apple before turning their attention to Donald Trump's $464 million bond payment deadline in his New York civil fraud case.
00:41—Bonkers antitrust suit against Apple
20:27—Congress passes $1.2 trillion spending package
29:54—Weekly Listener Question
42:20—Trump contests $464 million bond payment in New York civil fraud case
50:52—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"The Absurd Apple Antitrust Lawsuit," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"European Union's AI Law Will Heavily Regulate a Technology Lawmakers Don't Understand," by Varad Raigaonkar
"Antitrust's Greatest Hits," by David B. Kopel and Joseph Bast
"Competition, Not Antitrust, Is Humbling the Tech Giants," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"Don't Let E.U. Bureaucrats Design Americans' Tech," by Jennifer Huddleston
"Joe Biden's Endless River of Debt and Regulation," by Nick Gillespie
"Marjorie Taylor Greene Introduces Measure To Oust Mike Johnson as House Speaker," by Joe Lancaster
"A GOP Plan To Raise the Retirement Age Reveals How Unserious Washington Is About Social Security," by Eric Boehm
"The National Debt Is a National Security Issue," by Eric Boehm
"'Emergency' Spending Is Out of Control," by Eric Boehm
"3 Reasons To Abolish Social Security Now!" by Nick Gillespie
"3 Reasons to Fix Social Security Now!" by Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg
"Brian Riedl: Who Bankrupted Us More—Trump or Biden?" by Nick Gillespie
"Science Fiction Fans Are Fighting About Politics. It's Not the End of the Universe." by Peter Suderman
Nick Gillespie's take on X on Trump's latest award:
And yet I continue to place out of the money in the annual NICK GILLESPIE AWARDS held at the Nick Gillespie Apartment and voted on by Nick Gillespie. Kudos, Donald, kudos. pic.twitter.com/nF0tB1vac6
— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) March 25, 2024
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman weigh in on the approved House bill that could potentially usher in a ban on popular social media app TikTok in the United States.
01:49—Legislation to ban TikTok
16:39—California's continued high-speed rail boondoggle
33:48—Weekly Listener Question
43:25—Elon Musk launches Starship rocket
46:31—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Banning TikTok Would Give the Feds Way Too Much Power," by Robby Soave
"Algorithm Not for Sale," by Liz Wolfe
"TikTok's Opponents Want Chinese-Style Censorship in America," by Matthew Petti
"The U.S. Steel/Nippon Deal Should Be None of Joe Biden's Business," by Eric Boehm
"Hey look a new scientific book abt how TikTok is addicting kids like 'narcotics'!" writes Nick Gillespie on X, formerly Twitter
"California's High-Speed Rail Needs Another $100 Billion. That's a Great Reason Not To Build It." by Eric Boehm
"Annie Duke: Quitting Is Totally Underrated," by Nick Gillespie
"America Is Taking a High-Speed Train to Bankruptcy," by David Ditch
"How Florida Beat California to High-Speed Rail," by Natalie Dowzicky
"The Problem With the 'Abundance Agenda,'" by Christian Britschgi
"We Told You Why and How California's High-Speed Rail Wouldn't Work. You Chose Not To Listen." by Matt Welch
"The Political Class Knew California High-Speed Rail Was B.S., and Supported it Anyway," by Matt Welch
"3 Reasons Obama's High-Speed Rail Will Go Nowhere Fast," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie
"On the Passing of a Liberal Deregulator," by Matt Welch
"Learning From Kodak's Demise," by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
"Milton Friedman Was No Conservative," by Brian Doherty
"Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman's Legacy," by Nick Gillespie
"Oscar-Nominated Robot Dreams Is a Gentle Animated Love Story About Dogs, Robots, and 1980s New York," by Peter Suderman
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Upcoming Events:
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok. appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Nick Gillespie welcome back sudden special guest (and former Roundtable host) Andrew Heaton! The editors reflect on President Biden's recent State of the Union address and look ahead to the unavoidable slog of eight more months of election coverage.
04:11—President Biden's feisty, yet empty, State of the Union address
24:27—Third party election outlook
46:43—Weekly Listener Question
55:49—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"State of the Union (on Stimulants)" by Liz Wolfe
"The State of Our Biden Is Historically Frail" by Matt Welch
"Remarks by the President in the State of the Union Address" by Joe Biden
"No Labels, With No Candidate, Says Yes to a 2024 Presidential Campaign" by Matt Welch
"Biden's Inaccurate and Inadequate Lip Service to Marijuana Reform Ignores Today's Central Cannabis Issue" by Jacob Sullum
"Biden Touts More Forever Wars, Breaking His 2021 Promises" by Matthew Petti
"Third Party Candidates Widening Trump's Lead Over Biden" by Matt Welch
"Biden's Plan To Subsidize Homebuyers Won't Work" by Christian Britschgi
"Biden Says He'll Make the Wealthy Pay More To Fix Social Security. Here's Why That Won't Work." by Eric Boehm
"Biden Is Wrong About Student Debt Forgiveness" by Emma Camp
"Not Again With the 'Shrinkflation,' Please" by Eric Boehm
"RFK Jr.: The Reason Interview" by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"The Limits of Taxing the Rich" by Brian Riedl
"How Long Could Billionaires Fund the Government" by Nick Gillespie and John Osterhoudt
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Check out Andrew Heaton's podcast The Political Orphanage here.
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Hunt Beaty
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post The State of the Union Is Shouty appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman debate the pros and cons of various ideas for electoral reform ahead of this week's Super Tuesday primary contests.
00:27—The Supreme Court rules Colorado can't remove Donald Trump from the ballot.
06:19—Electoral dysfunction, incentives, plus pros and cons of various proposed reforms
36:40—Weekly Listener Question
45:48—Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) announces his retirement.
56:06—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Supreme Court Unanimously Rules That States May Not Disqualify Trump As an Insurrectionist," by Jacob Sullum
"Does Ranked Choice Voting Disenfranchise Minorities?" by Joe Lancaster
"The Modern Supreme Court Agrees With Chief Justice Chase: Trump Cannot Be Removed From the Presidential Ballot," by Josh Blackman
"Supreme Court Rules for Trump in Section 3 Disqualification Case," by Ilya Somin
"'Super' Week," by Eric Boehm
"How Ranked Choice Voting Would Sort the Republican Primary Field," by Eric Boehm
"Morris P. Fiorina: Why 'Electoral Chaos' Is Here To Stay," by Nick Gillespie
"In Alaska, Ranked Choice Voting Worked," by Eric Boehm
"Gerrymandering Is Making Elections Less Competitive," by Eric Boehm
"The Commission on Presidential Debate's 15 Percent Polling Criterion Must Go, Argues Lawsuit from Gary Johnson," by Brian Doherty
"How GOP Fiscal Sanity Died, in 7 Easy Steps," by Matt Welch
"Dune: Part Two Is a Glorious Sci-Fi Spectacle," by Peter Suderman
"The Great Gatsby's Creative Destruction," by Nick Gillespie
"Comic: Robert A. Heinlein in 'The Moon Is a Hot Babe,'" by Peter Bagge
"Robert Heinlein at 100," by Brian Doherty
"The Parables of Octavia Butler," by Amy H. Sturgis
"Science Fiction Is for Socialists?" by Katherine Mangu-Ward
"Sandra Newman: Reimagining 1984 From Julia's Perspective," by Nick Gillespie
"Science Fiction: Created Worlds," by John Pierce
"Review: Dune and The Velvet Underground," by Kurt Loder
"Herbert's Dune It Again," by Patrick Cox
"Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich Debate," by South Park Studios
"Episode 77: Nick Gillespie / The Byrds," by Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar
Nick Gillespie's Q&A on C-SPAN
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Rank Choices appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>"Americans can and should have confidence in our election system," said FBI Director Christopher Wray in January. "The other part, though, is the chaos…..And there is the potential, if we're not all collectively on guard, that chaos can ensue at varying levels."
Wray, who was speaking at January's International Conference on Cyber Security, was referring to the risk of foreign interference in U.S. elections by China, Russia, and Iran. But America is a proud, independent nation. We're doing just fine sowing homegrown chaos at varying levels on our own.
Wray can take solace in the fact that most Americans actually do have confidence in our election system. About two-thirds tell Gallup they are very or somewhat confident that votes will be accurately cast and counted in U.S. elections; that number has been mostly stable since at least 2004. There is a gap opening up under the surface, however. In 2017, 77 percent of Republicans were confident about American elections. The most recent figure is 40 percent.
At the same time, a poll from the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that majorities of both Democrats (72 percent) and Republicans (55 percent) say democracy is at risk depending on the results of the next election, though presumably for different reasons. Relatedly, in a CBS News/YouGov poll released in January, 49 percent of Americans say they expect a violent response to future presidential election losses.
***
All of this adds up to a worrying situation, especially given dozens of newly constructed off-ramps on the road to a peaceful transition of power. Americans—including our politicians—are hyperalert for misconduct on the part of those who disagree with them politically, thanks to dramatically increased affective polarization. The proliferation of state-level voting laws and regulations could generate a cascade of legal and partisan challenges regarding voter eligibility, ballot access, and counting procedures. Newly appointed state election officials might introduce errors into the counts, either through guile or incompetence. Mail-in ballots might be counted too early. Mail-in ballots might be counted too late. A real cyberattack might raise concerns about the integrity of electronic voting machines. A fake cyberattack might do the same. Partisans might engage in voter intimidation. Partisans might allege voter intimidation where none occurred. Election workers might commit fraud. Election workers might not commit fraud but be accused of doing so anyway by prominent figures in a defamatory way. A sitting president might attempt to bully state election officials into finding "lost" votes. Never mind the Electoral College, which has been bonkers from the start. And that's all before we get to the legal challenges that both parties have promised to file after the fact.
***
It was hard to pick just one potential breaking point from this wealth of options, but in this month's cover story, Princeton University's Keith E. Whittington explores one of the ways 2024 might go off the rails in an underexplored and unprecedented way (page 20). The four criminal cases pending against Donald Trump might come to fruition in at least seven different scenarios that would leave the country grappling with a president who could or should be behind bars. Pair that with the possibility that one or both of the elderly men seeking the presidency could experience some kind of subfatal medical event as a candidate or president-elect, and it's time to call in the experts.
According to a January release from Gallup, "less than a third of Americans say they would be willing to vote for someone nominated by their party who is over the age of 80 or has been charged with a felony or convicted of a felony by a jury." Thus, in a Trump-Biden contest, "voters would face a choice between two of the most objectionable characteristics to Americans of those measured—someone who has been charged with a felony (Trump) and someone who is older than 80 (Biden)." In the end, about one-third of eligible Americans—including me—will likely not vote for either major-party candidate.
Perhaps the greatest destabilizing influence is simply the widely held belief that the election will be destabilizing. A January poll conducted by Echelon Insights found that only 27 percent of Americans think Biden will usher in more stability, while 49 percent say things would be less stable. The responses for Trump are more evenly split: 45 percent more stable, 43 percent less stable.
By doubling down on undesirable candidates backed by partisans who are increasingly skeptical of the prospect of a fair and peaceful election process, we've dramatically increased the risk of disarray without the possibility of any outcome that voters genuinely want.
In 2016, disruption—and, yes, maybe even a little chaos—sounded fun and appealing to many Americans, perhaps even for its own sake. But after two cycles of turmoil and very little real change, voters are seeking stability from an election that offers nothing of the kind.
The post There Are So Many Ways the 2024 Election Could Go Wrong appeared first on Reason.com.
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The post We're Rolling Out Reason Plus! appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, Matt Welch is back, alongside Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman. The editors talk about Nikki Haley's primary defeat in her home state of South Carolina and President Joe Biden's plan to attack "corporate greed."
00:36—Nikki Haley loses in South Carolina.
15:42—Biden's plan to attack "corporate greed"
29:06—Weekly Listener Question
46:41—This week's cultural recommendations
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Donald Trump Defeats Nikki Haley in South Carolina Primary," by Joe Lancaster
"Losing the Home State," by Liz Wolfe
Reason Foundation Pension Reform
"In 2020, Teachers Unions and Police Unions Showed Their True Colors," by Peter Suderman
"Want To Challenge Your Speed Camera Ticket? That'll Be $100." by Daryl James and Bobbi Taylor
"After the War," by Matt Welch
"Sovereignty Is Such a Lonely Word," by Matt Welch
"We Are Going to the Moon," by Eric Berger
"Kevin Costner Goes Back to the Well of Westerns in Yellowstone," by Glenn Garvin
"Saturday Night Live Fires New Cast Member Shane Gillis for Using Offensive Language," by Robby Soave
"Biden's Job Approval Edges Down to 38%," by Megan Brenan
"2024 General Election: Trump vs. Biden vs. Kennedy vs. West" in RealClearPolling
"Comparison of opinion polling during the Trump and Biden administrations" in Ballotpedia
Party of the People by Patrick Ruffini
"Narrow Wins In These Key States Powered Biden To The Presidency" by Benjamin Swasey and Connie Hanzhang Jin
"How Americans View the Conflicts Between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and China and Taiwan" by Jordan Lippert
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Nikki Haley's Primary Math Isn't Mathing appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In December, former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey received the Savas Award for Privatization, given annually to someone for innovation in the provision and quality of public services by engaging the private sector. The award is given by Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason. Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward sat down with Ducey in December to talk about school choice, how to cut budgets, and why Arizona politicians are so weird.
Q: What is it about Arizona that seems to generate heterodox or unorthodox politicians?
A: Maybe the fact that we're the youngest state in the lower 48, that we're a place where so many people came to live. So few people that are there today were actually born there. People make that decision. There's something about the West and the spirit of Barry Goldwater, it brings an independent-mindedness to it.
Q: In the modern GOP, you get a lot of emphasis on tax cutting and a lot less on the reduction of spending or balancing the budget. Do you think there's a way to reconnect those two ideas in American political rhetoric or voters' minds?
A: Well, Katherine, I think you live here in Washington, D.C., and that's what you are responding to as to how the Republicans in this town behave. You see the Democrats tax and spend. You see the Republicans in Washington, D.C., cut taxes and borrow. Governors don't get to print money and there's no appetite to borrow money except in the worst of a crisis. So you really do have to find a way to shrink your government.
I'm proud of the growth and attractiveness of Arizona. We have 400,000 additional people in Arizona vs. the day that I came into office. But our state government is smaller. We were actually able to shrink the footprint of our state government, the number of people inside the state government, the number of buildings, and real estate holdings of the state government.
Q: What was the state of play on school choice in Arizona when you came in, and what did it look like when you left?
A: Arizona has always been very good on school choice, and it's something that I believe in. I stood on the shoulders of giants like Lisa Graham Keegan and Fife Symington. At the state level, we have 525 schools of choice in Arizona, charter schools, [which are] public schools with private management. If you take those schools, that's the No. 1 state in the nation for accomplishment on math, reading, and science. We did a lot to grow that model. The BASIS Schools system and Great Hearts were both founded in Arizona. Part of what animated my run for governor in 2014 was universal school choice. The Milton Friedman idea that he shared on Free to Choose is something that took me all eight years of my governorship to accomplish.
Q: And what about education savings accounts, which are essentially vouchers?
A: Milton Friedman also said in a crisis, people will look for the ideas that are lying around. And the crisis that came was COVID, and parents were able to see what their kids were being taught or not taught and the level of rigor and expectation from the public schools. They also saw that the charter schools opened and the Catholic schools opened and many of the largest public districts chose to stay closed for nearly two years, even when the government was telling them to open. So we were able to pass universal educational savings accounts. And every child in the state of Arizona is able to take a large portion of their tax dollars and go wherever they would like to school, including homeschool, microschool, or a new school. We were able to move the bar to the highest rung. Nine other states have since followed with universal school choice. Texas and Tennessee are on the one-yard line.
This interview has been condensed and edited for style and clarity.
The post Doug Ducey on Budget Cuts, School Choice, and Arizona's Weird Politics appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, Katherine Mangu-Ward is in the driver's seat, alongside Nick Gillespie and special guests Zach Weissmueller and Eric Boehm. The editors react to the latest plot twists in Donald Trump's various legal proceedings and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
00:41—The trials of Donald Trump in Georgia and New York
25:04—Weekly Listener Question
33:23—Sora, a new AI video tool
43:55—The death of Alexei Navalny
49:58—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"How a New York Judge Arrived at a Staggering 'Disgorgement' Order Against Trump," by Jacob Sullum
"Prosecutor Fani Willis Touts the Value of Cash, but What About the Rest of Us?" by J.D. Tuccille
"Trump Ordered To Pay $364 Million for Inflating His Assets in Civil Fraud Trial," by Joe Lancaster
"Alvin Bragg Is Trying To Punish Trump for Something That Is Not a Crime," by Jacob Sullum
"Alexei Navalny's Death Is a Timely Reminder of How Much Russia Sucks," by Eric Boehm
"Why Is Nike Stomping on Independent Creators?" by Kevin P. Alexander
"Bury My Sneakers at Wounded Knee," by Nick Gillespie
"Creation Myth: Does innovation require intellectual property rights?" by Douglas Clement
"A Private Libertarian City in Honduras," by Zach Weissmueller
"The Real Reasons Africa Is Poor—and Why It Matters," by Nick Gillespie
"Justice or persecution? The Trump dilemma"
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Goodbye, Navalny appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman counter the twisted logic of former President Donald Trump's recent claim that he would raise tariffs on all Chinese imports if he were to retake the White House.
00:24—Trump proposes more tariffs
15:24—Bidenomics and the weird economy
30:49—Weekly Listener Question
44:22—Senate hearing on social media harms
52:41—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Can Free Markets Win Votes in the New GOP?" by Stephanie Slade
"David Stockman on Why Trump Can't Fix the Debt: 'This Guy Is Part of the Swamp,'" by Nick Gillespie
"Josh Hawley Thinks the White House Can Force an Aluminum Plant To Stay Open," by Eric Boehm
"On Economic Issues, the Populist Right and Left Share a Lot of Common Ground," by Veronique de Rugy
"The Bankruptcy of Bidenomics," by Peter Suderman
"Biden Considering Higher Tariffs on E.V.s Imported from China, Raising Prices for Americans," by Joe Lancaster
"Protectionism Ruined U.S. Steel," by Eric Boehm
"Americans Unhappy With Politicians They'll Soon Vote Back Into Office," by J.D. Tuccille
"How Will Reason Staffers Vote in 2020?" by Reason staff
"Who's Getting Your Vote?: Reason's Revealing Presidential Poll," by Reason staff
"Why Are Political Journalists More Scared of Revealing Their Votes Than Baseball Writers?" by Matt Welch
"Why Aren't Other Journalism Outlets Disclosing Their Presidential Votes?" by Matt Welch
"Show Us Your Vote!" by Matt Welch
"Mark Zuckerberg Is Not a Murderer, Mr. Senator," by Robby Soave
"Mark Zuckerberg Is Calling for Regulation of Social Media To Lock in Facebook's Position," by Nick Gillespie
"Is True Detective the Most Libertarian Show on TV?" by Nick Gillespie
"Enthusiasm, Curbed," by Nick Gillespie
"All Culture, All the Time," by Nick Gillespie
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Trump's Terrible, Popular Tariffs appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Nostalgianomics is back. The White House and its proxies crow that the economy has never been better—and are greeted by skepticism from Americans who feel like life is less affordable than it was pre-pandemic. (To see why those Americans have a point, read "The Bankruptcy of Bidenomics.") Meanwhile, GOP politicians and partisans capitalize on this pervasive sense of economic unease to campaign for President Joe Biden's removal. In many cases, unfortunately, the call from the right is for something more than a return to pre-pandemic conditions. Many Republicans are falling back on a deeper and persistent form of historical revisionism.
What these conservatives—along with an interesting subset of technocratic progressives—are selling is a return to an imagined economic golden age. While the specifics are strategically blurry, it is generally pinned somewhere in the 1950s, or perhaps 1960, in the United States. In its most meme-ified form, it is an image of a well-groomed lady smiling at her blue-collar husband over text that reads something like: "Once upon a time, a family could own a home, a car, and send their kids to college, all on one income."
The tricky thing about this claim is that it is in many senses true, but it is much more of a statement about culture than economics, and it is utterly misleading about the relative economic conditions of Americans today vs. midcentury. Americans were objectively much poorer in 1960 than they are today. That isn't because of anything Biden did; it's because of six decades of progress.
Homeownership rates haven't changed much since then, ticking up slightly: 62 percent in 1960 compared with about 66 percent today. What has changed dramatically are the homes themselves. New houses built in 1960 were about 25 percent smaller than new houses today and lacked many features we would now consider standard, such as laundry machines, dishwashers, and air conditioning. The square footage per person was nearly a third of what it is today. In the immediate postwar period, it was actually illegal to build a house with more than one bathroom, due to copper shortages.
In 1960, there were four vehicles for every 10 Americans and about a quarter of households had none at all. Today there are about twice as many vehicles per capita. In other words, that 1960s family may have had one car, but they certainly didn't have two. And that car was more prone to breakdowns and blowouts and was generally less reliable. It certainly didn't have Bluetooth or Google Maps.
College is objectively more expensive today. College educations are much more likely to be debt-financed as well. But in 1960, only about 45 percent of kids who finished high school went on to college, compared with 60 percent today. Far fewer kids finished high school as well, meaning that for most people the question of whether they could afford to send their kids to college didn't even come up. College is also a much more gold-plated experience than it once was, in part due to rising expectations about standards of living that also inflate the other costs in this equation.
As for that single income, it was often by necessity. Wages for some segments of the population, including the smiling white man of the memes, were kept artificially high thanks to pervasive discrimination that made many jobs inaccessible to large numbers of would-be workers, including that smiling woman from the memes—not to mention black Americans and immigrants, who were much more likely than their white counterparts to rent, to be carless, and to live in two-earner households even in 1960, never mind college.
***
Perhaps the most devastating rebuttal to nostalgianomics is that the life depicted in the meme is, in fact, available to most families right now. A married couple with kids can absolutely live in a small house with a single, less reliable car and fewer labor-saving conveniences and luxuries, while sending (maybe?) one of their kids to college—and they can do it on a single income. This is not what most people choose.
To be fair, there are many ways public policy is nudging Americans away from those choices. Several forms of housing that were cheap and ubiquitous in the 1950s are now illegal, or very nearly so. Single-room-occupancy buildings, for example, are banned in many American cities, making it harder to live cheaply when you are young to save for even a small house. And the cheapest new houses available for sale in 1960 lacked more than just air conditioning. In 1960, about 16 percent of Americans still lived in houses without indoor plumbing. Good luck getting an outhouse past a zoning board these days. Even a clothesline is tricky in some places in 2024.
Late-model cars must comply with environmental and safety standards that raise the price of even the most basic models, not to mention the hefty tax hit on both the purchase of a car and the fuel you'll need to drive it. And there are likely more requirements to come, including privacy-infringing tech. There is almost certainly more demand for bottom-of-the-line vehicles than it is legal for manufacturers to supply.
Higher education debt is increasingly unmanageable thanks to irresponsible federal grant and loan policies that nudge students to take on debt that they can't reasonably repay (for more on that, see "The Real Student Loan Crisis") as well as ballooning administrative costs.
Still, the primary barrier to living in the style of the 1960s single-earner middle-class family is our own increasing standards. There are, of course, some rock-ribbed cultural conservatives who would gladly make all of these tradeoffs and more to return to the mores of the postwar period, all in the name of making America great again. But most people who dimly sense that the nostalgianomics memes are onto something wouldn't tolerate the economic or social conditions that made it possible, nor would they support the policy changes required to bring it about.
Among Americans who tell pollsters they are worried about the state of the Biden economy, one of the most commonly cited concerns is the cost of groceries. For the housewife in 1960, grocery prices would have been a major preoccupation; about 17 percent of her household's disposable personal income was spent on food. That number fell below 10 percent for much of the 2000s. It recently popped up to nearly 12 percent, thus the skepticism when Biden smiles and says everything is going great. But a return to the 1960s would exacerbate, not relieve, the household economic anxiety that plagues the Biden economy.
The post The Bankruptcy of Nostalgianomics appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman weigh in on the unfolding situation along the U.S.-Mexico border and reckon with the recent deaths of three U.S. soldiers in Jordan.
01:14—Border crossing disputes at U.S.-Mexico border
19:49—U.S. soldiers killed in Jordan
29:12—Weekly Listener Question
37:39—White House halts natural gas export terminals
44:22—New Hampshire primary post-game
47:22—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"The Twisted Logic of Greg Abbott's Border Policy," by Fiona Harrigan
"Death in Jordan," by Robby Soave
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Doubles Down on Dangerous Claim That Immigration Is 'Invasion,'" by Ilya Somin
"Massive Migrant Reduction," by Liz Wolfe
"The War on Terror Zombie Army Has Assembled," by Matthew Petti
"The Killing of 3 American Troops Was an Avoidable Tragedy," by Matthew Petti
"Does Biden Need Congressional Authorization for His Strikes Against the Houthis?" by Ilya Somin
"What Javier Milei Could Teach Democrats and Republicans About Capitalism," by Veronique de Rugy
"Free Markets Are the Best and Fastest Way to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions," by Ronald Bailey
"Capitalism Makes You Cleaner," by Matt Welch
"Independents Hate the Trump-Biden Rematch," by Matt Welch
"Goodbye to Haley the Hawk," by Liz Wolfe
"New Hampshire Takes Us Closer to a Trump-Biden Rematch," by Christian Britschgi
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
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Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Politics Created the Border Crisis appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman hold a postmortem examination of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' suspended campaign for president before considering Donald Trump's recent claim that presidents deserve full immunity from prosecution.
00:27—Ron DeSantis drops out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination
19:54—Trump claims full presidential immunity
30:05—Weekly Listener Question
47:00—Argentine President Javier Milei addresses Davos
54:38—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Ron DeSantis Could Have Run on a Message of Freedom," by Eric Boehm
"So Long to the Man in Lifts," by Liz Wolfe
"4 Reasons Why Dean Phillips Could Shock Write-in Joe Biden in New Hampshire Tuesday," by Matt Welch
"No Labels Has 13 Presidential Candidates, 14 State Ballots, and 7 Weeks To Decide Whether To Run," by Matt Welch
"Is DeSantis a Principled Governor or a Retaliatory Culture Warrior?" by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie
"How Should Libertarians Think About Ron DeSantis?" by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"Trump's Demand for 'Total' Presidential Immunity Reflects His Authoritarian Impulses," by Jacob Sullum
"Meet the New Boss: Donald Trump, Who Wants To Tell You What You Can Buy and Sell," by Nick Gillespie
"Should Libertarians Vote For Trump? Nick Gillespie vs. Walter Block," a Soho Forum debate by Gene Epstein
"Donald Trump on Libertarianism: 'I like it. A lot of good things.'" by Nick Gillespie
"Javier Milei Tells World Leaders: 'The State Is Not the Solution,'" by Katarina Hall
"Is Javier Milei a 'Doctrinaire Hayekian' and a Secret Reason Science Project?" by Nick Gillespie
"Conservative Liberals for Mainstream Anti-MSMism," by Matt Welch
"Talking about Punk as a 'Cultural Antibiotic' for the Body Politic!" by Nick Gillespie
"School Choice Is Popular and Increasingly Common," by J.D. Tuccille
Reason's archive on National School Choice Week
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post DeSantis Down and Out appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In the second season of his eponymous Marvel series on Disney+, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) becomes both more human and more godlike. The low-fi retrofuturism and sweeping sci-fi score of the series are as gorgeous as the first season. The show's vaguely philosophical bent remains half-baked, with Agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) et al. scrambling through a profusion of time paradoxes, free will vs. determinism debates, and trolley problems that remain mostly unresolved.
As the season comes to a close, Loki gathers immense power to himself. But for the first time in all his appearances across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he does so reluctantly. It's not clear, in fact, whether that power is a reward bestowed on a Loki who is finally worthy, or whether having control over the lives of others is an eternal Sisyphean punishment.
The post Review: Loki Reckons With the Peril of Power appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman stare down the results of last night's Iowa caucuses, which saw former President Donald Trump notch a resounding win in his bid to return to the White House.
01:45—Iowa caucuses results and recap
33:52—Weekly Listener Question
41:02—The U.S. attacks on Houthis in Yemen
47:13—The latest on the bipartisan spending deal drama in Congress
49:58—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Trump Romps Through Iowa Caucuses, Calls for GOP to 'Come Together,'" by Eric Boehm
"The Comeback Kid," by Liz Wolfe
"Vivek Ramaswamy Leaves the Field," by Jesse Walker
"Chris Christie Tried To Break Trump's Hold on the GOP. It Didn't Work." by Eric Boehm
"Most Iowans Don't Care About the Caucuses. You Shouldn't Either." by Adam Sullivan
"The Case Against Trump: Donald Trump Is an Enemy of Freedom," by Matt Welch
"Joe Biden's $11 Trillion Plan To Bankrupt America," by Nick Gillespie
"U.S. Attacks Houthis in Yemen," by Liz Wolfe
"The War on Terror Zombie Army Has Assembled," by Matthew Petti
"Storks Don't Take Orders From the State," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"Are Car Seat Laws Driving Down America's Birthrate?" by Christian Britschgi
"Does Biden Need Congressional Authorization for His Strikes Against the Houthis?" by Ilya Somin
"MLK's Contested Yet Universal Blueprint for Freedom," by Matt Welch
"The Beekeeper Is a Pulpy, Enjoyable Action Movie About a Rigged System," by Peter Suderman
"11 Trillion Reasons To Fear Joe Biden's Presidency" by Nick Gillespie
"RFK Jr.: The Reason Interview," by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"Jeb Bush: What He Thinks of Trump, Biden, DeSantis, and 'Florida Man,'" by Nick Gillespie
"Vivek Ramaswamy: Why He's Running for President—and Against 'Woke Capitalism,'" by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"Baby Bust!" by Kerry Howley
"Can Governments Increase Birthrates? Should They?" by Nick Gillespie
"Child-proofing the World," by Nick Gillespie
"'American Fiction': The Great Awokening," by Kurt Loder
"Sharks Stuffed With Money," by Nick Gillespie
The Reason Speakeasy with David Stockman, January 22, 2024
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
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Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post The Trump Train Rolls Through Iowa appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's episode of The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman and Katherine Mangu-Ward welcome back Nick Gillespie, alongside special guest Christian Britschgi. The editors check in on Nikki Haley's slight surge in the Republican primary race and then assess the Democratic Party's growing fears about the state of Joe Biden's reelection campaign.
00:32—Nikki Haley's campaign situation
25:23—Democratic concerns about the Biden campaign
38:19—Weekly Listener Question
40:44—Harvard President Claudine Gay resigns.
47:05—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"No, Nikki Haley, We Don't Need to Turn Schools Into Airports, the Place Literally Everyone Hates," by C.J. Ciaramella
"Haley Rising," by Liz Wolfe
"Nikki Haley Opposed Boeing Subsidies at Tonight's GOP Debate. As Governor, She Gave Boeing Millions." by Christian Britschgi
"Nikki Haley's Crazy Plan To Require Verification on Social Media," by Robby Soave
"2024 GOP Candidates Are Competing To Restrict Immigration," by Fiona Harrigan
"Republicans Pivot to Bombing Iran in Third Debate," by Eric Boehm
"My Favorite Things (TSA Version)," by Remy, Austin Bragg, Meredith Bragg, and John Carter
"Southern Nationalism," by Charles Oliver
"Blame Joe Biden and the Fed for Inflation," by Nick Gillespie and Vernon Smith
"Joe Biden's $11 Trillion Plan To Bankrupt America," by Nick Gillespie
"Real Man of Genius: Joe Biden," by Nick Gillespie and Dan Hayes
"Blessed Are the Shitposters," by Liz Wolfe
"Does A.P. Really Think Conservatives Invented Plagiarism Accusations?" by Robby Soave
"Harvard's Affirmative Action Hire Gets the Boot," by Liz Wolfe
"Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns After Plagiarism Scandal," by Robby Soave
"Hell Hath No Fury," by Liz Wolfe
"Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again," by Nick Gillespie
"Artifact: Andy Warhol's Ironic Achievement," by Nick Gillespie
"Supreme Court: Andy Warhol's Prince Prints Not 'Transformative' Enough for Fair Use," by Joe Lancaster
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Around New Year's, we get obsessed with how to change ourselves instead of just expanding on what we're already doing right. Maybe you finally organized one part of your space, and you want to tackle another. Or maybe you're taking your supplements every morning, and now you want to actually eat breakfast too. Therapy helps you find your strengths, so you can ditch the extreme resolutions and make changes that really stick. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Celebrate the progress you've already made. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.
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The post Nikki Haley's Last Stand? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>This week's episode of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie is hosted by Reason Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward. She sat down with former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.
During his two terms as governor, Ducey managed to pass a flat income tax with a rate of 2.5 percent, reform public sector pensions, universalize important school choice measures, reform occupational licensing rules, turn a budget deficit into a surplus, and substantially shrink the size of the government work force. He also built a makeshift border wall out of shipping crates, pushed back on marijuana legalization, and was accused of doing both too much and too little by his constituents during the COVID pandemic. Today, he runs Citizens for Free Enterprise.
In December, Ducey received the Reason Foundation's Savas Award for Privatization, which is given annually to someone who is advancing innovative ways to improve the provision and quality of public services by engaging the private sector. In this week's episode, he talks to Mangu-Ward about his worries for the future of the Republican Party, his commitment to fusionism, and why Arizona politicians are so weird.
Watch the full video here.
The post Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Loves Barry Goldwater and Milton Friedman appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>During his two terms as governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey managed to pass a flat income tax with a rate of 2.5 percent, reform public sector pensions, universalize important school choice measures, reform occupational licensing rules, turn a budget deficit into a surplus, and substantially shrink the size of the government workforce. He also built a makeshift border wall out of shipping crates, pushed back on marijuana legalization, and was accused of doing both too much and too little by his constituents during COVID. Today, he runs Citizens for Free Enterprise.
In December, he received the Reason Foundation's Savas Award for Privatization, which is given annually to someone who is advancing innovative ways to improve the provision and quality of public services by engaging the private sector. The former governor and Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward sat down to talk about his worries about the future of the Republican Party, his commitment to fusionism, and why Arizona politicians are so weird.
Watch the full video here and find a condensed transcript below.
Katherine Mangu-Ward: What is it about Arizona that seems to just generate a kind of heterodox or unorthodox politician?
Doug Ducey: I don't know. I think it's a good question. I think maybe the fact that we're the youngest state in the lower 48, that we're a place where so many people came to live. So few people that are there today, were actually born there. So people make that decision. And then I think there's something about the West and the spirit of Barry Goldwater, where it brings an independent-mindedness to it.
Mangu-Ward: Arizona has been red of late, but it's trending blue. What do you attribute that to?
Ducey: Candidates matter. I would actually push back pretty hard. I was able to win in 2014 with the wind at my back and win by a larger margin in 2018 with the wind in my face in what was really a tough year for conservatives and Republicans around the country. And I was also able to capture 44 percent of the Hispanic vote against an opponent named David Garcia.
So if you have the right candidate, who's talking about common sense kitchen table issues, and actually persuading the electorate, I think the state is still a center-right state. If you have somebody that wants to come and relitigate 2020 and only speak to the base, that's a losing message.
Mangu-Ward: You campaigned in your first campaign on bringing taxes in Arizona as close as possible to zero, and you got to a 2.5 percent flat tax in the end. How did you do that?
Ducey: Persistence, persistence, persistence. It was our goal. Every year we lowered or simplified taxes and we actually had the left overreach and came into Arizona and I think deceived the voters with an initiative saying, "We can put 1 billion dollars additional into K-12 education and it won't cost you any money, only the rich people." And they took our 4.5 percent tax at the highest progressive level to 8. Now, 8 percent in Arizona would have been a cancer that would have metastasized over decades. That's Bernie Sanders' Vermont, Washington, D.C., or New York state. But it was popular. We worked hard to beat it. It was polling at about 65-35. We were able to drive it down to 51 percent on election day.
But when I was a young boy, there was a show on Saturday morning, Wild World of Sports, and they would talk about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. We suffered about 18 months of the agony of defeat while we challenged the initiative in court and eventually got to our Supreme Court. And then we reformed taxes in the legislature in the interim. The law, the initiative, was struck down and we had reduced taxes along the way. So had we been successful on election day, taxes in Arizona today would be 4.5 percent. But because we had a bad result, we persisted in the legislature and we had a Supreme Court that was not going to let out-of-state interest deceive the voter. Today, we have the lowest flat tax in the nation. So I would say a combination of good planning, good timing, and good luck.
Mangu-Ward: Is this something that other states can duplicate? I mean, this sounds like a lot of things coming together just right.
Ducey: Well, I believe so. I mean, I think if you make a pledge to your constituents that you're going to simplify taxes every year and you win on that, then you have the permission to do that. If you can grow your economy, you have surplus funds. So it allows you to basically buy down your tax rate. And I'm a huge fan of the flat tax. I want us to be fair and equitable. And I think a flat tax makes a lot of sense. And it's also very hard for the left to change because people understand it. Massachusetts is not known for being a low-tax state, but they do have a 5 percent flat income tax and they've not been able to change that or raise it. And today in Arizona, like I said, we're at 2.5 percent. But if you get your economy growing and that's my background, Katherine, I came from the private sector at Cold Stone Creamery, the ice cream company was my business. And I ran on a platform of kickstarting the economy. Now I want to shrink a government and grow the economy. I was looking at places like Texas and asking, why are they so successful in comparison to other states? And I was trained coming out of University of Procter and Gamble [PG]. PG is a big fan of best practices of something called "search and re-apply." If you see another good idea anywhere in the world, you bring it back to headquarters with attribution.
In politics, I found people find good ideas all over the country and bring them back to their state, often without attribution. But Texas was the model. [Former Texas Gov.] Rick Perry and governors before him had turned an oil and gas state into a cosmopolitan place with international businesses that did business around the world. I saw no reason at all why Arizona couldn't occupy that space. And I also was aware of the bad decisions that California was making. So I thought we were perfectly positioned and I wanted to be the chief salesperson and spokesperson to do that.
When I came into office, we had a billion-dollar deficit that first year. I think the first tax reform that we were able to pass was to make certain that you weren't indexed out with inflation. And that was the start. We got the budget under control. The economy began to grow and we were able to ratchet that tax code down.
Mangu-Ward: I think sometimes, particularly in the modern GOP, you get a lot of emphasis on tax cutting and a lot less on the reduction of spending or balancing the budget. Do you think that issue is getting worse? Do you think that there's a way to reconnect to those two ideas in American political rhetoric or in voters' minds?
Ducey: Well, Katherine, I think you live here in Washington, D.C., and that's what you are responding to as to how the Republicans in this town behave. You see the Democrats tax and spend. You see the Republicans in Washington, D.C. cut taxes and borrow. Governors don't get to print money and there's no appetite to borrow money except in the worst of a crisis. So you really do have to find a way to shrink your government.
I'm proud of the growth and attractiveness of Arizona. I think we have 400,000 additional people in Arizona versus the day that I came into office. But our state government is smaller. We were actually able to shrink the footprint of our state government, the number of people inside the state government, the number of buildings, and real estate holdings of the state government.
If you look at governors around the country who take this winning game plan and execute it, there's a model that could be used in Washington, D.C. But here no one really seems to want to persuade on why we need to tighten the belt. I did take a hit that first year to balance the budget. There is no constitutional obligation to balance the budget. I just came from the private sector and I had lived through several downturns before, and I knew each time I navigated through a downturn as a CEO, I wished I would have acted faster with more of a sense of urgency and rightsizing the business. So I didn't want to lose those lessons. And the largest responsibility I had in my life to date at age 50. So I said to the legislators who said, "We don't really have to balance the budget. Nothing's going to happen" that I wanted them to blame me for it, that I ran on it, I wanted to do it. I thought it was possible and the economy was going to get better and we could begin to invest again next year. And if the economy didn't get better, we'd be happy we acted today because we wouldn't be exaggerating problems for tomorrow.
Mangu-Ward: What was the cut or elimination or reorganization that you enjoyed the most during that period?
Ducey: I had a lot of people from the business community that helped me become governor, but none of them wanted to come work with me in government, so I had to find the best people in these agencies, the best people from around the country, to come work inside these agencies. And in my first month, you have the inauguration, "state of the state," you present the budget, and in 2015, we were hosting the Super Bowl. So I was meeting with each of these agency heads and basically asking the same questions I would have asked somebody who wanted a top-level position in Cold Stone. "Who are you?" "What do you do?" "And how do you know if you do it well?" And you really want to hear somebody tie something to a metric as to how they measure things inside their agency. We had a director at Weights and Measures who said, "Let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to sting Uber and Lyft during the Super Bowl and shut them down." Obviously, he wasn't paying much attention to the campaign. I was able to ask my general counsel, "What's my authority over these agency heads?" He said, "They work at the pleasure of the governor." I was able to release this gentleman into the private sector in what would soon be a growing economy. But that was my way to capture the attention of the state government that I was serious about making real reforms.
We went through a strategic plan just like we would in business. I wanted every agency to know what the mission of that agency was, to have public metrics, and how they could advance it, to have transparency to taxpayer money, and then to memorialize what they had accomplished the past 90 days, and could accomplish in the next 90 days, and make adjustments. So it's basically a Six Sigma-type thing that you can do. I want to see us have less government, but I'm not somebody on the right that thinks government is unnecessary. I think the government serves a purpose. And when the government is responsive and it's not putting obstacles in people and small business owners' way people flock to your state. Businesses grow and have great success. And then in this economic development competition that we have among the states, we were winning the majority of them, and in yesteryear, it was all Texas. I think you'd see today that Arizona's leading on this. Places like Texas continue to do well. Utah is very good. Florida, Tennessee, are all states that are really growing and they're following the same model.
Mangu-Ward: Where do you think immigration fits into the picture of attracting the best people and kind of opening up the state to free enterprise?
Ducey: I think people in Washington, D.C. confuse border security with immigration. They are separate and mutually exclusive issues. Border security is about law enforcement. It's about national defense. It's about public health. We had a pandemic over the last two years, the border in Arizona is wide open and unprotected under President Biden. It was in the same condition under President Obama and that's not how the law works. This is illegal migration. So if we can secure and stabilize the border, which was happening in 2019 and 2020, we can talk about immigration. And I'm pro-legal immigration. And we need new immigrants from the service sector to software engineers.
My first visit as governor internationally was to Mexico City. My first international visit upon reelection was to Mexico City, and my last visit as a sitting governor was to Mexico City. They are our number one trading partner times four, we have an incredible relationship with them. But we weren't open to people illegally migrating. Solve the border situation, which is very solvable. It was already done in 2019 and 2020. Then we can talk about immigration reform, but border security happens in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Immigration reform happens down the street here in Congress.
Mangu-Ward: What was the state of play on school choice in Arizona when you came in and what did it look like you left?
Ducey: Arizona has always been very good on school choice and it's something that I believe in. I stood on the shoulders of giants like Lisa Graham Keegan and Fife Symington. At the state level, we have 525 schools of choice in Arizona, charter schools. Your listeners will know those are our public schools with private management. If you take those schools, that's the number one state in the nation for accomplishment on math, reading, and science. We did a lot to grow that model. We have systems like the Basis School System and Great Hearts, both founded in Arizona. Part of what animated my run for governor in 2014 was universal school choice. The Milton Friedman idea that he shared on Free to Choose in his book and his PBS series is something that took me all eight years of my governorship to accomplish. We actually were able to pass a limited [Empowerment Scholarship Account] program in 2017. We have an anomaly of our Constitution where if you get enough signatures, you can refer a law to the people, and ESAs were referred to the people in 2017. And it was crushed. It lost 65 to 35.
Mangu-Ward: And these are education savings accounts? So essentially vouchers.
Ducey: Milton Friedman also said in a crisis, people will look for the ideas that are lying around. And the crisis that came was COVID and parents were able to see what their kids were being taught or not taught and the level of rigor and expectation from the public schools. They also saw that the charter schools opened and the Catholic schools opened and many of the largest public districts chose to stay closed for nearly two years, even when the government was telling them to open. So we were able to pass universal educational savings accounts. This is for every child in the state of Arizona, [who are] able to take a large portion of their tax dollars and go wherever they would like to school, including homeschool, micro-school, or a new school. So I think we were able to move the bar to the highest rung. Nine other states have since followed with universal school choice. Texas and Tennessee are on the one-yard line.
It reminds me a bit of Roger Bannister, [who] was the first man to break the four-minute mile. People thought that that was physically impossible. From the marathon in Greece to the 1960s, no one man or woman had broken a four-minute mile. I think it was several months after Roger broke four minutes, somebody else broke four minutes. And it's been broken over a thousand times since. I think that this universal school choice is the way to truly reform K-12 education, and I think in many ways renew our country. This one crosses party lines. It was actually the African American pastors and a lady that leads the Black Mothers Forums, who wasn't very happy with the way that I handled the summer of 2020, who was my lead advocate on universal school choice. Now, one of them, a Republican, and we were able to pass this with no Democrat votes. I wanted those votes, but they were beholden to the teacher's union in Arizona. In my final year, we had a one-seat majority in our house, a one-seat majority in our Senate. We had a confluence of circumstances that happened that we were able to get in the final days. And like I said, other states have since followed.
Mangu-Ward: You were governor during COVID, and I saw there were moves from the Arizonans for Liberty who wanted to recall you for doing too much. And also from Accountable Arizona who wanted to recall you for doing too little. Which of them was right?
Ducey: I made the best decisions I could for the state of Arizona. I didn't want to play politics with COVID, and I didn't want to compete with other governors. I was going to make the best decision in real time for what was needed in our state. I did it a lot differently than many of the other Western states. I prioritized lives, livelihoods, and individual liberties.
I came from the private sector. I was the owner of a small business. Those are the people that I know and I understand what they go through. There were a lot of calls from elected officials with guaranteed government paychecks, people that would not miss a paycheck or a salary, choosing to work from home. I wanted to keep our businesses open. I think the evidence of how Arizona came out of COVID in comparison to other states is where the proof lies and to how COVID was handled.
Mangu-Ward: Is there something you would have done differently, though, in retrospect?
Ducey: I imagine there is, but not in the real-time of what was happening. Because, of course, I'm somebody who thinks you surround yourself with experts. But I made the decisions, so the experts were not on top. I erred on the side of caution until I had enough evidence that we knew where the vulnerable people were. We had communicated to the vulnerable people. And then they live in a free country, and it's up to them to make the decisions that they want. But to get kids back in school, to have our businesses open, and to allow people to make responsible decisions. It's something I felt very passionate about advocating for.
Mangu-Ward: Let's talk about the current state of the Republican Party at the national level, as well as in the States. You recently took a new gig at the Citizens for Free Enterprise. My perception is that the current Republican Party, to say nothing of the current Democratic Party, is not too friendly to free enterprise these days. What can we do about that?
Ducey: Well, again, I would separate what you're seeing in Washington, D.C., and some of the big government Republicanism that's happening here, versus what you see happening in many of our states. Yet, there are some folks out there that are bullying big businesses. I think if we're going to be a majority party, if we're going to win on our ideas. There's a lot of freedoms we could talk about over the course of this discussion, from freedom of speech to freedom of religion, freedom of assembly—all rights that we've seen under assault in the last several years. But they're all undergirded by economic freedom. And it's what's allowed us to be the mightiest military in the history of the world. It's also allowed us to make a lot of really stupid spending decisions and overcome that. I do think that if you go into a college classroom today and you held up a sign that says socialism and capitalism, it's about a 50-50 proposition, and that should scare every freedom-loving individual in the country to death. So I think we have some work to do, not only with our youth and college classrooms but also with our electorate.
Part of the reason Citizens for Free Enterprise exists is because it's an evergreen issue. There's going to be certain social and cultural issues that we fight about every two years, and these are worthwhile discussions. This is how we answer these questions. But it wasn't that long ago that a blue state governor who became president was actually accused of being pretty good on the economy. Under President Obama, it became more of a class warfare between the haves and the have-nots, with, I think, an overemphasis on inequality while now looking at the government supplements to what we do to those in the most vulnerable positions.
So we want to advance the cause of free enterprise, and we'd also like to drain some of the partisanship out of it. But it should always be protected on the right. And through what we're going to be doing, people that are going to be attacking it are going to feel consequences regardless of what party they're in.
Mangu-Ward: It's a pretty big project to convince Americans to feel better about capitalism or to like free trade or something like that. It's Reason's project as well, in many senses. Where do you see the doors that are open for that?
Ducey: Well, I would come at it from a different angle. I think that Americans love small businesses and they love small businessmen and women and they love many of these entrepreneurs and local shop owners and their own cities, towns, and municipalities. And if you go to CitizensforFreeEnterprise.com, you'll see many of their stories on our website. So part of it is, of course, the principles that you and I have read and understand and want to make certain are being communicated properly in our grade schools and our high schools and our colleges and happen at many places like a great arts academy in Arizona. Kids come out really understanding what makes the economy tick and how to live within your means and why this is not only a good personal habit. It's also a responsible habit of a business or a government or an enterprise.
But I think when people can hear the story from the entrepreneur, whether it's the local microbrewer or the guy who runs the four-wheel shop who retrofits pickups, it helps people understand why this is important. And we have so many stories of people that have had great success. The other thing that I think happened rather recently is we've separated the entrepreneur and the small business owner from the employee. Well, actually their interests are aligned. The more successful the company is or the city or town or municipality, the more opportunities are there for the employee. They may or may not want to cast their lot in the entrepreneurial world. They may just want to climb the economic ladder and be able to build personal financial security. And without that opportunity to build financial security, is there really freedom there? I mean, these are things that go hand in hand.
Mangu-Ward: Economic liberty requires more than just protecting small businesses. Right? What is there to do about this "we'll tax the rich and solve all the problems" mentality?
Ducey: Well, one, the numbers don't work. And you know that the math on that is never going to work. And that's not unusual. I actually think that's playing on some of the worst of human nature to build this envy in folks. There's all kinds of social scientists that will show you that people actually feel better if somebody is doing worse while they're doing better. And we're not going to participate in any of that. We're just going to educate and advocate around free enterprise and try to bring that voter into the fold so that they can make the decision on election day on who's in support of it. And it's regardless of party. I think you'd find more of that right now on the right, but as you mentioned, there are some folks here in this town and there are some folks in state capitals that are beating up on businesses. I think if we continue to do that or allow that to happen, we're only sharpening the knife that the left will eventually use on us.
Mangu-Ward: Who are some folks either in D.C. or around the country that you think are doing good work right now?
Ducey: Well, I mentioned the states. Greg Abbott's doing good work in Texas. Everybody's seen what Ron DeSantis has done in Florida. Bill Lee and Bill Haslam before him in Tennessee. Pete Ricketts just came out of Nebraska and you're lucky to have him in the United States Senate here. Hopefully, he can bring a little bit of the common sense of what governors have to deal with. Eric Holcomb in Indiana and Kim Reynolds are also people that are taking states that don't have some of the sunbelt attractiveness but are attracting companies and have their citizens very happy with what they're doing.
Mangu-Ward: Is attracting companies the right measure? I'm thinking here in D.C., we're currently having a battle over where our stadium is going to be. And of course, with that comes a bunch of cronyism. Can you talk about how to make those distinctions?
Ducey: Well, I think a company would be different than a stadium. I was trained at Procter and Gamble that any business that is won on price will be lost on price. So all of the incentives that we had in Arizona were performance incentives and they were in statutes. We were not able to negotiate with that business owner. And listen, if it was all about the numbers and all that mattered was the bottom line on that decision, you would have states going to the absolute lowest cost place in which to do business, but no business owner or CEO moves to where they do not want to live. They also know that quality of life is going to attract their senior management team and their employees. That's the mix that I believe we had right in Arizona. Not only low tax rate regulation, affordable, and reliable energy with excellent education, but we had a great quality of life. They could have confidence that their taxes were not going to be hiked and that they would be able to hire people from across the country and around the globe that would want to come live in these communities.
Mangu-Ward: What do you think about the rise of this kind of economic variant of national conservatism? To some extent, it's a D.C. phenomenon and certainly a D.C. chattering classes phenomenon, but it's manifesting in our politics for sure.
Ducey: Well, the right has always been a fusion. I think the right, especially from Barry Goldwater, and we like to say in Arizona that he never lost that election in 1964. It just took 16 years to count the votes. But that idea of what William F. Buckley and Goldwater and Ronald Reagan projected was what made the Republicans and the right a majority party. That not only had the fiscal conservatives and the tax hawks, but it had the social conservatives and the people that cared about Second Amendment rights and then Tea Party folks and evangelicals. And each time the party continued to grow.
I think you see this Washington, D.C. free-con versus NatCon discussion. One thing I wholeheartedly agree with the NatCons is countries have borders and those borders should be protected and ours is not on the southern border. And I think that's lost on people of responsibility here, including the president and vice president, who have not been to the border or understand the situation that ranchers in these small towns are going through. But I think the fusion between the folks that want to talk about national identity and our borders and what you see on the freedom side of the equation is where we'll land. I am much more of a free trader. And I do think that we were able to get some things right in the Trump-Pence administration in finally understanding what was happening in China.
I know from opening ice cream stores in both Beijing and Shanghai that they were able to play by different rules. No one had ever called them on it. There's an immense amount of trade that happens between the two countries, and I think that both countries benefit. But I don't think it's unfair for us to expect that they behave by a certain set of rules if we're going to continue to do that.
And the other opportunity I think COVID gave us was that we don't want to be put in that position again with our supply chain. One thing I really liked about the [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement], which was an improvement of [the North American Free Trade Agreement], my focus was first and foremost on Mexico as our top trading partner. Well, our number two trading partner was Canada. You can say that for pretty much all 50 governors. So if somebody is not going to open their business in Arizona, I'd prefer they open it in one of the other 49 states, if not one of the other 49 states. I prefer Mexico or Canada. That's not only good for North American free trade. It's also good for peace and prosperity. And in any pandemic or global crisis. This doesn't mean we decouple from China, but it also doesn't mean that we allow them to steal our intellectual property and to run roughshod over any way they would like to in which to do business. And we have a vote as well.
Mangu-Ward: People are going to feel closer to what they're seeing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. People are going to feel closer to conflicts all around the world. How does that play out for U.S. involvement, either in terms of foreign policy or trade?
Ducey: Well, I am generalizing here, but I think that you and I have basically come of age in a magical American moment. I mean, in our lifetime we've had one bad day, and September 11th, and it changed a lot in this country. But we were one of two superpowers around the world and we were the only superpower in 1989. And smart people were able to write books where they claimed it was the end of history and freedom and democracy and free enterprise would spread around the globe. And then we had the shock and surprise of 9/11. Now, this is a return to real history. While I fear that we've projected weakness around the globe and these conflicts are what is more normal in the course of time.
I think us making responsible decisions at home, making sure we're investing in our defense, are projecting strength so that we can achieve peace. And then we're divided as a nation. There is an isolationist attraction right now. This is not new in this nation and it's not new for the right or for the left. We weren't eager to get into World War Two until the morning after December 7th, 1941. What we don't want is that kind of shock to our system or to what's happening around the globe. I do think, of course, Ukraine and Russia's aggression is something we were all talking about until October 7th. And then we saw how fragile geopolitics are right now. So I think we're having a real discussion. This is going to happen in an election year, and I'm going to be advocating that we project strength where necessary and make sure that we keep our alliances.
Mangu-Ward: You mentioned a few influences earlier, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Bill Buckley. In this sort of American era that you just described, what were some of your influences that shaped your politics?
Ducey: Well, what [former Gov.] Mitch Daniels did in Indiana, I found very encouraging. I always look for a model of someone that I can study. And Mitch really talked and thought and wrote like a businessman. I'm from the Midwest. I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and lived there till I was 18. And God bless the Big Ten. But Mitch didn't inherit a state where a lot of people were dreaming of retiring. He did this in the traditional heartland. I thought in his book Keeping the Republic, where a lot of innovative entrepreneurial policy ideas. That really is the great thing about being a governor, most people wouldn't know who a governor is in another state. COVID might have changed a little bit of that because I think you were able to see a real difference between red states and blue states and how we handled it. I didn't realize how many of my peers on the left were closet authoritarians, but before that, we were all trying to solve problems. We might have solved them from a different point of view, but governors are very collegial.
I spoke about this in my last public speech before I left the governor's office at the Reagan Library about a return to federalism. I simply think that our federal government here in D.C. tries to do too much, and it does most of it poorly. So why doesn't it focus on a national defense and securing the border and reforming our finances to protect a social safety net for our elderly and most vulnerable, and then push everything else back to the states and let the states compete? Governors communicate or collaborate, but at the end of the day, we compete with each other. We want to show up at a Republican Governors Association meeting and talk about who's lowered the taxes the most or who's eliminated the most regulations. We know that Americans vote with their feet, and there will be a time—it may not be in Gavin Newsom's or Andrew Cuomo's or J.B. Pritzker's time—but where these governors will be held accountable for the people that are fleeing their states to go to a better quality of life. I think we would have better policies if we were able to do that with no strings attached because I don't know what happens when someone gets elected to Congress. They can be a good conservative in the state legislature and they come here and all of a sudden they think that you're a middle manager in their federal corporation.
Mangu-Ward: When Mitch Daniels made a kind of earlier foray into national politics, he ended up drawing a lot of fire for saying something that's always stuck with me, which is essentially "we don't have time to do culture wars because our economic situation is so dire and our fiscal situation is so dire. We simply cannot get distracted by culture wars." This was many, many years ago. Was he right?
Ducey: I think the reality of politics is that you have to meet the voters where they are. I have this same sense of concern around our finances and our debt. We've not paid a price for it, so to speak. And when we do, it will be devastating. So I think somehow you have to navigate the social issues and maybe part of the silver lining of an October 7th, if there can be any, is the exposure of what's happening. So many of our universities and our elite institutions that we realize that so young people aren't learning. Twenty percent of these young people don't believe the Holocaust happened and they've divided the world into oppressors and victims. I think if there's an issue right now, it's the woke stuff that you're seeing, for lack of a better way to put it, on the left, and then some of the discussion on the right that is much more top-down and driven from the newly elected king that will come to Washington, D.C. Those are realities. And it's going to be up to leaders to present a better, more constitutional alternative.
This interview has been condensed and edited for style and clarity.
The post Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Loves Barry Goldwater and Milton Friedman appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this year's first episode of The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman and Katherine Mangu-Ward welcome special guests Elizabeth Nolan Brown and Zach Weissmueller to make predictions for 2024 and take one last look at 2023.
02:31—2024 predictions
20:08—Lessons from 2023
32:05—Assorted resolutions
36:32—Weekly Listener Question
43:22—State officials attempt to remove Donald Trump from the ballot.
46:24—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"The Year of Bad Vibes," by Liz Wolfe
"Prediction: 2024 Will See Deadly Political Violence in the Streets," by Matt Welch
"Was Biden's Social Media Meddling Illegal?" by Zach Weissmueller
"Florida Gov. Scott Rejects Federal Funding for Flawed Orlando to Tampa High-Speed Rail Plan," by Robert Poole
Just Asking Questions podcast
"Milei Brings His Chainsaw to Argentina's Regulatory State," by Katarina Hall
"1972: The Year That Made 2018 Seem Sane," by Brian Doherty
"Jeb Bush: What He Thinks of Trump, Biden, DeSantis, and 'Florida Man,'" by Nick Gillespie
"Who Decides Whether Trump Can Run, and What Sort of Evidence Suffices?" by Jacob Sullum
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Around New Year's, we get obsessed with how to change ourselves instead of just expanding on what we're already doing right. Maybe you finally organized one part of your space, and you want to tackle another. Or maybe you're taking your supplements every morning, and now you want to actually eat breakfast too. Therapy helps you find your strengths, so you can ditch the extreme resolutions and make changes that really stick. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Celebrate the progress you've already made. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post In 2024, Teens Will Get Pregnant in Driverless Cars appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>I don't know whether artificial intelligence (AI) will give us a 4-hour workweek, write all of our code and emails, and drive our cars—or whether it will destroy our economy and our grasp on reality, fire our nukes, and then turn us all into gray goo. Possibly all of the above. But I'm supremely confident about one thing: No one else knows either.
November saw the public airing of some very dirty laundry at OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research organization that brought us ChatGPT, when the board abruptly announced the dismissal of CEO Sam Altman. What followed was a nerd game of thrones (assuming robots are nerdier than dragons, a debatable proposition) that consisted of a quick parade of three CEOs and ended with Altman back in charge. The shenanigans highlighted the many axes on which even the best-informed, most plugged-in AI experts disagree. Is AI a big deal, or the biggest deal? Do we owe it to future generations to pump the brakes or to smash the accelerator? Can the general public be trusted with this tech? And—the question that seems to have powered more of the recent upheaval than anything else—who the hell is in charge here?
OpenAI had a somewhat novel corporate structure, in which a nonprofit board tasked with keeping the best interests of humanity in mind sat on top of a for-profit entity with Microsoft as a significant investor. This is what happens when effective altruism and ESG do shrooms together while rolling around in a few billion dollars.
After the events of November, this particular setup doesn't seem to have been the right approach. Altman and his new board say they're working on the next iteration of governance alongside the next iteration of their AI chatbot. Meanwhile, OpenAI has numerous competitors—including Google's Bard, Meta's Llama, Anthropic's Claude, and something Elon Musk built in his basement called Grok—several of which differentiate themselves by emphasizing different combinations of safety, profitability, and speed.
Labels for the factions proliferate. The e/acc crowd wants to "build the machine god." Techno-optimist Marc Andreessen declared in a manifesto that "we believe intelligence is in an upward spiral—first, as more smart people around the world are recruited into the techno-capital machine; second, as people form symbiotic relationships with machines into new cybernetic systems such as companies and networks; third, as Artificial Intelligence ramps up the capabilities of our machines and ourselves." Meanwhile Snoop Dogg is channeling AI pioneer-turned-doomer Geoffrey Hinton when he said on a recent podcast: "Then I heard the old dude that created AI saying, 'This is not safe 'cause the AIs got their own mind and these motherfuckers gonna start doing their own shit.' And I'm like, 'Is we in a fucking movie right now or what?'" (Hinton told Wired, "Snoop gets it.") And the safetyists just keep shouting the word guardrails. (Emmett Shear, who was briefly tapped for the OpenAI CEO spot, helpfully tweeted this faction compass for the uninitiated.)
wake up babe, AI faction compass just became more relevant pic.twitter.com/MwYOLedYxV
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) November 18, 2023
If even our best and brightest technologists and theorists are struggling to see the way forward for AI, what makes anyone think that the power elite in Washington, D.C., and state capitals are going to get there first?
When the release of ChatGPT 3.5 about a year ago triggered an arms race, politicians and regulators collectively swiveled their heads toward AI like a pack of prairie dogs.
State legislators introduced 191 AI-related bills this year, according to a September report from the software industry group BSA. That's a 440 percent increase from the number of AI-related bills introduced in 2022.
In a May hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, at which Altman testified, senators and witnesses cited the Food and Drug Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as models for a new AI agency, with Altman declaring the latter "a great analogy" for what is needed.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) released a regulatory framework that includes a new AI regulatory agency, licensing requirements, increased liability for developers, and many more mandates. A bill from Sens. John Thune (R–S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D–Minn.) is softer and more bipartisan, but would still represent a huge new regulatory effort. And President Joe Biden announced a sweeping executive order on AI in October.
But "America did not have a Federal Internet Agency or National Software Bureau for the digital revolution," as Adam Thierer has written for the R Street Institute, "and it does not need a Department of AI now."
Aside from the usual risk throttling of innovation, there is the concern about regulatory capture. The industry has a handful of major players with billions invested and a huge head start, who would benefit from regulations written with their input. Though he has rightly voiced worries about "what happens to countries that try to overregulate tech," Altman has also called concerns about regulatory capture a "transparently, intellectually dishonest response." More importantly, he has said: "No one person should be trusted here….If this really works, it's quite a powerful technology, and you should not trust one company and certainly not one person." Nor should we trust our politicians.
One silver lining: While legislators try to figure out their priorities on AI, other tech regulation has fallen by the wayside. Regulations on privacy, self-driving cars, and social media have been buried by the wave of new bills and interest in the sexy new tech menace.
One thing is clear: We are not in a Jurassic Park situation. If anything, we are experiencing the opposite of Jeff Goldblum's famous line about scientists who "were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." The most prominent people in AI seem to spend most of their time asking if they should. It's a good question. There's just no reason to think politicians or bureaucrats will do a good job answering it.
The post We Absolutely Do Not Need an FDA for AI appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this calendar year's last episode of The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman select various under-covered stories from the past year across three categories: politics, science, and culture. So long, 2023!
01:45—Under-covered stories in politics
30:13—Under-covered stories in science
46:00—Under-covered stories in culture
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Introducing REASON," by Lanny Friedlander
"Congress Admits It Has a Debt Problem, but Will It Do Anything?" by J.D. Tuccille
"After Moody's Warning, Federal Officials Continue To Ignore Fiscal Reality," by Eric Boehm
"The Real Scandal in Washington Is the Government's Reckless Spending," by Veronique de Rugy
"Medicare's Fiscal Ruin," by Peter Suderman
"'Bidenomics' Is Failing Everyday Americans," by Veronique de Rugy
"We Are Out of Money," by Matt Welch
"The Myth of the Broke Millennial," by Jean Twenge
"3 Myths About American Decline," by Nick Gillespie
"Capitalism Made Us All Richer. So Why Are We Unhappy?" by Nick Gillespie
"It's Time to Discard Piketty's Inequality Statistics," by Phil W. Magness and Vincent J. Geloso
"George Will: Brace Yourself for Donald Trump & the Authoritarian Moment," by Todd Krainin, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch
"The Equity Mess," by Matt Welch
"The Future Is Florida," by Katherine Mangu-Ward
"The DeSantis-Newsom Debate Was Really a Debate About COVID," by Eric Boehm
The Best of Reason Magazine podcast
"Will AI Destroy Humanity?" by Gene Epstein
"Biden Issues 'A.I. Red Tape Wishlist,'" by Ronald Bailey
"Despite the Doomsday Narrative, Global Inequality Has Significantly Declined," by Veronique de Rugy
"U.S. Life Expectancy Increases for the First Time in 4 Years," by Ronald Bailey
"The Great COVID Rupture," by Matt Welch
"Old People Are Hot Now," by Sarah Rose Siskind
"Kevin Kelly: Excellent Advice for Living From the World's Leading Optimist," by Nick Gillespie
"Hollywood must change—but how?" Q&A with Rob Long by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"Is the world going to hell?" Q&A with Stefan Sagmeister by Nick Gillespie
Now Is Better, by Stefan Sagmeister
"'I didn't realize people still think socialism is a good idea.'" Q&A with Agnieszka Pilat by Nick Gillespie
"Living our best fake lives online," Q&A with Dave Cicirelli by Nick Gillespie
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post 2023's Most Under-Covered Stories appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman review supposed items on the agenda for former President Donald Trump's potential second term.
00:26—Donald Trump's second-term agenda
34:56—Weekly Listener Question
44:00—Congress passes FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023
50:50—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"The Case Against Trump: Donald Trump Is an Enemy of Freedom," by Matt Welch
"Demonic Dollar Store," by Liz Wolfe
"Why Electing Biden (or Trump) Won't Settle Anything for Long," by Nick Gillespie
"11 Trillion Reasons To Fear Joe Biden's Presidency," by Nick Gillespie
"How Much More Should Trump Be Spending on You?" by Nick Gillespie
"Restricting Asylum Will Cause More Border Chaos," by Fiona Harrigan
"2024 GOP Candidates Are Competing To Restrict Immigration," by Fiona Harrigan
"President Trump Freed Drug Offenders. Candidate Trump Wants To Kill Them." by Jacob Sullum
"Republicans' Dangerous Plans to Turn the War on Drugs into a Real War by Attacking Mexico," by Ilya Somin
"House Proposal Would Expand Federal Warrantless Spying Authority," by Eric Boehm
"Congress Prepares To Reauthorize a Warrantless Domestic Spying Program the FBI Abused," by Eric Boehm
"Congress Hasn't Passed a Budget on Time in 27 Years," by Peter Suderman
"10 Disturbing Things About the FBI Since 9/11. Plus, James Comey." by Nick Gillespie
"Edward Snowden: The Individual Is More Powerful Today Than Ever Before," by Nick Gillespie
FISA Section 702 Civil Rights Abuses, by the Brennan Center for Justice
"One-Shop Stopping: Do Wal-Mart and Home Deport spell the end of 'community?'" by Nick Gillespie
"Don't Throw the Book At Superstores," by Nick Gillespie
"Chain Heat: Are book superstores a threat to the reading public?" by Nick Gillespie
"Why Does Hollywood Hate Real Estate Developers?" by Christian Britschgi
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Welcome to the Hyperbole Factory appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>There's a gloomy refrain heard every year around this time. It goes something like this: "I don't know what to get [insert person who is hard to shop for]," they say. "[Difficult person, probably a dad] already has everything."
I'd like to begin this year's gift guide with something that will delight the Catholic Reasoners: I have a confession. I, too, have invoked that sorry justification over the years when struggling to conjure suitable gift ideas. But it's an excuse that doesn't hold much water in an era of ever-increasing innovation, abundance, and weird, niche products that the difficult person in your life definitely doesn't have yet.
Let's start with the low-hanging fruit: If you're reading this guide, there's a chance you like Reason. Should your nearest and dearest also like Reason—or should you want to convince them to—you can give the gift of a subscription: one year for $14.97, two years for $25.97, or three years for $37.97. It's a particularly good suggestion for shoppers who struggle with procrastination. You can print out the proof of order and put that baby in an appropriately festive gift bag or box.
For the Reason die-hards in your life, gift them some swag. We have men's and women's apparel, phone cases (for iPhones and for the people in your life who still refuse to get an iPhone), mugs, and ceramic ornaments. I will be sending my precious niece our toddler tee. Start 'em young. (If my sister is reading this, I'm sorry for ruining the surprise.)
And, thankfully, there are a plethora of offbeat, useful, zany, pragmatic, and/or entertaining items that you should consider for those in your life who you would otherwise get a Visa gift card. Go forth. —Billy Binion, associate editor
Long have libertarians complained that the eternal smash-hit board game Monopoly neither depicts free market capitalism accurately nor encourages any useful business skills aside from making lopsided real estate trades with property owners down on their luck. Is there, at long last, any game that portrays business as what it more closely resembles in the real world—inventive and fun?
I found the answer, unexpectedly, at a homeschooling convention in Virginia, where an engaging fella named Elliott Eddie was hawking his own invention that he (appropriately!) conjured to life via a Kickstarter campaign: The Entrepreneur Game. It has become the go-to board game for me and my 8-year-old.
Every session is different, on account of players having to start by creating a new business—either home-based or brick-and-mortar, each coming with different costs and payouts. A crucial caveat: All the other players have to agree the venture sounds plausible. (That shouldn't be too hard when considering, for example, that there is a real market for Bob Ross Chia Pets. You're welcome.) You can then add or subtract or trade businesses from there, in the knowledge that at the finish line, the bank will buy them back. Then you count and compare winnings.
Along the way there are mortgages, potential lawsuits, marketing snafus and bonanzas, competitive jingles, and enough vagueness here and there in the rules that players are impelled to—yes!—invent interpretations and workarounds. Your 8-year-old can and will beat you, and get you thinking that yes, maybe your neighborhood does need that ice cream parlor/lending library across from the park. —Matt Welch, editor at large
Buy The Entrepreneur Game for $49.99
Monopoly Deal—a card-game take on the classic board game—is a fast-paced battle of tradeoffs and risks that in many ways is more enjoyable than its namesake.
Unlike Monopoly, where players simply squat on their properties and wait for someone else to stumble into owing rent, Monopoly Deal puts the onus on each would-be tycoon to earn their big paydays. The game includes three types of cards: money, property, and action. The former two are self-explanatory; the latter type of card allows you to, say, act as the town debt collector (boo!), force people to pay you rent on the properties you own, or even steal properties from other players. (There is no due process, though there are cards that allow you to "just say no" to another's action.) Collect three sets of property cards to win the game.
Something else that sets Monopoly Deal apart from the original: This game runs around 15 minutes as opposed to multiple eons. Like in the marketplace, it moves quickly, and bold risks are sometimes rewarded with the destruction of your competitors. But they can make you a target as well. Earning a big rent payment requires some basic strategy and more than a little luck of the draw. —Eric Boehm, reporter
Forget Monopoly or Catan. Battle Sheep (like Battleship, but not) is the perfect game for the particularly enterprising kid. In the board game, players attempt to dominate (or, erm, baa-minate?) a hexagon-tiled board by placing rows of color-coded sheep. While Battle Sheep is technically aimed at kids and younger teenagers, don't let its simple rules deceive you. The game requires a good bit of strategic know-how and provides ample opportunity to sabotage fellow players, making it an enduring favorite at game nights.
Bananagrams is another classic game that I just can't get enough of. The basic premise is something akin to Scrabble on Adderall, and each game reliably brings 15 or so minutes of fast-paced, occasionally sweat-inducing fun. The whole game fits in a small banana-shaped pouch, making it the ideal stocking stuffer for budding wordsmiths. —Emma Camp, assistant editor
It wasn't long ago that people depended on mammoth mills to produce their flour supply. Either that or you were grinding grains via mortar and pestle, which means it's not unlikely you would've paid for your carbs with an undiagnosed case of carpal tunnel.
Fast-forward a little over a century: I can make my own flour without lifting a finger—and it's significantly more nutritious than what you'd get at the store.
If you want homemade bread and other baked goods, get yourself a grain mill. There are relatively cheap (and not-so-cheap) options. But my husband recently gifted me the All Metal Grain Mill attachment by KitchenAid—meaning I can grind my own grains without even worrying about another appliance crowding the kitchen counter. (Merry early Christmas to me!)
While I'm glad industrialization has made it possible to buy a few pounds of enriched flour at any grocery store whenever I need it, I'm also grateful for the innovation that paved the way for my electric grain mill, allowing me to grind my own flour at home—and without breaking a sweat. —Alyssa Varas-Martinez, assistant editor
Buy the All Metal Grain Mill KitchenAid attachment for $114.99
Gone are the days of expensive eggs (for now, at least). Since reaching a high of $4.82 in January, a dozen Grade A eggs will now run you $2.07 on average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The main driver of that decrease is the poultry industry's recovery from a massive avian flu outbreak (despite politicians and pundits blaming "corporate greed" and "price gouging" for the high prices).
The confused economic commentary aside, what's an egg lover to do about this again-affordable stock? Invest in a DASH Rapid Egg Cooker, of course.
The DASH cooker can whip up six different styles of egg in minutes, from hard-boiled to poached. It's much faster than stovetop methods and delightfully consistent. A measuring cup tells you exactly how much water you'll need to add to the cooker to achieve your desired result, and cleanup is a breeze. No more wrangling bulky pots of boiling water.
It's hard to mess up with the DASH cooker. But even if you crack a few eggs in the process, that won't hurt your wallet quite as much as it once would have. —Fiona Harrigan, associate editor
Buy the DASH Rapid Egg Cooker for $16.14
I vary my concealed carry technique depending on dress and setting, but I often default to pocket carry for the sake of comfort. For years, I relied on a DeSantis Nemesis to hold my Springfield XDS 3.3 .45ACP upright and to remain in place when I draw. But while the Nemesis is good, it didn't keep the pistol butt from printing through my pants and even wearing light spots in the fabric. And that just won't do.
But then DeSantis made something I had contemplated as a do-it-yourself project—it added a flap to the holster. The result: the Super Fly.
Held by a hook-and-loop fastener, the rectangular flap flips for righties and lefties. It blurs the outlines of the pistol so that it looks like you have a flat wallet in your pocket. The flap also helps retain the holster so it doesn't exit the pocket with your pistol. When gifting a Super Fly, be sure to specify the make and model of the recipient's gun for proper fit.
Like all pocket holsters, the Super Fly doesn't necessarily look super fly with skinny jeans. But then, nothing does. —J.D. Tuccille, contributing editor
Buy the DeSantis Super Fly for $57.99
I was never a knife guy. That changed when I entered the wonderful world of fatherhood and found myself opening an incredible amount of boxes. (No one warns you about that part.) Toys! Diapers! Abundance abounds!
Thankfully I found the ideal everyday carry knife—the Drifter by Columbia River Knife and Tool. Even better: It won't make you look like you're cosplaying as Davy Crockett or a Navy SEAL, so the Florida dads of the world can sleep well knowing it will pair just fine with, say, some trusty nylon fishing shorts.
This knife is both well-made and affordable, making it a perfect gift for someone who likes a good blade—or who might find themselves needing one in the very near future. —C.J. Ciaramella, reporter
What do space travel and self-care have in common? Answer: red light therapy.
The mystical powers of red light came more sharply into focus after NASA found it helped heal astronauts' wounds. Now red light therapy (RLT) is sweeping the world of wellness, touted for its ability to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, ease muscle soreness, improve sleep, help with inflammation, and much more.
While RLT used to require expensive lasers, innovation has made the treatment accessible for folks who aren't astronauts or wealthy celebrities. The HG300 Red Light Therapy Device by Hooga is a great gadget for home use with its medical-grade red and near-infrared light that delivers quality treatment for those of us who don't have NASA's taxpayer-funded budget.
In other words, this is the perfect gift for just about everyone, whether it's your athletic friend looking to curtail recovery time, your dad who wants relief from his arthritis, or your significant other who obsesses a little too much about her crow's feet. We paid for NASA's research, after all, so why shouldn't we all benefit from it? —Kelvey Vander Hart, communications specialist
Buy the HG300 Red Light Therapy Device for $159
Someday humans might be able to gift their futurist loved ones travel packages to space for the holidays. For now, the new book A City on Mars is a decent substitute.
Authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith deliver an amusing yet sober take on the prospects of populating the solar system. The prose is broken up by quirky diagrams and cartoons by Zach, creator of the popular Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal webcomic and illustrator of Bryan Caplan's Open Borders.
The Weinersmiths make clear they are not bullish on the timeline for space settlement. It will probably happen eventually if our species exists long enough—but not anytime soon.
A City on Mars asks not only how humans would get to Mars but, just as importantly, how we might breathe, eat, manufacture, and procreate there. There are many more questions than answers.
Libertarians will be especially interested to read about the economic, legal, and geopolitical implications of a Mars colony. Even if we can do it, will governments let us? —Adam Sullivan, digital marketing specialist
Too late for college, where I drank the likes of Pabst and Labatt Blue, I discovered that beer came in a wide variety of styles, many of which actually tasted good. More recently, my appreciation for what used to be called "tropical" drinks has undergone a similar transformation, thanks largely to Jeff Berry, whose years of cocktail detective work uncovered lost recipes that appear, alongside his own innovations, in Beachbum Berry Remixed, which combines two earlier books by the same author.
Berry's recipe book is also a history book (who doesn't love a two-for-one deal?) that explains how concoctions created by tiki pioneers like Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic) and Donn Beach (Don the Beachcomber) became wildly popular and then, perhaps inevitably, bastardized to the point that they barely resembled their much tastier ancestors. (Currently accepting suggestions for my tiki alter ego, although I'm partial to Jake the Snake.)
Authenticity in this context is a tricky concept, since tiki drinks evoke a world that never existed: a fanciful amalgam of Caribbean and Polynesian elements unified by the appeal of a tropical paradise that could be inhabited in the middle of the city for the price of a drink or two amid ersatz palm trees, water features, bamboo accents, and oversized idols. But the tiki renaissance exemplified by Berry's archaeology of mixology proudly strives for a kind of campy authenticity that is best enjoyed while sipping a well-crafted mai tai or zombie to the strains of Martin Denny or the Tikiyaki Orchestra. —Jacob Sullum, senior editor
Buy Beachbum Berry Remixed for $29.95
Second only to Reason editor Peter Suderman's cocktail newsletter, Raising the Bar: A Bottle-by-Bottle Guide to Mixing Masterful Cocktails at Home by Brett Adams and Jacob Grier is my go-to gift this year. In fact, it could be considered the libertarian's mixology manifesto. Just as libertarianism espouses the value of individual freedom and minimal interference, this book champions a "less is more" approach to the home bar. It's a toast to personal liberty in cocktail form.
Instead of coercing readers into buying an overwhelming array of expensive, single-use ingredients—the mixological equivalent of a bloated government—Adams and Grier advocate for a streamlined, efficient bar that maximizes personal choice and utility. Each bottle becomes a versatile tool in the mixologist's kit, mirroring the ideal of versatile, multifunctional individuals who contribute to society in numerous ways no matter where they come from or what their skills are.
Raising the Bar equips cocktail enthusiasts and beginners alike with the fundamentals of a good drink, allowing them to innovate without the need for a central planner dictating their every move. Each new bottle introduced is like a new idea being shared in the marketplace of cocktails, expanding the drinker's horizon with each chapter. The book's practicality and focus on using what's already in stock makes it the perfect companion for those who value freedom, simplicity, and the joy of making the most out of what you have—whether that's in life or in your liquor cabinet. —Veronique de Rugy, contributing editor
Buy Raising the Bar for $19.96
The average person spends about $2,000 a year on coffee. (With inflation, that may soon be, uh, even more.) For the same cost, you could buy a semi-reliable used car, two David Yurman diamond necklaces, or this giant inflatable game of human whack-a-mole. In other words, your coffee-loving loved ones are probably missing out on a lot. So it's time to help them ditch the $6 caffeine runs by gifting a chic, economical brewing tool that helps make an amazing cup of coffee every time.
Don't be fooled by the Origami Coffee Dripper's simple facade and relatively low price. It comes to us from Japan's Gifu Prefecture, which is known for its over 400-year history of ceramic making. As its name would suggest, the dripper is indeed inspired by origami, the Japanese tradition of paper folding. But that shape is not just for show: The 20 origami-like folds help you control the flow rate of the water and create air channels to make the perfect cup of coffee. And it comes in several colors, so you can personalize it a bit for the recipient. Cheers! —Katarina Hall, staff editor
Buy the Origami Coffee Dripper for $39.95
Holiday traveling—or any long-distance sojourn—can be a buzzkill. Once you reach your destination, chances are you may need some help winding down. A problem: When that winding down comes courtesy of a strong scented herb, it's not always easy to avoid scrutiny.
Take heart! The Firedog Smell Proof Bag is a stylish, polyurethane leather pouch that allows you to discreetly bring your bud wherever—without getting looks from your nosy mother-in-law or the police K-9 at the airport. —John Carter, producer
Buy the Firedog Smell Proof Bag for $11.99
Consumers of illicit substances should have at least two things: a knowledge of their constitutional rights and a stylish way to covertly store their favorite flower, concentrates, edibles, and accessories.
Enter Tulip.
This seven-piece, lockable stash-box set includes multiple jars, doob tubes, and a tray, so you can roll up almost anywhere. Boveda humidity control packs are included which help keep your flower fresh. Tulip comes in a plethora of colors, from vibrant pinks to shades of green and, Reason's personal favorite, orange.
Best of all, the lock provides peace of mind if you get pulled over in an illegal state like I did. You can tell the cops to "get a warrant"—Fourth Amendment, anyone?—and then get on with your day. —Bess Byers, digital marketing specialist
Buy the Tulip 7-piece set for $195
As I was preparing the first edition of Reason's Sindex this summer—compiling data on all the various ways prices on our favorite vices have risen in the last few years—one factoid was most shocking to me: The price of fancy new TVs had gone down. While prices economy-wide have risen by 18.8 percent since January 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for TVs dropped 21.3 percent. This last year alone is a similar story: Economy-wide prices have gone up 3.2 percent, while TV prices have dropped 9.4 percent (though the cost of watching live programming on that TV has gone up 5.5 percent).
Whether your current TV is just a little too old or a little too small, there's never been a better time to buy a new one (except, if trends continue, next year). I'm no audiovisual expert, but I've been satisfied with my Samsung TV: The 55-inch variety for $350 seems like a great deal. For those living in 2023 and looking for a smart TV, a 43-inch Hisense with Roku TV has worked well as my house's second option. But if you choose to look for something else entirely, chances are the TVs are better, and cheaper, than they were just a few years ago. —Jason Russell, managing editor
Buy the 55-inch Samsung for $349.99
Buy the 43-inch Hisense for $309.86
Looked at one way, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which is now available for purchase on 4K Blu-ray, might seem like just another biopic, the story of an important man, J. Robert Oppenheimer, on his tortured quest to lead a team of scientists toward building the atom bomb.
But with its hopscotching timelines, shifting image ratios, and black-and-white-to-color switchbacks, it's very much the product of Nolan's distinctive stylistic tics. It's also the fulfillment of many of the themes that have defined the director's career, from humanistic wonder at what science can do to fears of unchecked mob campaigns and global nuclear destruction.
Not only is it one of the best-executed, most ambitious movies of 2023, it's one of the most searingly prescient, as it serves as a warning about the fragility of human existence in a war-filled world with the capacity to destroy itself. So print out a picture of Cillian Murphy, wrap those sculpted cheekbones in a box, and surprise your friends or family with a digital copy of one of this year's most-hyped films. —Peter Suderman, features editor
You may have heard it before: those words that dredge up a mix of anxiety, confusion, and morbid fascination.
Someone you know is on Pinterest. She (or he, no shame) is lost in the sparkly abyss of DIY projects that promise to make a home look like a Crate and Barrel catalog. Disaster might be near. But it doesn't have to be.
Inspired by my apartment hopping with no one to help me hang my floating shelves—my now-husband was nowhere to be found—you can gift the perfect, newbie-friendly toolkit that won't intimidate the one who doesn't know a hammer wrench from a socket wrench. (I think there's one named Allen too?)
Worst case scenario, the recipient can offer a tool or two to the neighbor, friend, or significant other they draft to assist them with their projects. It fits snugly into any storage space and, better yet, comes in a variety of colors, so your loved one can really channel the decorative spirit. Happy tinkering! —Regan Taylor, video editor
Buy the Cartman 39-Piece Household Kit for $21.99
Ever wonder what it would be like to go to a war college for dragon riders? If you happen to have contemplated that very specific scenario, Rebecca Yarros has you taken care of with her New York Times bestseller, Fourth Wing. You'll have to forgive some of the "enemy-to-lover" romance clichés, but this book is a veritable buffet of the best elements from everyone's favorite fantasy franchises—like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and The Hunger Games.
Violet Sorrengail was supposed to be a lowly scribe, spending her days reading and studying. But alas, her mother had other plans—namely, to send her Basgiath War College. As a student there, you have two choices: Bond with a dragon or die trying. Unlike Game of Thrones, however, once riders successfully sync with their dragons, they can communicate with them telepathically. Think of the possibilities.
Every boarding school, real or fictional, has its cliques. But here we see those fractures fade after it becomes clear the school's paternalistic leadership is concealing some big secrets from the student body. Without giving away too much, you can imagine how angsty young adults—armed with dragons, no less—might react to being deceived. It's a wild ride, pun intended.
If you can't get enough of Fourth Wing, you're in luck: The sequel, Iron Flame, recently hit the market, and there are already plans for Amazon Prime to adapt the series into a TV show. At this rate, your nearest and dearest have probably (hopefully?) accepted they're not getting a Hogwarts invite. And they may need to read another book anyway. Thanks in part to capitalism, there are myriad other fantasy worlds you can get lost in—just a few Amazon clicks away. —Natalie Dowzicky, deputy managing editor
The Gen Xer in your life probably has some nostalgia for books on dead tree. And he definitely has nostalgia for the music of his formative years. So get him 60 Songs That Explain the '90s in hardcover.
It's newly released, so he doesn't have it yet. It was born from a podcast, but it's different enough to merit a purchase on its own. In addition to some very solid music criticism from The Ringer's Rob Harvilla, it has essayistic meditations on selling out, censorship, and the eternal allure of music that makes your parents uncomfortable—even for people who are now parents themselves. —Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor in chief
Buy 60 Songs That Explain the '90s for $27.00
Modern American libertarian ideas and thinkers have been winning converts and quietly changing the world for seven decades now—but that didn't mean the bastions of academia and publishing were apt to give them much respect.
That's been slowly changing for the better. This year, Stanford University history professor Jennifer Burns has followed up her smart and often sympathetic 2009 biography of Ayn Rand, Goddess of the Market, with the first detailed, serious, comprehensive biography of libertarian economist, polemicist, and adviser to the powerful, from the U.S. to China to (yes) Chile: Milton Friedman.
In Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, Burns deals fairly with the controversies surrounding the man. She also does so with a clear-eyed understanding that the libertarian belief in freedom and choice—particularly for their ability to create wealth and improve standards of living—is sincere and based in a serious set of theory and history. That books that treat libertarian thinkers with this sort of deeply-rooted sympathetic understanding are gaining traction should bring holiday cheer to any libertarian. —Brian Doherty, senior editor
Buy Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative for $29.49
Holiday shopping for the metalhead in your life is easier said than done. Odds are their closet is already overflowing with Slayer shirts, and their jean vest couldn't fit even one more patch. So, this Christmas season, consider giving them the gift of Heavys H1H headphones.
Many a metalhead is left ill-served by traditional headphones that collapse thick, layered walls of sound into a tinny, digitally congealed buzz. Enter the Kickstarter-launched Heavys, which promise to remedy these woes with technology "engineered for heavy metal" and meant to "mimic live music." We've got headbanging. We've got entrepreneurship. We've got headbanging entrepreneurship.
The over-the-ear, Bluetooth-enabled Heavys offer a, well, heavy bassy sound that is still nimble enough to allow for vocals and high-pitched guitar solos to be heard clearly above the fray. After recovering from some potential sticker shock, the buyer can soothe themselves knowing that only in a world of increasing wealth and choice could such a niche product for a marginalized audience sell at a luxury price.
Also comforting: In the end, this is really a gift for the giver, thanks to Heavys' noise-canceling ability and long battery life. Come Christmas morning, the recipient can blast Cannibal Corpse to their heart's content while you drink in the dulcet tones of wrapping paper ripped to shreds. It's only up from here. —Christian Britschgi, reporter
Buy Heavys headphones for $249
Are you overseas, perhaps in a country ruled by a hostile regime? Are you involved in research that, though innocent, an internet service provider might find troubling? Or do you just want to be able to surf the web without it being anyone else's business? Then consider a virtual private network (VPN)!
VPNs encrypt your internet traffic by routing it through a separate server, obscuring the contents of your online activity to your internet provider and rendering any potential search warrants ineffective (though one should never assume that any method is completely safe from the National Security Agency, natch). There are a ton of options, but not all VPNs are created equal: Troublingly, some free or cheaper options keep logs of customer activity that can be subpoenaed.
ExpressVPN strikes a good balance between speed and security. It doesn't keep logs, and the company is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, which has very advantageous data privacy laws. Surf's up. —Joe Lancaster, assistant editor
Buy ExpressVPN for $8.32 a month
Have you ever wanted to give the gift of inspiration? This year, you can do just that when you send your loved one a personalized message from a man who has walked the moon, led the U.S. to Olympic table-tennis gold, scaled the Empire State Building with no harness, and set the Guinness world record for spending the most campaign contributions on Botox and OnlyFans. Quite the bang for the buck.
Give the gift of George Santos.
Of course, Santos has done none of those things (with the possible exception of the latter, should Guinness World Records want to investigate). The erstwhile Republican congressman was recently expelled from the House of Representatives amid criminal allegations that he stole campaign funds to treat himself to designer shoes, gambling excursions, and, yes, Botox and OnlyFans.
But Santos is not in prison (yet). After all, he is innocent until proven otherwise. And he is spending his newfound unemployment as any ousted politician might: by making personalized videos for customers on the video-sharing app, Cameo. He may not have the bloated resume he once promised, but he does have the hustle. For a preview of Santos' portfolio, you can watch the video he made for Sen. Bob Menendez (D–N.J.)—who is also facing some, er, seedy corruption allegations—courtesy of Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.). You have to admire the petty.
Not long ago, Santos was charging $200 per video. That has quickly risen to $500—a steep price to pay, yes, but that's the market at work. And while it may be a hefty fee, you can rest assured that the laugh it gives the recipient will be more valuable than anything the public was paying Santos to do in Congress. —Billy Binion, associate editor
Buy a George Santos Cameo for $500
The post This Year's Libertarian Gift Guide: 23 Ideas for 2023 appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman debate free speech on campus amid the fallout from a tense congressional questioning of elite university presidents last week.
02:35—University presidents face free speech questions during contentious congressional hearing
31:02—Weekly Listener Question
39:50—Another GOP debate
51:13—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Don't Excuse the Hypocrisy of University Presidents When It Comes to Free Speech," by Robby Soave
"Congress Shouldn't Encourage College Presidents To Censor Even More Speech," by Robby Soave
"Fight Hate Speech with More Speech, Not Censorship: ACLU's Nadine Strossen," by Nick Gillespie
"The Most Obnoxious Blowhard in America," by Liz Wolfe
"DeSantis Returns To 'Too Online' Roots With Debate Comments About Trans Kids," by Emma Camp
"Chris Christie Is Right, Trump's Trade War Accomplished Nothing," by Eric Boehm
"Vivek Ramasway's Crusade Against 'Woke, Inc.,'" by Zach Weissmueller and Nick Gillespie
"Nikki Haley's Crazy Plan to Require Verification on Social Media," by Robby Soave
"Why Pols from New Jersey Aren't Born to Run," by Nick Gillespie
"Nikki Haley Opposed Boeing Subsidies at Tonight's GOP Debate. As Governor, She Gave Boeing Millions." by Christian Britschgi
"A Private Libertarian City in Honduras," by Zach Weissmueller
"Honduras Ends Its Experiment With Charter Cities," by Brian Doherty
"The Croatian Invasion of the Micronation of Liberland," by Brian Doherty
"Thank You, Reason Donors, for a Huge Webathon Success," by Katherine Mangu-Ward
"San Francisco's Can-Kicking on Zoning Reform Could See It Lose All Zoning Powers," by Christian Britschgi
"Dave Smith: What Is a Libertarian?" by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe
"Hardcore History's Dan Carlin on Why The End Is Always Near," by Nick Gillespie
"Ken Burns, Lynn Novick: How Closed Borders Helped Facilitate the Holocaust," by Nick Gillespie
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Campus Speech Restrictions Come Back To Bite Universities appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Reason's 2023 webathon was absolutely wild. The $700,000 that over 1,200 of you donated—a bunch of which was matched by generous benefactors—will buy a lot of coffee and paper and cameras and plane tickets and public records (yes, we sometimes have to pay for those). Our original goal was $400,000 and you guys blew it out of the water. Just in case, we'll leave the donation door open until midnight today for you procrastinators (ahem, Matt Welch, ahem) out there.
And while we really, really, really appreciate the cash, we know that what matters most is what you do for Reason every single day when you take the time to click, like, share, and otherwise engage with our content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. We love it when you subscribe to our YouTube channel and pause to watch and enjoy the videos there, including our super-popular YouTube Shorts and our exciting new web show Just Asking Questions. We are grateful when you sign up for our newsletters, including our daily email, Reason Roundup, and our just-launched-today zoning and urban policy newsletter Rent Free—and when you forward them to friends, family, and fools. We swoon with excitement when you subscribe to our podcasts. We're excited when you come by to read online stories at Reason, whether you wound up here from a link on social media or just walked right in the reason.com front door. And, of course, our hearts will always be with our print magazine subscribers and their digital-only brothers and sisters. (By the way, many of the webathon support levels include a free digital subscription, if you want to kill two birds with one stone today.) Heck, we even love the free advertising we'll get when you rep the brand with the cool swag—including socks, beanies, and a Yeti tumbler—you got for donating.
This avalanche of cool Reason content is designed to find fans (and foes) of free minds and free markets wherever they are, and we couldn't do it without your donations.
Thanks to you, Reason can do more of what we do best in the coming year: deliver fresh, unbiased information and insights to our readers, listeners, and viewers every day.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
The post Thank You, <em>Reason</em> Donors, for a Huge Webathon Success appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman consider the ouster of Rep. George Santos (R–N.Y.) from Congress and unpack the debate between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Gov. Gavin Newsom, before examining the legacy of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
01:33—Rep. George Santos (R–N.Y.) ousted from Congress
12:42—What matters when donating to Reason
17:19—Gov. Ron DeSantis vs. Gov. Gavin Newsom debate aftermath
34:19—Weekly listener question
47:03—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"George Santos Arrested, Indicted on 13 Federal Counts, Pleads Not Guilty," by Joe Lancaster
"The Political Lies That Really Matter," by Nick Gillespie and Justin Zuckerman
"How Do We Solve a Problem Like George Santos?" by Matt Welch
"Why Did George Santos Lie About His Past To Get Elected to Congress?" by Scott Shackford
"Ask Reason Magazine's Editors Anything: Webathon 2023!" by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman
"The DeSantis-Newsom Debate Was Really a Debate About COVID," by Eric Boehm
"Is California Over?" by Nick Gillespie and Regan Taylor
"Florida vs. California," by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie
"Jeb Bush: Why Florida Is Winning," by Nick Gillespie, Adam Czarnecki, and Justin Zuckerman
"California's Recall Is a Revolt Against Gov. Gavin Newsom's Progressive Agenda," by Zach Weissmueller
"Henry Kissinger's Deadly Career Gives the Lie to the Myth of the Disinterested Statesman," by Christian Britschgi
"In Search of Libertarian Realism," by Matt Welch, Sheldon Richman, William Ruger, Christopher Preble, and Fernando Tesón
"A Tribute To Henry Kissinger," by Howard Landis
"Poor, Misunderstood Kissinger," by Jacob Sullum
"Henry Kissinger Rollins on Statecraft" by Nick Gillespie
"Reason Can Do More Good With Your Money Than Government Can: Contribute to Our Annual Webathon," by Katherine Mangu-Ward
"How Reason Changes Minds, Lives, and Laws by Covering Criminal Injustice," by Matt Welch
"Give to Reason and Help Create the Next Generation of Libertarians!" by Nick Gillespie
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsors:
Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Hunt Beaty
Music: "Angeline" by The Brothers Steve
The post Goodbye to George Santos and Henry Kissinger appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>It's not every day you have the opportunity to help fund one of the 10 "riskiest" online news outlets.*
Earlier this year, Reason was absurdly tagged by the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British organization that aims to steer advertisers away from disreputable websites, as a dangerous disseminator of disinformation. To add insult to injury, the index was published by a group that receives funding from the U.S. State Department through the National Endowment for Democracy. In other words, your tax dollars helped pay for it.
The GDI slapped Reason with its "high-risk" label without pointing to a single error or inaccuracy in our reporting, much less intentional disinformation, while inaccurately characterizing our byline and corrections policies. Senior Editor Robby Soave scored a mini scoop a few days later when he discovered that best-selling author Anne Applebaum, listed as a member of the group's board, actually had no affiliation with it, suggesting that they might want to get their own house in order.
(Elon Musk called the absurd labeling and mistreatment of Reason "very concerning" in a February tweet, and no matter what else you think about the letter-X-obsessed billionaire, he's absolutely right about that.)
Since Reason enjoys a perfect rating from a competing, and more widely used, rating site—NewsGuard—the whole thing might simply be good for a laugh if the GDI wasn't a shocking misuse of government funds and an attempted end run around the First Amendment. "Reason is one of the smartest, well-edited libertarian-oriented publications and has been for decades," explained HotAir's Ed Morrissey. "I sometimes disagree with their arguments and positions, but I have never read anything that counts as 'disinformation' or dishonesty. If your risk list gives high marks to BuzzFeed for credibility and freaks out at Reason, you've gone way off the rails."
Reason has a proud tradition of busting hoaxes, questioning orthodoxy, and asking uncomfortable questions about dominant narratives. Our investigative cover story on the Facebook Files further exposed the government's role in ineptly policing what it declared "disinformation."
As journalist Matt Taibbi said: "Even before the news media business went fully off the rails in recent years, Reason always stood out as a publication unafraid to take unconventional stances or report on controversial issues."
After a much-covered blast at a Gaza hospital, for example, NBC's Ben Collins uncritically accepted and helped circulate inaccurate claims made by Palestinian authorities. The 2023 Walter Cronkite Award winner and superstar on the disinformation beat morally condemned those who delayed in reporting casualty numbers that were later found to be wildly exaggerated. Reason pushed back, with Soave pointing out why Collins (and others) were wrong.
In a tweet endorsing Reason's coverage, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver pointed out that Collins has an "unfortunate little habit of constantly spreading disinformation that confirms his political priors." Reporter Josh Barro agreed: "'Disinformation reporter' is a ridiculous construct to begin with—all reporters are supposed to be in the business of reporting facts, but they hold themselves out as special arbiters over the others, and always for the same ideological agenda."
Guided by our mission, Reason produces careful, thoughtful, and engaging journalism. We strive to be fair and honest. We correct our mistakes. And we are often the only ones asking questions that mainstream outlets are all too happy to ignore. Every day, Reason journalists reenter the fray to check panics with information and analysis, take the powerful to task for their abuses and failures, and make the case for the ideas of liberty.
If that's dangerous, then we're dangerous. Donate to support Reason, a danger to disinformation panicmongers (and purveyors) everywhere.
*(Disinformation alert: Technically you do have the opportunity to support Reason every day. But if you do it today, your money will be doubled thanks to a generous donor. So now's the moment to give!)
The post Help Fight Disinformation About Disinformation: Donate to <em>Reason</em> appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Florida is a land of attainable possibilities. It's sunny, it's warm, there's a magic castle anyone can visit, there's no income tax, and there's enough beach for everyone. It lacks the pristine glamour of California or Hawaii, but it's cheaper and more accessible in nearly every sense. What it lacks in polish, it makes up for in unpredictability. It's a paved paradise—with plenty of parking lots.
As a child, I was shipped off to Jacksonville for a couple of weeks every summer to enjoy the kind of oversugared, under-structured time that happens when you're left in the care of out-of-practice grandparents. I'd stretch out on a patch of pinky-beige carpeting under the skylight in their house reading age-inappropriate Stephen King novels and waiting for the afternoon deluge, then head outside to watch the sun force steam up from the wet pavement. Sometimes we'd drive to see the Weeki Wachee mermaids.
Those grandparents moved to Florida in 1970 for economic opportunity and a fresh start, and they got what they came for. By the time I knew him, my grandfather's American Dream consisted of playing Nintendo golf in a La-Z-Boy while gazing out the window at an actual golf course. They rarely went to the beach, but they liked the idea that they could.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 2 million people made the same pilgrimage, for much the same reasons. They fled the roped-off playgrounds of New York City, the shuttered schools of California, the cramped and chilly apartments of Chicago, and the masked streets of New Jersey. They didn't necessarily want to go to the beach either, but they desperately wanted to know that they could.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—who remains in the race for the GOP presidential nomination at press time, albeit with declining prospects—can rightly boast about the attractions his state offered at a terrible moment in history, and take real credit for resisting what turned out to be largely ineffective closures and mandates. But most of what is magical about Florida existed long before DeSantis pulled on his boots. The siren song of the Sunshine State is the promise of freedom tinged with the idea of escape—most perfectly channeled by the late Jimmy Buffett.
Florida was not, and is not, a libertarian utopia, though the lack of income tax is pretty nice. DeSantis has chosen to focus his campaign on his more authoritarian culture war forays, including his punitive approach to Disney's corporate political speech, his administration's meddling in school libraries and curriculum, and his harsh treatment of immigrants.
As Floridians never tire of pointing out, there are many different cultures contained within the state. In this special Florida issue of Reason, we explore some of the state's experiments in living. From Zora Neale Hurston's black hometown of Eatonville to the infamous senior-centered community of The Villages to the nearly ungovernable Keys, Floridians love to carve out a little spot to try something new.
"We're the only state with mermaids on the state government payroll," Florida newsman Craig Pittman told Reason's C.J. Ciaramella—a Florida Man himself—for one story. "The state employs python hunters. We're the only state where we actually made a hippo an official citizen of the state so he could stay. That's just not something you see anywhere else."
I came of political age in 2000, the era when Florida was the butt of an extremely unfunny national joke about hanging chads, those tiny pieces of punched-out paper dangling off a few Floridian ballots. Those little punchouts ended up deciding which president would deal with 9/11. In an astonishing tale of redemption, Florida has learned from its mistakes and now ranks among the nation's speediest and most competent vote counters.
In 2020, Reason proposed that columnist and funnyman Dave Barry run for office on the slogan "Florida Man for President." In 2024, we're back for another election-year look at the Sunshine State and a reconsideration of the origins and cultural power of the Florida Man.
Is there something about Florida, pre- and post-COVID, that attracts people of a certain temperament? Is there something in the water that transforms them once they are there? (Florida was once the rumored location of the Fountain of Youth.) Or is it simply the state's Sunshine Law that allows outsiders to witness humanity in all of its glory?
Even if DeSantis washes out (and Barry refuses to serve), there's a good chance a Florida Man will be on the ballot. Former President Donald Trump is in the end stages of his transformation from a New York Man to a Florida Man, with Mar-a-Lago serving as a place to keep his boxes.
Like my grandparents before him, COVID refugees after him, and immigrants forever, perhaps he migrated south for economic opportunity, a fresh start—and proximity to a golf course.
The post The Future Is Florida appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>It's that special time of year again when we ask you to open your wallets, dear listener, and make a tax-deductible donation to Reason's annual webathon.
In this special video episode of The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman respond to an array of listener questions.
More Christians in the liberty movement? Is it a weird time for libertarianism? How to best celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States? Plus, Nick's treasured pen, Katherine's socks, Peter's power of the Mai Tai, and Matt's favorite pizza.
All this and so much more on this week's extra special episode of The Reason Roundtable.
Now go donate, you wonderful swashbuckling bunch of free-thinking freaks!
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
Videography by Isaac Reese, Justin Zuckerman, and Adam Czarnecki; edited by Adam Czarnecki.
The post Ask <I>Reason</I> Magazine's Editors Anything: Webathon 2023! appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>For as long as there have been maps of Florida, there have been men who have looked at them and thought: "Gee, it sure would be nice not to have to go all the way around." Enter the Cross Florida Barge Canal project—the eponymous Ditch of Dreams in Steven Noll and David Tegeder's 2015 history of the effort to dig a channel across northern Florida, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic. The story begins in the 16th century and peaks with the construction of just over 100 miles of canal as part of a New Deal initiative before petering out.
Framed as a David and Goliath story, the tale might be better read as a long, dispiriting chronicle of the ways that bureaucracy, political horse-trading, and environmental activism can paradoxically kill an ambitious idea in its prime and keep it alive in expensive, zombified form long after it should have been laid to rest.
The post Review: The Cross Florida Barge Canal That Never Was appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>It's our annual webathon week, the time when we ask you—our readers, listeners, viewers, and followers—to donate to support Reason. In a world gone more than a little bonkers, Reason offers solid journalism, principled analysis, and a hearty dose of chill.
Today is Giving Tuesday, the day we celebrate the incredible generosity of people who voluntarily give money to support the causes they value. This is in contrast to all other Tuesdays, which are Taking Tuesdays, the days the government takes roughly a third of what you earn and gives it to a lot of causes you probably don't value at all. Giving Tuesday is the perfect time to stick it to the taxman by making a tax-deductible donation to the 501(c)(3) Reason Foundation.
What kind of bang do you get for your voluntary buck at Reason? Our enemies certainly think we're changing the world. Leading populist authoritarian conservative Sohrab Ahmari recently fancifully wrote about the incoming Argentine President Javier Milei:
Milei is a doctrinaire Hayekian seemingly grown in a secret laboratory funded by the Koch brothers, with the editorial staff of Reason, the extremist libertarian magazine in Washington, serving as the scientists.
My latest.https://t.co/ud5StaGZgS
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) November 22, 2023
Fact check: Reason does not have a Frankenstein lab for libertarian politicians. Yet. It depends on how much you donate! In the meantime, you can read a range of perspectives on Milei in our archives.
In fact, Reason does get real-world results, even if they are less cinematic than Ahmari imagines. Our journalism has helped reduce unfair sentences, promoted freedom for parents and personal responsibility for kids, and held public health officials accountable for their COVID failures. We're in your amicus briefs, your law review articles, and your classrooms. And Reason will always stick up for free speech, even when it's unpopular.
You can always count on the libertarians @Reason -- and sex workers -- to support freedom of speech. The media, the progs, and the supposed 1A defenders? Cowards, for the most part. Thank you @MattWelch and @ENBrown for speaking out when so many have been silent. #BackpageTrial https://t.co/XZdjMQyzS4
— Stephen Lemons (@stephenlemons) November 18, 2023
This year we're hoping to raise $400,000. Your hard-earned dollars can help us meet that goal. There is some pretty cool swag on offer at various giving levels, including Reason socks (so you can rep the brand at shoes-off houses), digital subscriptions (our special Florida issue is hot off the digital presses!), a Reason beanie (BYO tinfoil lining), and a Yeti tumbler (also BYOB). At the top tiers, we're offering invitations to Reason Weekend for first-timers, plus Zooms and/or lunches with an editor (pick me!).
You can get the skinny on swag at the donation page.
Donations of any size will get you special access to our annual Ask Us Anything edition of The Reason Roundtable. Include proof of your donation when you submit a question to roundtable@reason.com and you'll skip the line. Questions (and donations) must be in by Wednesday morning to make the cutoff.
Reason's not going anywhere. But with your donation, we can reach new audiences with trustworthy, factual journalism in a world gone moderately mad. Plus, we need to get started on building that lab.
The post <em>Reason</em> Can Do More Good With Your Money Than Government Can: Contribute to Our Annual Webathon appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman compare and contrast Florida and California politics ahead of this week's debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
0:54—Ron DeSantis will debate Gavin Newsom this week.
24:43—Hamas begins releasing hostages.
34:29—Weekly Listener Question
45:35—Elizabeth Warren and a sandwich shop monopoly
50:49—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Jeb Bush: What He Thinks of Trump, Biden, DeSantis, and 'Florida Man,'" by Nick Gillespie
"Jeb Bush on Why Florida Thrives: 'We Don't Try To Micromanage People's Lives,'" Nick Gillespie
"Jayhawk Down: Economic freedom may be just another word for nothing else to do," by Nick Gillespie
"Infographic: Who's Moved to Florida Since COVID Started?" by Erin Davis
"Is California Over?" by Nick Gillespie and Regan Taylor
"Bridget Phetasy: Why I Left California for Texas," by Nick Gillespie
"Why I Left California for Florida," by Zach Weissmueller
"Ron DeSantis: Good or Bad for Florida?" by Zach Weissmueller and Nick Gillespie
"Chef Andrew Gruel on Capitalism, Cuisine, and Calling Gov. Gavin Newsom an Asshole," by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"I'm increasingly frustrated by whataboutist libertarian takes on indefensible Hamas terrorism," says Nick Gillespie
"Is Javier Milei a 'Doctrinaire Hayekian' and a Secret Reason Science Project?" by Nick Gillespie
"The World's First Libertarian President," by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie
"Elizabeth Warren Wants the Government To Investigate America's 'Sandwich Shop Monopoly,'" by Christian Britschgi
"Does Bob Dylan Have a Politics and if Yes, What the Hell Are They?" by Nick Gillespie
"'Bob Dylan Is the Shakespeare of Our Time'—Penn Jillette on the Nobel Prize Winner" by Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's Sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Florida vs. California appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman laud the election of libertarian economist Javier Milei in Argentina and parse the results of the federal case involving the online advertising platform Backpage.
0:31—Javier Milei elected president of Argentina
16:25—Verdicts in the Backpage trial
36:43—Weekly Listener Question
46:44—Sam Altman out at OpenAI
54:48—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Marcos Falcone: Can a Libertarian Still Win in Argentina?" by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe
"Is Javier Milei's Movement in Argentina a Cult of Personality in the Name of Liberty?" by Jose Benegas and Antonella Marty
"Photo: Argentina's Libertarian Moment?" by Jason Russell
"Gloria Álvarez and Eduardo Marty: The Potential for a Libertarian President in Argentina," by Zach Weissmueller
"The Argentine Libertarian Dog-Friendly Darling?" by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie
"Don't Confuse Javier Milei With Jair Bolsonaro," by Daniel Raisbeck
"Backpage: The Monumental Free Speech Case the Media Ignored," by Matt Welch
"Why Kamala Harris Won't Be Asked About the Suicide of a Newspaperman She Persecuted," by Matt Welch
"Backpage Founder, Alt-Weekly Entrepreneur, and Free Speech Warrior James Larkin Has Died," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"Prosecutors Say Backpage Defendants Shouldn't Be Allowed To Reference the 1st Amendment," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"5 Years After the Backpage Shutdown, Sex Workers—and Free Speech—Are Still Suffering," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"The Sex-Ad Law FOSTA Was a Mistake. Some Lawmakers Want to Fix It." by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"Maggy Krell Repackages Her Bogus Backpage Prosecution Into a Book," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"The War on Backpage.com Is a War on Sex Workers," by Paul Detrick
"The Senate Accused Them of Selling Kids for Sex. The FBI Raided Their Homes. Backpage.com's Founders Speak for the First Time," by Elizabeth Nolan
"Are Right-Wingers More Prone to Believe Conspiracy Theories than Left-Wingers?" by Ilya Somin
"RFK Jr.: The Reason Interview," by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"Would Anarcho-Capitalism Be a Disaster? A Soho Forum Debate," by Gene Epstein, Bryan Caplan, and Yaron Brook
"I Used ChatGPT To Make Pokémon Versions of Trump, Biden, and RFK Jr.," by Nick Gillespie
"Will AI Destroy Humanity?" by Gene Epstein
"Biden Issues 'A.I. Red Tape Wishlist,'" by Ronald Bailey
"Competition, Not Antitrust, Is Humbling the Tech Giants," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
"Coleman Hughes: The End of Race Politics?" by Nick Gillespie
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's Sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post The World's First Libertarian President appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Last week, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman recorded an episode of The Reason Roundtable in front of a live audience at Reason's brand-new Washington, D.C., office. Topics ranged from Lina Khan's crusade against corporations at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to deciding which foreign policy views of the remaining Republican candidates are the least bad.
1:15—The administrative state and Lina Khan's anti-corporatism
17:53—Presidential politics and what Republican candidates think about Israel
33:08—The sequel to Choice: The Best of Reason
46:54—Pieces of art or whatever that are about Washington, D.C.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Why We Can't Have Nice Things, hosted by Eric Boehm.
"Is it Time to Trust-Bust Taylor Swift?" by Peter Suderman
"Cypherpunks Write Code," by Jim Epstein
"How Virginia's Hospital Licensing Laws Led to an Infant's Death," by Eric Boehm
"The Paranoid Center," by Jesse Walker
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Video edit by Adam Czarnecki; audio production by Luke Allen; assistant production by John Carter and Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post A Bonus <i>Reason Roundtable</i>. Live From Washington, D.C.! appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman commend the victories for pot legalization and abortion from last week's elections.
02:56: Election week takeaways
18:41: Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W. Va.) announces he's retiring.
33:33: Weekly Listener Question
38:40: Lightning round on last week's GOP debate
45:20: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Abortion's Big Night," by Liz Wolfe
"Ohio Becomes the 24th State To Legalize Recreational Marijuana," by Jacob Sullum
"Is Wichita Mayor-Elect Lily Wu a Libertarian?" by Eric Boehm
"Republicans Blow Another Opportunity at the Ballot Box," by J.D. Tuccille
"Exit poll: Most Ohio voters still largely favor legal abortion," by Ariel Edwards-Levy
"In Defense of Roe," by Nick Gillespie
"The U.S. Needs a Fiscal Commission Because Congress Won't Do Its Job," by Veronique de Rugy
"Joe Manchin Isn't the Fiscal Conservative We Need, but He's the Best We've Got," by Veronique de Rugy
"3 Reasons Mitt Romney and Republicans Lost Big in Election 2012," by Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg
"Mitt Romney, Like So Many NeverTrumpers, Was Hobbled by His Own Grubby Political Ambitions," by Matt Welch
"Third Party Candidates Shouldn't Get Their Hopes Up," by Andy Craig
"The Real Worry Behind the Unhinged Freakout Over No Labels," by Matt Welch
"Joe Manchin Is Once Again Telling Republicans and Democrats What They Don't Want To Hear," by Eric Boehm
"Exit Poll: Most Voters Think Trump, Biden Should Not Run in 2024," by Eric Boehm
"Are We Really Doing a Trump vs. Biden Rematch?" by Steven Greenhut
"Are Republicans Finally Getting Serious About Social Security?" by Eric Boehm
"The Libertarian Party's Internal Strife Is as Old as the Party Itself," by Brian Doherty
"What is the Ideal Strategy for the Libertarian Party?" by Nicholas Sarwark, Dave Smith, and Gene Epstein
"'A Tyranny of the Minority': Why This College Dropout Wants To Cancel Cancel Culture," by John Stossel
"The Canceling of the American Mind, by FIRE's Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott," by Eugene Volokh
"Why Are College Kids Terrified?" by Nick Gillespie
"Jeff Flake Is a Casualty of Collectivist Conflict," by Matt Welch
Reason's interview with Vivek Ramaswamy, by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's Sponsor:
Audio production by Luke Allen; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post The Two-Party System Abides appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>This week's featured article is "Love, Trade, and Force: The Machinery of Freedom at 50" by Katherine Mangu-Ward.
This audio was generated using AI trained on the voice of Katherine Mangu-Ward.
Music Credits: "Deep in Thought" by CTRL S and "Sunsettling" by Man with Roses
The post <i>The Best of Reason Magazine</i>: Love, Trade, and Force: <i>The Machinery of Freedom</i> at 50 appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman assess President Joe Biden's tanking poll numbers and parse the continuation of seething protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
1:04: New polls are bad news for Joe Biden.
15:09: Protests surge against Israel-Hamas war.
36:54: Weekly Listener Question
44:11: An executive order attempts to regulate artificial intelligence tech.
49:37: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Are We Really Doing a Trump vs. Biden Rematch?" by Steven Greenhut
"Both Biden and Trump Are Bad Candidates," by John Stossel
"Stop Calling Hillary Old," by Nick Gillespie
"Third Party Candidates Shouldn't Get Their Hopes Up," by Andy Craig
"RFK Jr. Dumps Democrats, Libertarian Party Blasts RFK Jr.'s Stance on Israel," by Robby Soave
"The Real Worry Behind the Unhinged Freakout Over No Labels," by Matt Welch
"Joe Biden More Vulnerable in 2024 Primary Than Donald Trump Ever Was in 2020," by Matt Welch
"The Very Strange New Respect for Authoritarian Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," by Matt Welch
"Blinken's Mission, Impossible," by Robby Soave
"Yascha Mounk: Avoiding the Identity Trap," by Nick Gillespie with Yascha Mounk
"Far-Left Support for Hamas is not an Aberration," by Ilya Somin
"Blaming Hamas Shouldn't Mean Ignoring the Palestinians' Plight," by Bonnie Kristian
"Is Restricting Pro-Israel-as-Jewish-Democracy Speech National Origin/Ethnicity Discrimination or Harassment?" by Eugene Volokh
"Don't Blame the Maine Shootings on 'Woefully Weak' Gun Laws," by Jacob Sullum
"Biden Issues 'A.I. Red Tape Wishlist,'" by Ronald Bailey
"Priscilla Is an Elvis Movie That Isn't About Elvis," by Peter Suderman
"Mitt Romney, Like So Many NeverTrumpers, Was Hobbled by His Own Grubby Political Ambitions," by Matt Welch
"Consultant in Chief," by Peter Suderman
"The Appeal of the Underdog," by Joseph A. Vandello, Nadav P. Goldschmied, and David A. R. Richards, in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post No Malarkey: Even Democrats Think Biden Is Too Old appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>What if the federal government was reduced to its essential functions? What if thousands of federal workers were sent home without pay? What if citizens were forced to examine the real role that the federal government plays in their lives and Congress was confronted with hard questions about spending? What if Americans got a chance to see what life was like in the absence of the hundreds of ways, large and small, that federal spending changes incentives all around them?
Alas, government shutdowns aren't nearly as exciting as they sound. It turns out there's a lot of daylight between a government shutdown and actually shutting the government down. Yet they remain an oddly powerful threat in American politics, with an anticipated shutdown playing a starring role in exciting events taking place on Capitol Hill as this issue goes to press.
Shutdowns are largely theater. Even one of the longest ones in recent memory—a solid 35 days of partial shutdown in 2018—didn't make much of a dent in overall spending. The battle was over a federal tab that eventually clocked in at $4.4 trillion for the year. Of that, about $18 billion ended up getting delayed, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That's less than half of a percent of the total. And $18 billion isn't even the real savings, since about half of it was pay owed to federal employees, which they received when the government reopened.
In fact, in 2019 Congress passed a law guaranteeing that back pay, further lowering the stakes of a shutdown. That law covers only federal employees, but there is a bill under consideration that would offer the same guarantee to the ever-swelling ranks of federal contractors.
The CBO also noted that while there was some reduction in gross domestic product during the quarter that the shutdown took place, it was largely (though not quite entirely) made up in subsequent quarters.
So shutdowns don't really save money and most of the uncertainty that they cause is already priced in to the broader economy. The huge machine of the federal government mostly grinds on, expensive and intrusive. Aside from delayed pay, a few showy closures of museums and national parks, and even longer delays in the processing of paperwork, it's business as usual.
Shutdowns don't seem to be occasions for self-scrutiny either. Congress has habitually procrastinated on its budgetary duties for decades. For the last 27 years, it has never managed to deliver a budget under "regular order," the process codified by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
In theory, the president proposes a budget, Congress passes a budget resolution, and then various committees put together a dozen separate spending bills. They're debated and voted on, and then the president signs them into law by October 1. What happens instead is that the members of the House careen into each fall full tilt, screaming at each other until they throw together some kind of stopgap measure to fund the federal government for a little while longer until they can get their act together to generate a big, messy omnibus bill that no one will have time to read.
When they can't manage even that, we get a shutdown. When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) was elected speaker of the House, he reportedly promised a handful of House Republicans that there would be no more messy continuing resolutions but instead something like regular order. These Republicans, vaguely clustered around the vestigially libertarian but now mostly MAGA Freedom Caucus, had McCarthy over a barrel. In addition to their quite sensible demands about the budget process, they also demanded procedural concessions involving tax increases, new spending, and amendments to fire or reduce the pay of federal officials. They also extracted the traditional venal earmarks and some troubling concessions on oversight of ongoing investigations.
Reason's Peter Suderman diplomatically wrote at the time: "It remains to be seen whether McCarthy will deliver on his promises."
He did not.
At press time, McCarthy had narrowly averted a shutdown and managed to pass a continuing resolution, only to be shocked to discover that there are consequences to broken promises. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fla.), a leader of the GOP dissenters, introduced a rare "motion to vacate"—that is, to remove McCarthy as speaker. After about an hour of debate, McCarthy was gone.
"It's a sad day," Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said, arguing that removing McCarthy would plunge the House "into chaos."
Gaetz offered a different view: "Chaos is Speaker McCarthy."
In fact, the chaos of the congressional budget process is bigger than just one man or even one caucus. Chaos has been the default, the natural order of things for at least a generation.
McCarthy's continuing resolution, his final act as speaker, funds the government only through November 17. So by the time you read this magazine, chaos may once again be overtaking Washington. The country will likely be staring down another shutdown. Just don't believe them when they tell you the government will really shut down.
The post Is Chaos the Natural State of Congress? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman assess the latest batch of troublesome responses to the Israel-Hamas war, discuss Janet Yellen's shoddy wartime "girl math," and check in on the weird economy under President Joe Biden.
1:25: Distressing responses to Israel-Hamas war
24:17: Biden's weird economy
34:24: Weekly Listener Question
43:47: Rep. Mike Johnson (R–La.) is the new speaker of the House of Representatives
50:36: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Should pro-Hamas students be blacklisted?" by Nick Gillespie
"The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False," by Simon Sebag Montefiore
"What Should Israel Do Next?" by Ian Bremmer
"3 Myths About American Decline," by Nick Gillespie
"Feeling Good About the Future After an Ugly Election," by Nick Gillespie
"Joe Biden's Endless River of Debt and Regulation," by Nick Gillespie
"The Debt Crisis Is Getting Real," by Eric Boehm
"'Bidenomics' Is Failing Everyday Americans," by Veronique de Rugy
"Inflation Jump Highlights Biden's Vulnerability on Energy," by J.D. Tuccille
"New Speaker Mike Johnson's First Good Idea: A Debt Commission," by Eric Boehm
"Mike Johnson Is the Unlikely New Speaker of the House," by Eric Boehm
"Salman Khan: The Education Visionary," by Nick Gillespie
"'Micro-Schools' Might Be the Next Big Education Thing," by Nick Gillespie and Ian Keyser
"Saturday Night Live Fires New Cast Member Shane Gillis for Using Offensive Language," by Robby Soave
"In French Thriller Anatomy of a Fall, the Law Is No One's Friend," by Peter Suderman
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Check out the new podcast The Best of Reason Magazine. Every Tuesday, listen to a curated selection of some of the best writing from Reason, read aloud to you by a robot voice modeled off Editor in Chief Katherine-Mangu Ward.
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Don't Believe Janet Yellen's Shoddy Wartime 'Girl Math' appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman evaluate President Joe Biden's visit to Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks and highlight particularly bad U.S. responses to the war in the Middle East.
0:24: President Biden visits Israel
16:24: Bad U.S. domestic responses to the war in Gaza
26:52: Weekly Listener Question
42:13: House Republicans' enduring embarrassment
48:23: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Unimaginable Force," by Liz Wolfe
"U.S. Faces Risks in Spreading Israel-Hamas Conflict," by J.D. Tuccille
"Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis Argue Who Is More Hostile to Refugees from Gaza," by Joe Lancaster
"Trita Parsi: Is De-escalation Feasible in the Middle East?" by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe
"Who Is—and Isn't—Ready To Change Their Minds About the Gaza Hospital Blast?" by Matt Welch
"Disinformation Reporter Ben Collins Failed To Correct the Gaza Hospital Story," by Robby Soave
"What Happens Next in the Israel-Hamas War?" by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe
"Biden's Foreign Policy Is Adrift," by Bonnie Kristian
"I find such unrestrained xenophobia particularly disgusting," writes Nick Gillespie on X.
"I urge @Heritage to delete this utterly disgusting, xenophobic post," writes Justin Amash on X.
"Why America Shouldn't Resettle Palestinians," by Lora Ries
"The Case Against Government-Provided Paid Parental Leave," by Veronique de Rugy
"This Law Will Kill Opportunities for Pregnant Workers," by John Stossel
"Jim Jordan Is Trying To Buy the Speakership With Tax Breaks for Wealthy Residents of Blue States," by Eric Boehm
"Jim Jordan: The Perfect Speaker for a Policy-Free GOP," by Eric Boehm
"In Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese Plumbs the Depths of American Depravity," by Peter Suderman
"Martin Scorsese Is a Grumpy Old Fart—and Wrong About the State of 'Cinema,'" by Nick Gillespie
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post What Joe Biden Got Right—and Wrong—Last Week in the Middle East appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>The iTunes reviews for the latest season of Slow Burn aren't so much reviews of season eight of Slate's blockbuster podcast series as they are reviews of the subject himself, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. "The truth about Thomas couldn't be presented better. Makes me sick even more when I hear his voice," says one. "Despite what the liberal media say, Clarence Thomas is a great man," says another.
In the opening episode, host Joel Anderson drops by Thomas' mother's house and is unexpectedly admitted for a chat. That house ends up at the center of a corruption scandal that hit just as the podcast dropped, making what would otherwise have been more of a canned backstory more timely and salient.
Everyone who might plausibly listen to a podcast like this one already has a strong opinion about Clarence Thomas. This telling of Thomas' journey from "America's blackest child" to campus radical to conservative darling is far from objective, but those reviews suggest listeners aren't either.
The post Review: <i>Slow Burn</i> Steps Inside the House at the Center of Clarence Thomas Controversy appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman continue to survey the Israel-Hamas war a little over a week after the conflict began. They also discuss the array of U.S. reactions to the clash.
2:19: Israel-Hamas conflict continues apace
28:06: U.S. response to the conflict
37:25: Weekly Listener Question
44:58: The search for the next speaker of the House continues.
49:09: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Blaming Hamas Shouldn't Mean Ignoring the Palestinians' Plight," by Bonnie Kristian
"Ice Cream Truck Morgues," by Liz Wolfe
"Max Abrahms: Historic Escalation in the Israel-Hamas War," by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe
"Israel Eases Guns Restrictions Amidst Security Failures," by J.D. Tuccille
"Another Hostage Crisis Bedevils an American President," by Matt Welch
"Memo to Speaker Boehner: If You Won a Congessional Majority Because You Pledged to Cut Spending and You Can't Think of a Single Program to Cut Now, Please Go Home," by Nick Gillespie
"9/11's Lesson: War Doesn't Work," by Nick Gillespie with Stephen Wertheim
"Biden's ATF Can't Stop Cody Wilson's Ghost Guns," by Zach Wiessmueller and Nick Gillespie
"3D Guns Advocate Cody Wilson is About More Than Weapons and That's What Most Frightens People About Him," by Brian Doherty
"5 Other Fake Indians Besides Elizabeth Warren," by Nick Gillespie
"A Radical Takes the Stand," by Katherine Mangu-Ward
"Baby Boomers Are America's Sith Lords," by Nick Gillespie
"American Confetti," Mad magazine's original 1974 parody of American Graffiti
A live Reason Interview podcast taping with Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott on Monday, October 23, in Manhattan.
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Does It Matter What College Kids Say About Israel? appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman bemoan the atrocities committed by the militant group Hamas over the weekend in Israel and discuss the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) from his role as speaker of the House.
0:19: A massacre in Israel
23:29: Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ousted
37:22: Weekly Listener Question
50:23: This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Death Toll Passes 1,100," by Liz Wolfe
"Does America Need To Be Involved in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?" by Matthew Petti
"Biden's Foreign Policy Is Adrift," by Bonnie Kristian
"Bitcoin: A Weapon for Peace in the Israel-Palestine Conflict," by Noor Greene
"A Surly Showdown for Speaker," by Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and Matt Welch
"Why Justin Amash Should Be the Next Speaker of the House," by Matt Welch
"CPAC Confidential: Because Small-Government Conservatives Think the Gov't Should Be Big Enough To Hate on the Gays," by Nick Gillespie
"Steve Scalise's Legislative Record Is a Bigger Problem Than His Past Speaking Gigs," by Nick Gillespie
Kevin McCarthy as Comet Kohoutek, tweet by Nick Gillespie
A Postcard from Earth and Sphere robots, by Sarah Rose Siskind
"Love Is All Around…," by Nick Gillespie
"TV's Dysfunctional Family Affair," by Charles Oliver
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's Sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post After Hamas Attack, There Are No Good Options in the Middle East appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman sprint through a buffet of topics including government shutdowns, Mexican fentanyl, the second GOP presidential debate, and the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.).
1:04: The government didn't shut down.
10:03: Fentanyl and the border with Mexico
25:05: Reactions to the second GOP debate
38:18: Weekly Listener Question
42:52: Death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Congressional Clown Show," by Liz Wolfe
"The Government Won't Shut Down," by Eric Boehm
"The GOP Can Always Get Worse—And It Will (Midterm Election Copout Edition)," by Nick Gillespie
"Josh Barro: A Republican Presidential Debate Detached From Reality," by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe
"Despite Debunking, Rainbow Fentanyl Myths Continue," by Emma Camp
"The Truth About Ron DeSantis' Fentanyl Horror Story," by Joe Lancaster
"Ban Teenagers From Social Media, Vivek Ramaswamy Says, Because Fentanyl," by Jacob Sullum
Ronald Reagan vs. 2024 Republicans on immigration, by Bess Byers
"The 5 Best Arguments Against Immigration—and Why They're WRONG" by Nick Gillespie and Todd Krainin
"Vivek Ramaswamy Is Wrong About the National Debt," by Nick Gillespie
"Vivek Ramaswamy: Why He's Running for President—and Against 'Woke Capitalism,'" by Zach Weissmueller and Nick Gillespie
"Vivek Ramaswamy Proposes a (Probably) Illegal Plan To End Birthright Citizenship," by Fiona Harrigan
"Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie Call Out Trump for Adding to Federal Debt," by Eric Boehm
"DeSantis Says He Would Use Justice Department To Bring Civil Rights Cases Against 'Soros-Funded Prosecutors,'" by C.J. Ciaramella
"On Guns, Drugs, and National Security, Dianne Feinstein Was Consistently Authoritarian," by Jacob Sullum
"Social Security, Snoopy Snoopy Poop Pants, & Alan Simpson: Ultimate Enema Man Remix," by Austin Bragg and Nick Gillespie
"The Noid," Domino's pizza 1986 ad
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post The 'Whack Jobs' Were Right appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>"The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations."
This spicy little sentence is typical of the zingers littered throughout David Friedman's The Machinery of Freedom. The anarcho-capitalist classic turns 50 this year, and it's worth revisiting for both its spirit and substance.
The book has a chaotic energy. Just a few pages after the epigraph—which pairs a moderately profane joke by Lenny Bruce with a verse from "libertarian troubadour" and future U.S. congressman Dana Rohrabacher—we're deep into a discussion of the Federal Communications Commission's role in spectrum allocation before bouncing back out for chatty speculation about how to "sell the schools," a riff on "socialism, limited government, anarchy, and bikinis," and a treatment of the vital question, "is william f. buckley a contagious disease?" (Stylish '70s lowercase in the original, of course.)
But there is a method to the madness. In his "postscript for perfectionists," Friedman hammers home what is not included in the book: "I have said almost nothing about rights, ethics, good and bad, right and wrong." This strategic agnosticism is what captured my attention as a 19-year-old college student, already weary of banging my head against the wall of deontological disagreement.
It's very hard to convince someone to change their mind about what is right and wrong, but as Friedman observes, "it is much easier to persuade people with practical arguments than with ethical ones." Perhaps not coincidentally, that postscript was written right around the time that James R. Schlesinger was coining the phrase, "You are entitled to your own views, but you are not entitled to your own facts." If, as Friedman hypothesized, "most political disagreement is rooted in questions of what is, not what should be," many people have been going about the project of consensus building and political change all wrong. "I have asked, not what people should want," he says, "but how we can accomplish those things which most of us do want."
This approach suggests a methodology: Scrutinizing existing, highly effective voluntary institutions and systems for alternative ways to perform functions that even a minarchist libertarian might reserve for the state, and then extrapolating from there toward shared goals of peace, prosperity, and justice.
Asking how the world works nearly always yields more interesting and productive discussions than asking how the world should be. Often accused of utopianism, anarcho-capitalists are the opposite. ("I have wondered whether I might have originated 'Utopia is not an option,' but probably not," Friedman mused while casually popping into the comments section of a 2015 Slate Star Codex post about his greatest work.) Friedman's comfort with uncertainty is inspirational, heroic even. He isn't quite sure how things would play out if roles currently performed by the state were instead accomplished via market mechanisms, but he's happy to make a guess. After all, if he knew for sure, he'd be the CEO of the Court Services Co. or Professors Incorporated instead of being a guy who writes books.
***
"There are essentially only three ways that I can get another person to help me achieve my ends," Friedman writes: "love, trade, and force."
In a world where individuals are free to pursue their own interests and desires, people are more likely to engage in mutually beneficial relationships driven by genuine connection rather than social expectations or legal obligations. Love—or "more generally, the sharing of a common end"—is a powerful coordinating tool in society, and one too often underestimated or undermined by other political theories.
Still, love only gets you so far. Force, the preferred tool of toddlers and tyrants, too often leads to unintended consequences while failing to actually achieve its stated ends. That leaves trade as the primary mode for getting things done. Part of the charm of The Machinery of Freedom is that it proceeds on the assumption that voluntary exchange is largely up to the task of organizing society. Friedman underscores that trade is not just limited to material goods but can also encompass intangible assets such as knowledge and ideas.
The most striking thing about The Machinery of Freedom is its cheerful, eclectic optimism. It weaves back and forth between history, politics, and speculative fiction in ways that are enlivening and energizing. Friedman was not the first to make market anarchist arguments, but in the decades that followed the book's publication, they grew in appeal as an alternative to the angry polarization gripping those who preferred to fight over state power. He is generous with his ideas. If you don't like his plan for voucherizing university classes, he's happy to offer you another option for education reform. If you are skeptical about market provision of national defense, he's happy to suggest a theory of change inspired by the French monarchy's habit of selling tax exemptions. If you're worried about who will pay to build the roads, he's happy to tell you a weirdly prescient story about "electronic recording devices, computer-controlled entrances, and three-to-eleven working days" while conceding that those innovations "sound like science fiction."
The appeal of Friedman's anarchism is not that he has the answer, but that he has dozens of them and he's not at all bothered by the idea that none may be the perfect one. "It is fashionable," writes Friedman, "to measure the importance of ideas by the number and violence of their adherents. That is a fashion I shall not follow. If, when you finish this book, you have come to share many of my views, you will know the most important thing about the number of libertarians—that it is larger by one than when you started reading."
The post Love, Trade, and Force: <i>The Machinery of Freedom</i> at 50 appeared first on Reason.com.
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In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman break down the politics of a potential government shutdown on the horizon and assess the United Auto Workers strike ahead of the next Republican presidential primary debate.
0:29: Another looming government shutdown
20:02: United Auto Workers strike
27:46: Weekly Listener Question
34:24: The next GOP debate is this week.
42:05: Bob Menendez, senator of sleaze
Mentioned in this podcast:
"It's Government Shutdown Theater, Again," by J.D. Tuccille
"5 Dissenters in the House," by Liz Wolfe
"Congress Is Still Using 'Emergency Spending' on Non-Emergencies," by John Stossel
"Don't Let the Government-Shutdown Charade Distract You From the Debt Crisis," by Romina Boccia
"Shutdown Highlights Basic Fact: Most of Government is 'Non-Essential,'" by Nick Gillespie
"Final Countdown to Government Shutdown," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie
"Government Shutdown: Planet of the Apes Remix," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie
"The Government Is Going to Shut Down Again (and That's Bad)," by Andrew Heaton and Sarah Rose Siskind
"5 Sequester Facts To Know Before Committing Suicide," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie
"Tim Scott Invokes Ronald Reagan and Says UAW Strikers Should Be Fired," by C.J. Ciaramella
"Biden, the 'Most Pro-Union President,' Reaps What He Sows," by J.D. Tuccille
"Strikers Demand 4-Day Workweek," by Liz Wolfe
"Baby Boomers Screwing Younger Workers, Private Sector Edition," by Nick Gillespie
"How to Make Unions More Powerful, the Libertarian Way," by Brian Doherty
"Are We Really Doing a Trump vs. Biden Rematch?" by Steven Greenhut
"Zelenskyy Goes To Washington," by Liz Wolfe
"Gen Xers are most worried with 86% saying they are worried about the future of Medicare and Social Security," according to Allianz Life insurance.
"The Real Class Warfare Is Baby Boomers vs. Younger Americans," by Nick Gillespie
"Generational Swindle: How D.C. Is Screwing Over Millennials," by Nick Gillespie
The Trump campaign's "Whoop a man's ass" commercial
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Today's sponsor:
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Are Government Shutdowns Good for Limited Government? appeared first on Reason.com.
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In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman pore over last week's indictment of Hunter Biden on federal gun charges and weigh in on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's upcoming meeting with President Joe Biden.
1:00: Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges
23:39: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet with President Biden next week
32:56: Weekly Listener Question
46:40: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s environmental plan
Mentioned in this podcast:
"There's Plenty of Evidence of Corruption Around Biden," by J.D. Tuccille
"Without a Diversion Agreement, Hunter Biden Could Go to Prison Under an Arbitrary Gun Law His Dad Supports," by Jacob Sullum
"How Hunter Biden's Plea Deal Fell Apart," by Jacob Sullum
"All Drug Offenders Should Be Treated Like Hunter Biden: Leniently," by Nick Gillespie
"Hunter Biden's Prison-Free Plea Should Be Available to Everybody," by J.D. Tuccille
"Squirtle's seen some shit, man," by Nick Gillespie
"Kevin McCarthy's Impeachment Inquiry Provokes Predictably Polarized Reactions," by Christian Britschgi
"Is a Government Shutdown Better Than More Reckless Borrowing?" by Eric Boehm
"Don't Let the Government-Shutdown Charade Distract You From the Debt Crisis," by Romina Boccia
"Ukraine Changes the Face of War Forever," by Nick Gillespie and Regan Taylor
"Should America keep funding Ukraine? Live with Emma Ashford, Nick Gillespie, and Zach Weissmueller"
"Ukraine Crisis: U.S. Must Use Restraint," by Nick Gillespie with Will Ruger
"Debate: The U.S. Should Increase Funding for the Defense of Ukraine," by Cathy Young and Will Ruger
"RFK Jr.: The Reason Interview," by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"RFK Jr. wanted to prosecute 'climate deniers.' Has he changed?" by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller
"RFK Jr.'s long con," by Liz Wolfe
"The Very Strange New Respect for Authoritarian Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," by Matt Welch
"The Top 5 Lies About Fracking," by Ronald Bailey
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.
Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
The post Hunter Biden Gets Caught in America's Double War on Drugs and Guns appeared first on Reason.com.
]]>Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has installed a 1,000-foot string of 4-foot-high bright orange buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, which is a common—and frequently deadly—crossing point for immigrants. The floating barrier will cost about $1 million and will cover only a small portion of the 1,254 miles of river along the Texas border with Mexico. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted at a press conference that the barrier can still be crossed with "great effort." On August 2, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that a body was found caught in the buoys, just one month after they were installed.
The post Photo: Texas' Border Buoys appeared first on Reason.com.
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