Free Republic

To that nagging question, the answer increasingly seems to be yes. Certainly, they were a novelty. As novelist Lionel Shriver writes, "We've never before responded to a contagion by closing down whole countries." As I noted in May, the 1957-58 Asian flu killed between 70,000 and 116,000 Americans, between 0.04% and 0.07% of the nation's population. The 1968-70 Hong Kong flu killed about 100,000, 0.05% of the population. The U.S. coronavirus death toll of 186,000 is 0.055% of the current population. It will go higher, but it's about the same magnitude as those two flus, and it has been less...

James Altucher, who might best be described as a renaissance man, recently wrote a sobering piece about New York City. Altucher is bearish on the city’s future for a variety of reasons. I don’t quite share his pessimism, especially considering all of the variables likely to affect a NYC comeback—the widespread availability of a vaccine, government policy, “pandemic fatigue,” technological innovations, etc. But I am confident in saying that if the city resists tearing down the barriers to innovation—high taxes, burdensome regulations and gratuitous mandates—recovery will be all the more difficult. I say this as someone who lives in Upstate...

The Democratic National Convention has come to a close. Between their speeches and their platform, one thing is clear, to every inequity or problem, the Democrats have a spending program or some government action to offer. The price for those programs, however, will be to kill the very job growth they claim to want. The Democrats, for several decades now, and to an ever-increasing degree, decry the conditions in the United States. They insist America is the land of inequity and inequality not opportunity. They don’t laud its success but, instead, decry its failures.

A week ago, on Sunday the 2nd August 2020 at 1:43pm the State of Victoria was declared to be in a State of Disaster. This was of course due to Covid-19. Between the start of February and the 2nd August, 123 people have died with Covid-19 in their body in Victoria. 123! A State of Disaster basically means that the government can use all government resources, including financial to help to alleviate any disaster. Are we in a disaster? In 2018 there were 158,493 recorded deaths in Australia, that works out to 434 deaths a day. As of the 6th...

People who resist COVID-19 restrictions are often accused of being selfish and caring only about their own freedom. While that might explain the actions of some, moral arguments can be made against many of the restrictions. Although simple appeals to “freedom” are indeed less popular today than in the past, we should not disregard them. Nearly all our responses to COVID-19 require balancing one concern against another, and individuals and institutions will come to different conclusions as they try to strike that balance.

At a time our country faces a massive recession brought on by the coronavirus lockdowns, America’s welfare state exacerbates that stagnation. Ronald Reagan had an old adage about the nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Recently, a new paper reinforced that truth and adds to the existing literature showing how America’s welfare state often traps generations in a cycle of poverty.At its core, a complicated set of welfare programs and tax breaks generate sizable incentives for many low-income Americans not to increase their incomes and improve their station in...

On May 26, Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam announced that wearing masks outside one’s home will be mandatory effective May 29. He first hinted he might issue a masking order a week ago, likely to test the water. A new refrain in public discourse is growing in volume by the day: “Things will never be the same.” The certainty with which we are assured of this pre-determined future is perplexing. Whether or not “things” will ever be the same is not at all clear, but that some people hope things will never be the same is certain. To those looking to...

It starts with a phone call from a public health worker: You’ve been in contact with someone who has COVID-19. How do you feel? If you’re feeling sick, you may be asked to self-isolate, get a coronavirus test, and share the contact information for everyone you’ve recently interacted with. The practice, known as contact tracing, is a tried-and-true public health technique used to trace everything from food poisoning to sexually transmitted diseases to Ebola. Now, public health officials across several states believe it could be used on a far greater scale to help track the spread of COVID-19, stamp out...

Citizens must be wary of the attempt to redirect legitimate concern about coronavirus into a mandate for sweeping new government powers. Civil liberties are a delicate thing. Governments are instituted among people to protect rights, rather than create them. In the midst of necessary action at the federal, state, and local level, citizens must be wary of the attempt to redirect legitimate concern about coronavirus into a mandate for sweeping new government powers.A full 74 percent of voters support a nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic. With the American public desperate for answers and solutions, this could allow our politicians...

Once again, government intrusion into the health-care sector has proved disastrous. While New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blames the president and the federal government for the lack of beds and ventilators in his state, the power to determine the number of these critical medical supplies in New York hospitals falls squarely upon the shoulders of the governor.During a Tuesday press conference, Cuomo lashed out at the federal government for not sending enough ventilators as the Wuhan coronavirus continues to rattle the state. “Four hundred ventilators? I need 30,000 ventilators,” Cuomo said. “You want a pat on the back for sending...

NEW YORK - Republicans who have spent the past decade howling about the danger of ballooning deficits embraced the coronavirus rescue package approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, shrugging off past concerns about spending in the face of a public health crisis. In many cases, the conservatives who backed the $2 trillion bill - the largest economic relief measure in U.S. history - were the very same who raged against the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package backed by the Obama administration. But facing the unprecedented threat of a global pandemic - and working under a Republican...

Nothing makes government grow like a crisis. People get scared, politicians respond to that fear with promises that the state will step in and make everything better, and government ends up larger and more powerful. The pandemic of COVID-19 coronavirus threatens a world-wide wave of sickness, but it's the healthiest thing to happen to government power in a very long time. As it leaves government with a rosy glow, however, our freedom will end up more haggard than ever. During Senate testimony, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Robert Kadlec, who coordinates the department's COVID-19 efforts, floated the...

In the past, when federal contractors complained about the treatment they received from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, agency officials would dare them to take it to the judge because “he works for us.” But Google took the dare – it took a complaint about harassment by the agency over alleged employee discrimination to an administrative law judge who works for the agency. And the judge agreed Google was right.Google said it turned over 740,000 pages of documents, at a cost of 2,300 man hours and $500,000, to address an inquiry by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance...

The Pentagon is downsizing or closing 50 medical clinics, including 12 on Air Force bases, in a move the department says will “increase the readiness of our operational and medical forces.” But the change will also force families and retirees away from some USAF facilities and into TRICARE civilian providers. The Fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act called on the Pentagon to analyze its hospital and clinic footprint, and the department screened 343 facilities inside the United States. Of those, 77 were selected for additional assessments and 50 ultimately chosen for “restructuring.” The majority of those facilities will transition from...

LONDON - The amount of debt owed by the world’s governments will jump to a record $53 trillion by the end of the year, S&P Global estimated on Thursday, with $8.1 trillion set to borrowed this year alone. About 70%, or $5.8 trillion, of sovereigns’ gross borrowing will be to refinance maturing long-term debt, though the expected $2.3 trillion of new borrowing will still be worth at least 2.6% of global GDP. S&P said the increase reflected the higher borrowing needs of the largest countries. The U.S. at $3 trillion and Japan at $1.75 trillion will remain by far the...

When in doubt, go back to the well. That is the default position of most politicians, as innovation and anything new is viewed as “risky.” Unfortunately, new and risky are exactly what so many of our problems require if we’re to avoid economic collapse in the coming decade. It’s much easier to kick the can down the road on something like Medicare, which is going bankrupt, or Social Security, which basically already is. Rather than do their jobs, politicians put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound and send the patient home to deal with the problem another day. When they...

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials tried to hack Indiana’s state electoral system with at least 14,800 “scans” or hits between Nov. 1, 2016, to Dec. 16, 2016, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned. The attacks are the second confirmed IT scanning assault by DHS officials against states that resisted then-President Barack Obama’s attempt to increase federal involvement in state and local election systems by designating them as “critical infrastructure” for national security. Members of the National Association of Secretaries of State voted Saturday at their winter meeting to oppose the designation. They are asking President Donald...

A brutal business climate and societal breakdown have brought major changes to America. In response, many Americans, especially conservatives, are soul searching for something more compassionate for those left behind. Unfortunately, they are looking in the most unlikely places: business and government. They will likely be searching for a long time. The controversy over this shift in mentality erupted with the publication of a Wall Street Journal advertisement in which major firms pledge a commitment to “stakeholder” capitalism, which holds businesses should be run having all society, not just shareholders, in mind. Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) stirred the pot with...

Some politicians running for federal office make it sound as if the biggest problem facing our country is that we don’t send enough of our paychecks to Washington, D.C. They propose increasing or creating new federal taxes on income, payrolls, business profits, carbon emissions, financial transactions, wealth, and more. Before they start trying to spend more and more of our money, they would do well to consider just how much they’re already spending. Looking back over the last decade, it’s clear they’ve already entered the “drunken sailor” stage. From 2010 through 2019, U.S. households sent an average of $228,000 to...

This week, children may learn about that greedy man, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is selfish until ghosts scare him into thinking about others’ well-being, not just his own. Good for the ghosts. But the way Scrooge addresses others’ needs matters. Today’s advocates of equality, compassion, increased spending on education, health care, etc., say “we care” but demand that government do the work. Controlling other people with the power of government doesn’t prove you care. If you want to help the poor, clean the environment, improve the arts. Great! Please do. But if you are compassionate, then you’ll spend your own money...