Free Republic

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...

Walmart receives a lot of hate, but when it's not around, you realize how much you miss its low prices, well-stocked shelves, and wide selection of goods. I’ve been living abroad since 2012. People sometimes ask me what I miss most about America. The answer to that is easy: Walmart. I’m not kidding. Walmart blows my mind. It’s a monument to human ingenuity. The prices are unbelievably low, the selection is incredible, and each time I visit a Walmart, I am rendered speechless as I wander from gleaming aisle to gleaming aisle. Currently, I live in Brazil. I’ve also lived...

Dr. Thomas Sowell has been both a friend and a colleague of mine for over a half-century. On June 30, he will have completed his 90th year of life, and I want to highlight some important features of that life. Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina, in 1930. As part of the Great Migration northward during the 1930s and '40s, he and his family moved to Harlem, New York. Sowell attended the prestigious Stuyvesant High School but dropped out. In 1951, he was drafted into the military and assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps, where he became a photographer....

A very high profile anti-Capitalist from Canada named Naomi Klein has been invited by Pope Francis to join forces with Climate Change activist and senior aide to the Pope, Cardinal Peter Turkson. Together they will lead a prominent conference on the environment with churchmen, scientists, and activists. The conference will exclude climate change doubters and moderates. The Pope had walked back some of his comments on the economy which were anti-Capitalist but Klein says he got it right the first time – we need to overturn Capitalism. Klein spoke at Occupy Wall Street, is, according to the guardian, is a...

If it seems like nurse practitioners are taking care of patients more often, this is not a mere perception. This is reality. And this is not due to coronavirus overwhelming the health care system. This has been happening for years. In February, Health Affairs reported the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) more than doubled from 2010 to 2017. In today’s health care system—where it can take weeks to see a doctor—this is welcome news, unless you’re a physician. Physicians worry NPs will put them out of business and their concern is not far-fetched. In Chicago, 15 physicians at suburban immediate...

The New York Times pointed out that there were as many commercials for electric vehicles during Super Bowl LIV as there had been between 2011 and 2019 combined. GM teased the upcoming GMC Hummer EV, Audi promoted its e-Tron Sportback, and Porsche showed off its new Taycan. While these commercials highlighted the new vehicles getting ready to hit the road, they did not acknowledge a much less flashy but still critically important issue: transitioning to this greener future will require charging infrastructure that can fuel the nation as effectively as gas stations currently do. And as a nation we are...

America has lost a voice that strongly and consistently provided the road map to steer us away from the political and cultural abyss we currently face. That voice belonged to historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, who died Dec. 30 at age 97. Gertrude spoke passionately about how our most important institutions—families, communities, churches, and private enterprise—must be “remoralized,” as it is only through a strong civil society that we can have a strong nation. In her words, people learn to function as “free, responsible, moral adults” in these institutions and apply that responsibility and morality as citizens of a nation. But she...

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...

A debate took place last month at the SoHo Forum. The proposition before the debaters was "Socialism is preferable to capitalism as an economic system that promotes freedom, equality, and prosperity." Arguing in the affirmative was Richard D. Wolff, the preeminent American Marxian economist. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Opposing was Gene Epstein, the former economics editor of Barron's Magazine. The debate itself wasn't that interesting. Wolff is a skilled communicator and drove...

When a dozen of conservatism’s best minds take on Socialism and expose it for the utopian fraud it is, attention must be paid. In a brief foreword to a special issue of National Review, Editor-in-Chief Richard Lowry admitted that many conservatives thought socialism in America had been “vanquished” after the collapse of Soviet Communism 30 years ago. But as T. S. Eliot insisted, “There is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.” The experts examine socialism in its many guises, beginning with Charles Cooke’s blunt assessment that socialism is not...

Recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom — who makes former Gov. Jerry Brown look like a conservative — declared that the national Republican Party is headed for the “waste bin of history” because of its policies. This from one who wants universal (taxpayer-supported) health care for undocumented migrants in California and taxpayer-supported preschool for all 3-year-olds by the same public school system that is failing elementary and high school students, with no solution for the many homeless in cities of the Golden State. California can be saved from the progressives seeking the Democratic presidential nomination by broadening the base of commonsense...

“Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” That’s from President Donald Trump’s last State of the Union address. I’m sure many people found it as encouraging as I did, especially in light of surveys indicating that socialism is gaining popularity here in the United States. And not just at the fringes. One recent Gallup poll showed 4 out of 10 Americans have a favorable impression of socialism. Almost half—47%—said they would vote for a socialist candidate for president. But don’t despair just yet. The same poll also revealed that almost 2 out of every...

The GOP is figuratively licking their chops, awaiting the new socialists in the Democratic Party to put their socialist extremism on full display for the entire country in the upcoming Democratic presidential debates. A 2018 Gallup Poll indicated Americans aged 18 to 29 are more positive about socialism (51%) than capitalism (45%). And, in the most recent May 2019 Gallup Poll, more than four in ten Americans believe socialism would be good for the country. Has the GOP forgotten that the avowed socialist Bernie Sanders won 23 states and 19 million-plus votes in the primary? Could that result be a...

A couple of years ago, after sending my five-year-old daughter off to school, she came home reciting the same cheerful environmental mantra I was taught in elementary school. “Reduce, reuse, recycle,” she beamed, proud to show off a bit of rote learning. The moral virtue of recycling is rarely questioned in the United States. It has been ingrained into the American psyche over several decades. On a recent trip to the Caribbean, my friend’s wife exhibited nervous guilt while collecting empty soda, water, and beer bottles destined for the trash since our resort offered no recycling bins. “I feel terrible...

I’ve visited Taiwan more than 120 times over the past 47 years, and every time I do, I’m impressed by its economic achievements and dynamism. Taiwan’s economy is a model for Asia and beyond. Over the past 25 years, it has weathered several regional and global economic downturns. Yet it has emerged from these crises as competitive as ever. Today it’s the world’s 10th freest economy, having recorded its highest score ever in the 2019 Index of Economic Freedom. Taiwan and the United States have a long and honorable history. Our peoples joined in a common cause and fought to...

After President Trump’s State of the Union Address, there seems to have emerged one common thread that is uniting the two parties. Both agree that the cost of prescription drugs is far too high in the United States. Trump mentioned it in his speech, and the theme has been invoked in countless post-speech interviews by elected Democrats. America spends far more per capita on healthcare than other developed nations, and yet drug prices here dwarf those in other countries. In one analysis carried out by Reuters, researchers found that top-selling drugs in the U.S. cost roughly triple what their counterparts...

For years, I've heard American leftists say Sweden is proof that socialism works, that it doesn't have to turn out as badly as the Soviet Union or Cuba or Venezuela did.But that's not what Swedish historian Johan Norberg says in a new documentary and Stossel TV video."Sweden is not socialist -- because the government doesn't own the means of production. To see that, you have to go to Venezuela or Cuba or North Korea," says Norberg."We did have a period in the 1970s and 1980s when we had something that resembled socialism: a big government that taxed and spent heavily....

Socialism is hot.Famous actors recently made a commercial proclaiming that "democratic socialism" creates some of the best parts of America. It's "your kids' public school" (says Susan Sarandon), the "interstate highway system" (Rosario Dawson), "public libraries" (Jay Ferguson), "EMTs" (Ethan Embry), "workers who plow our streets" (Max Carver) and "scientists" (Danny DeVito).Wow. I guess every popular thing government does is socialism.The celebrities conclude: "We can do better when we do them together."There is sometimes truth to that, but the movie stars don't know that America's first highways were built by capitalist contractors. They also probably didn't notice that the more...

The Senate on Wednesday defeated a Democratic measure to overrule President Trump’s expansion of non-ObamaCare insurance plans as Democrats seek to highlight health care ahead of the midterm elections. The Democratic measure would have overruled Trump’s expansion of short-term health insurance plans, which do not have to cover people with pre-existing conditions or cover a range of health services like mental health or prescription drugs. It was defeated on an extremely narrow, mostly party line 50-50 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voting with Democrats in favor of overturning the short-term plans. Republicans argue the short-term plans simply provide a...

At a conference examining California’s housing crisis, one of the more liberal audience members expressed her frustration at those of us who even talked about free markets. I don’t recall her exact words, but the mere mention of such ideas were a non-starter. Apparently, such notions shouldn’t be raised in polite company given what they mean for the poor and disenfranchised. Couldn’t we just get back to discussing government regulations and programs? That comment summarized the problem with discussing public policy in a state where such ideas are considered arcane. The notion that people should be free to pursue their...