Taxes cost Americans more than food, shelter and clothing combined. 
Students of Little Village Academy in Chicago are banned from eating packed lunches brought from home and must eat cafeteria food unless they have a medical excuse. The policy has resulted in chanting, uneaten food dropped in bins and angry parents. The school says it is trying to protect students from their unhealthy food choices but pupils have been stirring up chants at lunchtime of: ‘We should bring our own lunch' ... MORE
In 1980, Brazil imported 77 percent of its oil. Now, it imports 0.0 percent. During that same period, America increased its oil imports from roughly 30 percent to 70 percent. If Brazil can become completely self-sufficient in oil, why can't America start becoming more self-sufficient? Brazil is one of the BRICs, an acronym that refers to the nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the rising powers. The BRIC have been ... MORE
by Maxwell Strachan. Nearly three years after the financial system first came perilously close to collapse, American support for an unregulated free market appears to have cratered. A new report by GlobeScan, an international opinion research consultancy, suggests that the number of Americans who believe in the strength of the free market economy dropped markedly last year. In fact, according to the ... MORE
by Howard Rich. With American politicians still refusing to substantively address the looming consequences of their fiscal irresponsibility, it only makes sense that voters are feeling frustrated and powerless. Last November’s elections sent an unambiguous message to leaders at all levels of government that unsustainable spending will no longer be tolerated – yet it’s becoming increasingly ... MORE
by Dan Geer. As the Internet becomes more important, the claims on it increase. Those claims cannot all be met. It is a time for choosing. Defining the Internet as the sum of the design decisions that are now ubiquitously deployed, the Internet deeply embeds American values. Just as close examination of DNA explicates sources in bio-history, close examination of Internet's methods of ... MORE
by Jerry Shenk. Government costs us more than the taxes we pay (and the money we borrow), because taxes do not include the cost of regulatory compliance. Compliance costs are built into the price of goods and services purchased by American consumers and businesses. If we are to emerge from recession, American business regulatory burden must be reassessed. In a 2008 review of the cost of government regulations ... MORE
When someone gives you a check and the bank informs you that there are insufficient funds, who do you get mad at? In your own life, you get mad at the guy who gave you a check that bounced, not at the bank. But, in politics, you get mad at whoever tells you that there is no money. One of the secrets of the growth of the welfare state is that politicians get a lot of mileage out of making promises, without ... MORE
by Christopher Westley. Once upon a time, I developed a theory that we have much lower expectations for public-sector performance than we do for private-sector performance. We saw this in accounting standards that — when applied to Enron — resulted in market forces shutting that firm down, while the Department of Defense loses billions of dollars ... MORE
If you own a gun in Illinois, take precautions. The state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, wants to release the names of guns owners in response to an Associated Press request. Publication of that list would tell the criminal class where the guns are, which could be useful to two different sorts of lawbreakers: gun thieves who want to know where the guns are and burglars who want to know where they are not. ... MORE