Slavery was not necessary for cotton, and cotton was not necessary for industrialization. Had chattel slavery never taken hold in the United States, we would very likely be richer than we are today.
CULTURE
A nation’s culture is the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men, which their fellow-citizens have accepted in whole or in part, and which have influenced the nation’s way of life. Since a culture is a complex battleground of different ideas and influences, to speak of a ‘culture’ is to speak only of the dominant ideas, always allowing for the existence of dissenters and exceptions. — AYN RAND
‘Uncle Tom,’ The Movie
The film simply asks: “Why is there no respectful disagreement in the black community? Why are great black thinkers like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Shelby Steele ignored or marginalized by the black and mainstream media?”
What Does It Mean To Be American?
Are we individual human beings who may or may not have by the accidents of birth particular racial and biological characteristics, or do we have certain racial and biological characteristics that determine and define who we are and how we should view ourselves in relation to others?
Appreciating Black History
Government should do its job of protecting constitutional rights. After that, black people should be simply left alone as opposed to being smothered by the paternalism inspired by white guilt.
Conformity vs Independence
Seeking social acceptance, rather than the facts of reality, is the result of peer pressure and can have a lasting negative impact on a child’s life.
Thomas Sowell at 90: Understanding Race and Culture Around the World
Now, at the age of 90, Thomas Sowell continues to offer us understanding and insight into the attitudes and institutions that can bring all people greater peace and prosperity, as well as human liberty.
How To Be Profitable and Moral: Rationality Applied to Business Ethics for The 21st Century
A Review of Jaana Woiceshyn’s “How To Be Profitable and Moral”
Class Warfare Will Worsen the Pandemic
Social envy enables scapegoating, or assigning blame to an out-group for societal problems.
What The Protests Are Protesting
The “protests” are not against the death of George Floyd. His connection is no greater than the length of the fuse needed to set off a vast accumulation of explosive hatred for the United States, the capitalist economic system, and rationality itself.
Some Facts Worth Knowing
If the U.S. “poor” were a nation, then it would be one of the world’s richest.
Capitalism and History of the Industrial Revolution: The Factory System of the Early 19th Century
There is a tendency to exaggerate the “evils” which of the factory system and factory legislation was not essential to the ultimate disappearance of those “evils.” Conditions which modern standards would condemn were then common to the community as a whole.
School Inc.: Market Innovation Can Save American Education
In Korea, top teachers make millions.
Insane News Tidbits
The biggest casualty from the COVID-19 pandemic has nothing to do with the disease. It’s the power we’ve given to politicians and bureaucrats.
The Guns of August: A Look Back at the Financial Shock of the Great War
The crisis of 2020 has invited a lot of comparisons to the past, particularly the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and to various war efforts. For those concerned with banking, public finance and monetary policy, the summer of 1914 might be a more appropriate candidate.
Child of Freedom, Parent of Prosperity: Matt Ridley’s “How Innovation Works”
Hopefully, How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom will inspire others to champion the planting of the seeds of innovation while protecting the soil of freedom that this precious and most delicate of flowers – that “child of freedom and parent of prosperity” — thrives on.
Rotten Education Isn’t Preordained
Poor performance is often blamed on finances; however, the poorest performing schools have the highest per-pupil spending.
Karl Marx and the Communist Revolution
Marx’s critique of capitalism and capitalist society has shaped much of the social thinking in Western countries that led to the welfare state and extensive government intervention into economic affairs.
The Nation’s Education Report Card
Today, unfortunately, we’ve replaced practices that work with practices that sound good and caring, and we’re witnessing the results.
The Fallacy of “We”
The “we fallacy” is ubiquitous, especially among professors, politicians, policy wonks, and pundits. The fallacy of “we” is a form of the fallacy argumentum ad populum or “appeal to the people,” to “popular opinion.”
Books: The 1619 Project: A Critique
The 1619 Project sacrifices scholarly standards in the service of the ideological agenda.
The Morality of Capitalism
Yaron Brook delves into the morality of finance, free markets, savings, insurance and using debt to fund consumption.
Ayn Rand’s Political Philosophy
What’s the difference between Objectivism and Libertarianism?
The Real Record of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932)
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (modeled after the earlier War Finance Corporation) was created in early 1932 under the Hoover Administration as what amounted to the “discount lending” facility of the Federal Reserve System: it would lend to financial institutions chartered by states and in rural areas.
‘Progressive’ Cities vs. Education Black Students
‘Progressive’ cities, on average, have black/white achievement gaps in math and reading that are 15 and 13 percentage points higher than in ‘conservative’ cities.
History of Steel and The Roots of Progress
What is this metal that is so indispensable to the modern world?
New York Times’ Politically Weaponized 1619 Project: An Epitah
The reputation of the 1619 project’s other essays, many of them entirely unobjectionable adaptations of scholarly insights for a popular audience, has suffered because of the NY Times’ inflexible refusal to address erroneous historical claims in the essays by Hannah-Jones and Desmond.
Coronavirus: Be Alarmed, But Don’t Panic
If we realise what the real risks are and take effective action that makes use of the advantages we have compared to our ancestors then we can survive a major pandemic. If we panic, however, and do things that seem to make sense but actually make the economic and social effects worse, then the prospects are bad.
What 1619 Project’s Critics Get Wrong about Lincoln
While Lincoln’s colonization remarks grate the modern ear, and evince a patronizing paternalism toward the program’s intended participants, they also reflect the sincerity of his anti-slavery beliefs and an accompanying recognition that white-supremacist violence would not end with the formal abolition of the institution.
Anti-Americanism on College Campuses
The true tragedy is that so many Americans are blind to the fact that today’s colleges and universities pose a threat on several fronts to the well-being of our nation.
A More or Less Perfect Union
Ginsburg explores the U.S. Constitution and features interviews with and gains the perspectives from constitutional experts of all political views — liberal, conservative and libertarian.
The New Totalitarians: Identity Politics and the Closing of the Academic Mind
A new spirit of intellectual intolerance has emerged and congealed in American academia. Their proponents are the new totalitarians who brook neither dissent, debate, nor disagreement.
The Virtue of Rational Egoism
For the majority of people, virtuous egoism is an oxymoron: they don’t think it is possible to be virtuous and pursue self-interest at the same time.