Although Belize has made some progress on its Index of Economic Freedom score in the past few years, recent actions by the government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the supermajority his United Democratic Party enjoys in Parliament may have put that progress at risk. Belize is increasingly wracked by violent crime, while its high debt burden is a strain on public finance. The illegal drug trade and money laundering are entrenched problems. The Barrow government took office in February 2008 and has close relations with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, …
As truly an American holiday as Thanksgiving is, it was not actually made a formal federal holiday until 1941. And it wasn’t even routinely celebrated nationally on the fourth Thursday of every November until after President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Address in 1863. Still, the holiday does have a strong basis in our nation’s history—a history that is all too often left untold. As described by Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford in his diary Of Plymouth Plantation, the first Pilgrim winters in America were tough. The colonists failed to produce adequate …
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial and admonished America to return to its First Principles. In his I Have a Dream Speech, he announced his dream that “one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” He longed to see a day when all “would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” Dr. King did not talk …
Usually the time to give thanks is, well, Thanksgiving. But on Earth Day, economist Don Boudreaux had plenty of reasons to be thankful: “My son, Thomas (a sixth grader), has a homework assignment today: write an essay entitled “What Earth Day Means to Me.” I will help him out with my own essay. Earth Day, to me, means an opportunity to express thanks for all the ways that capitalism makes our lives and environment cleaner and healthier.
Before Thomas Jefferson penned in The Declaration of Independence, writing that we are endowed with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” it was philosopher John Locke who believed “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” Indeed, private property rights are critical to a nation’s economic growth and prosperity. Whether or not a country has established private property rules is a key indicator in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. But property rights also play an …
On June 23, 2005, the United States Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision affirming the state of Connecticut’s right to evict U.S. citizens from their homes for purposes of “economic development.” In Kelo v. City of New London, plaintiff Suzette Kelo, who had recently bought her dream home on the bank of the Thames River, sued to stop New London from using its eminent domain power to condemn and destroy her home. New London wanted to destroy Kelo’s home so that Pfizer, Inc. could build $300 million research facility. …
In Thursday’s outraged House debate on the AIG bonuses, House Republicans rallied around a different approach. Members of both parties in the House and Senate have taken the tack of proposing to tax these bonuses through targeted, retroactive taxation. This is the substance of the bill that passed the House Thursday by a wide margin. This kind of oppressive use of government power to thieve private property is so unprincipled as to make the past behavior of Wall Street tycoons seem saintly in comparison. The House Republicans, including minority leader …
There is much talk these days of how conservatives need “new ideas” in these troubled economic times. And as we look at our nation’s troubled landscape, there is much work that needs to be done if we are going to return economic prosperity to the country. But as we sit down to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends and family, recalling the true story of the Pilgrims should remind us all that the core principles that have made this nation great are unchanging, and that we risk ruin if we abandon …
