The Declaration of Independence states that our inalienable rights include “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Life and liberty are easy to understand, but that last phrase is less intuitive. How can people have a right to strive for happiness?
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Uniting to Fight Poverty: A TED Talk
How do we solve problems like poverty with so much political polarization?
Welcome to the Pursuit
To pursue our happiness, to achieve our liberty, and indeed to find fulfillment in our lives, we must start with a moral consensus, a fundamental truth around which we all revolve. Think of an atom. The outer field of electrons is full of chaotic activity. Electrons are rapidly orbiting and moving in a constant buzz. What contains that chaos and gives it structure? The fact that the whole chaotic cloud orbits one central nucleus.
Intelligence on Wikileaks: Why Can’t America Trust Its Own Spies?
Whereas HUMINT can be kept under wraps, for the most part, because so few people are involved in the planning and execution, electronic intelligence is very difficult to manage secretively, even among members allegedly on the same team.
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The Dignity Deficit: Reclaiming Americans’ Sense of Purpose
The War on Poverty did not fail because it did not raise the daily caloric consumption of poor Americans. It failed because it did nothing significant to make poor Americans needed and thus help them gain a sense of dignity. It also got the U.S. government into the business of treating people left behind by economic change as liabilities to manage rather than as human assets to develop.
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March 4 Is National Grammar Day: Don’t Mess Them Up
In English literary custom, the rules of the English road leave many scratching their heads. That’s probably why there’s a National Grammar Day.
English is considered a very difficult language for some who learn it as a second language (or even a first), and it’s no surprise. Here are just some of the confusing English lessons.
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Shock Story: Exploiting the Homeless Addicted for Profit
There are solutions to the mistreatment of homeless addicted people by eviction companies aside from taking these companies to court. They include relaxing regulations on how many workers must be used to clear out a house, which leads eviction companies to look for cheap, unqualified work crews.
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Suffering in ‘Real America’: The 21st Century Experience
Turns out America’s elite — the “talking and deciding classes,” as demographer Nick Eberstadt calls it — didn’t realize until Donald Trump was elected president that things weren’t going as swimmingly for Americans in the heartland as for...
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How the ‘Fight for $15’ Movement Can Undermine Those It Aims to Help
What’s a better solution – higher wages at the cost of jobs, or more jobs with lower wages? If you’re interested in seeing people working, the latter is the better option. That’s why several economists question the logic of the “Fight for $15” movement.
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Michael Novak’s Legacy: Welfare to Work Is Social Justice
“America’s system of democratic capitalism represents a fusion of our political, economic, and moral-cultural systems. No facet can exist apart from the others.” This was the central thesis in the book “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism,”...
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Confessions of a Catholic Convert to Capitalism
Care for the vulnerable is not unique to one religion. All major philosophies share this goal, religious or otherwise. But how does religious belief intersect with capitalism? Many goodhearted people mistrust markets. They believe that free enterprise worsens...
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Vast Array of Government Assistance Programs Ready for a Reboot
Reducing poverty is one of the biggest issues that TPOH discusses, with good reason. The expression that a rising tide lifts all boats is especially true in a liberal democratic society that values a free market. However, a vast array of government assistance programs doesn’t seem to be curing the poverty blues.
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New Bill Encourages Private Sector to Help Struggling Communities
Turns out even lawmakers on Capitol Hill think it’s not the government but the private sector that must make the needed investments to turn around struggling areas of the country. So a group of lawmakers has come up with a tax proposal to do just that.
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