Is “Income Inequality” Unfair?
Income differences can be the result of something other than capitalist greed, racism, sexism, union busting, gluttonous stockholders, globalization, imports, automation, or the grasping shenanigans of the top 1...
About: Ralph R. Reiland
Posts by Ralph R. Reiland
The Hazards of Blind Obedience
“It is only those who hope to transform human beings who end up by burning them, like the waste product of a failed experiment,” wrote Christopher Hitchens, years before...
Good and Bad Economics
“The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye. The good economist also looks beyond,” asserted Henry Hazlitt in Economics in One Lesson, first published in 1946. ...
Good Intentions, Bad Results
In their book Common Sense Economics, four university teachers specializing in economics and public policy warn that a “nation of economic illiterates” is “easily misled by leaders who tell...
Fatwas and Gender Wrecks
After a recent snowfall in the desert, “a prominent Saudi Arabian cleric ... whipped up controversy by issuing a religious ruling forbidding the building of snowmen, described as anti-Islamic,”...
Violence and Civil Rights
Protests that highlighted photos of slain NYPD cops Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, comparing them to members of the KKK, shows the level to which America has sunk in...
Lethal Surges
The U.S. "surge" in Iraq did not work. And for an American soldier who was there, the more recent VA "surge" to expedite claims and cut the backlog did...
Naughty and Nice
Inserting a bit of progressive politics into the holidays, the New Yorker magazine ended 2014 with an issue that included “Climate-Change Christmas Carols.” ...
Ferguson (and Crime) in Black and White
"What about the poor black child that is killed by another black child?,” asked Giuliani in a heated exchange on Meet the Press. “Why aren’t you protesting that?” ...
Will Obama’s Immigration Policy Cost Jobs?
In contrast to his current position, “President Obama once declared that an influx of illegal immigrants would harm ‘the wages of blue-collar Americans’ and ‘put strains on an already...
The Name’s the Same — Aptronyms
Richie Richman is a name that perfectly describes the well-heeled financial position of Mr. Richman. President Obama squeezed in time before the midterm elections to hobnob with Richman and...
Big Brother Stamping Out Dissent
As a perfect example of Orwell's Big Brother stamping out dissent, police in Thailand have arrested protestors for reading 1984. ...
Hillary Claims Corporations and Businesses Don’t Create Jobs
“Don’t let anyone tell that, ah, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” Hillary Clinton proclaimed to loud applause at a political rally in Boston on October...
What Obama Didn’t Say About the Economy
The official unemployment rate may now be 5.9 percent, but include as unemployed those are who are jobless but have stopped looking for employment and those who are working...
Obama’s Economy: Spin vs. Reality
“By almost every measure,” Obama recently boasted, “the American economy and the American workers are better off than when I took office.” But what's the reality? ...