Why Complete Laissez-Faire Economics Doesn't Work

Look, I get it. I was big into Ayn Rand too when I was in college. Atlas Shrugged is high on my list of favorite works of fiction, but it is just that -- fiction. It shouldn't be used as a manual for how things should be and the idea of a laissez-faire market cannot be applied to every aspect of life.

Where Does Partisan Bias Come From?

The election process has a direct impact on the outcome of any election. Those setting the rules can determine what outcomes are more likely.

In our first-past-the-post, majority-wins system, whoever gets the most votes in a district gets the chair. This gets a little insidious when considering the gerrymandering phenomena: the selective redrawing of districts, and, therefore, the redrawing of who gets elected.

In Egypt We Can Have Democracy, or We Can Have Democracy—but We Probably Can’t Have Both

But, for he knew his title not allowed,

Would keep him still depending on the crowd;

That kingly power, thus ebbing out, might be

Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.

—John Dryden, “Absalom and Achitophel” (1681)

 

For John Dryden, and just about everybody else in the 17th century, “democracy” was a dirty word. It had about the same connotation then as words like “anarchy” and “mob rule” have today, and all Dryden had to do to discredit the plots of his enemies was suggest that they might have been democrats.

California Parole Population Decreasing Faster Than Prison Population

After the California Legislature introduced their 2011 plan to realign inmate numbers with the population capacity of prisons, the Californian correctional system has seen drastic changes. One of the most visible changes in corrections, however, is within the parolee population.

When realignment began on October 1, 2011, the system shifted the responsibility of monitoring non-serious, non-violent parolees to the counties.