Social Responsibility of Business and Subsidiarity
Many corporations try to win warm-and-fuzzy images in the public mind by touting their charitable efforts. But as the saying goes, charity begins at home. In the early 1970s, Milton Friedman wrote a seminal article titled “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” This echoes what he wrote in Capitalism and Freedom some years before: “In such an economy [i.e., a free economy], […]
The People Say: I’m a Bird, Not a Mineral
Governments decree official language use, but the population decides for itself. Recently I bought a copy of Garner’s Modern American Usage, a language reference book that can be read for fun and profit. Perusing it this morning, I noted this entry: Michigander; Michiganian; Michiganite. By popular consensus, Michigander is the predominant form, appearing more than twice as often in print as Michiganian (the form decreed by state statute). Michiganite […]
When they pry that coffee cup from my cold, dead fingers
First it was prohibition (subsequently repealed). Later came big tobacco. And big food, with McDonalds, under public pressure, announcing that you won’t be able to supersize your orders anymore. Now government officials (perhaps with trial lawyers not far behind) are after a new target: Big Joe. Mike Johanns, governor of Nebraska, isn’t content with overseeing that state’s multi-billion dollar budget and thousands of employees. No, […]
Outsourcing Out of Control?
I’ve been meaning to write some things about outsourcing, or as it is sometimes called these days, off-shoring. I’ve also resisted doing so. One reason: it’s not exactly an issue of state-level policy, which I focus on here. There are plenty of other things to keep me occupied. Another reason: there’s not much that can be done about it. Sure, states can make symbolic gestures–no […]
TIME For Socialism
The February 2 issue of TIME hit a relative’s mailbox yesterday, where I picked it up while doing some housesitting. The cover story on the prescription drug controversy (motto: We want drugs, we want them cheap.) is an exercise in populism, economic ignorance, and socialism. To read the whole treatment online, you either have to be a subscriber, or read it through a library or […]
“Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”?
Today’s Wall Street Journal takes on the ultra-secularist grinches who are “trying their best to strip from our public squares any hint of what most Americans will actually be celebrating come Christmas morn.” The latest tactic: renaming Christmas trees as “holiday trees.” Not having an established church is fine, and solidly grounded in the Constitution. But the matter has gone to absurd lengths. As the Journal […]
Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News
This post doesn’t have much to do with policy, though it is about one of my favorite essays on higher education and status. Jay Nordlinger wrestles with this question: should you call a person with a Ph.D. a doctor, or is that an affectation? I’m thinking of this on the occasion of fellow policy guru David Hogberg earning his Ph.D. this week. (Look over to “Cornfield […]