Fall 2024

Too Much Logic, Too Little Evidence

President Clinton wants to use federal budget surpluses to “save Social Security first.” It’s politically inspired gobbledygook. Informed Americans now understand that Social Security is “pay as you go,” but most take this to mean that current payroll taxes provide …

Allen Graubard notes my claim that the alliance between so-called progressive school reformers and conservative critics who dominate our public education debates serves only the latter’s purposes. As the growing strength of voucher plans and for-profit contractors (such as Chris …

Much that Allen Graubard writes would be fair if stated with less exaggeration: of course, public schools continue to track (although less than before); many (not all) high schools are authoritarian (though there’s variety within schools); basic skills tests are …

Many on the left are befuddled by the American public’s staunch resistance to taxes— a seemingly irrational hostility that often paralyzes public policy. Americans are convinced that they are overtaxed, although their tax burden is lower than those of other …

Neither H. Brand nor Joanne Barkan finds much to dispute in my analysis of the forces that drive immigration, the impossibility of fully consistent positions in response to calls for its restriction, or the desirability of progressive social policies to …

The anti-NAFTA coalition saw the battle as a prelude to future mobilization against more serious international threats to American workers’ living standards. But if there is to be any such mobilization, NAFTA opponents will have to move from simply opposing …

Bill Clinton is the first Democratic president in modern times to be elected without strong union identification. At no time during the campaign did he even hint at interest in labor-law reform (beyond a perfunctory visit to Caterpillar picket lines …

The television reporter on the scene was incredulous. A looter, unconcerned with television cameras, police, or the stares of fellow neighborhood residents, walked by, arms laden with stolen property. The reporter raced after, trying to shove her microphone in the …