America Needs a Better Kind of Capitalism

Big corporations and entire industries constantly use their connections in Congress to get favors, no matter which party is in power.

From sugar and steel consumers to students who already paid off their loans or used their savings to pay for their education, political capitalism punishes those who aren’t elite or can’t organize to extract favors from politicians. Sadly, it gives a bad name to both politics and capitalism.

https://reason.com/2023/03/09/american-capitalism-is-crony-at-its-core/

Diversion from the Dole: An Alternative to Traditional Welfare (Part I)

There is solid evidence diversion programs are a win‐​win opportunity, reducing welfare participation and expenditures while helping recipients. Yet, even in those states with diversion programs on the books, those options are rarely utilized. This is a lost opportunity.

https://www.cato.org/blog/diversion-dole-alternative-traditional-welfare-part-i

How a Public Housing Project Became an Unplanned Neighborhood

favela in southern Brazil shows the upside of an “invasive” urban form—and offers lessons for U.S. housing policy.

Monte Cristo shows how this can flower into something more open and affordable: by avoiding excessive rules in the first place.

https://reason.com/2023/02/19/how-a-public-housing-project-became-an-unplanned-neighborhood/

Socialism in Theory and Practice

…every socialist experiment is a bright new dawn in the beginning and then a “that’s not real socialism!” hellscape a few years later. Russia, China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua — all hailed by socialists in the beginning, then ignored or dismissed once the results became visible.

https://www.cato.org/blog/socialism-theory-practice

Natural Gas, Electricity, and Thermodynamics

As long as natural gas is used to generate electricity, bans on natural gas use in new residential construction result in reductions in COemissions only if very high efficiency heat pumps are used and only if combined cycle rather than simple gas turbines are used for generation. All other uses of electricity actually increase emissions because of the heat losses in electricity generation. So why are localities in Blue America banning natural gas?

https://www.cato.org/blog/natural-gas-electricity-thermodynamics