“[I] refuse to have my ideas assigned to me as though I was an intellectual slave because I’m black”- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Why does race matter so much to some people?
This is a question that has perplexed me for a while now, and I didn’t have the intellectual tools to grapple with it- until now.
Anne Wortham uses the phrase, ethno-racial consciousness, to describe people who place emphasis on the racial and ethnic distinctions between individuals. For the rest of this essay, I will use the term ethno-racial consciousness using this definition.
All humans are born into ethno-racial groups. The degree to which an individual’s ethno-racial identity defines their experiences is based on how ethno-racial conscious one is.
Consciousness is the…
I felt compelled to write this article because I was recently called sexist for suggesting that the gender pay gap was being exaggerated. I simply suggested that gender discrimination does not account for the difference in aggregate pay between men and women. In this article, I will separate facts from fiction when it comes to wage equality.
The most commonly used statistic to represent the supposed gender pay gap is the earnings ratio. Woman earn about 80 cents for every dollar men make. On the surface, this would suggest that there is a “pay gap.”
However, the earnings ratio is…
The Progressive era lasted from the 1890s to 1930s. During this time, Progressives sought to use the powers of the government to fulfill social goals. Among these goals was a eugenics plot that was designed to keep the nation’s gene pool healthy.
Historian Thomas C Leonard notes that Progressives justified their eugenic claims with race science. Statistician Frederick Hoffman’s, Race Traits of the American Negro, claimed black hereditary inferiority would make them extinct. Richmond Mayo-Smith, a Columbian economist, believed blacks lacked the intelligence needed for full equality.
It is important to note that blacks were forced by widespread racism to…
Liberty is central to understanding the role of the individual in society. Individualism stresses the moral worth of every individual. Every individual is unique, yet equal, and can live their life as they see fit.
Leonard Peikoff, a close associate of Objectivist Ayn Rand, says “Collectivism holds that, in human affairs, the collective — society, the community, the nation, the proletariat, the race, etc. — is the unit of reality and the standard of value. On this view, the individual has reality only as part of the group, and value only insofar as he serves it.”
Ayn Rand also said…
If there’s one myth that plagues the criminal justice movement it is this- the idea that if the United States stopped locking away people for small drug offenses, we could end mass incarceration. People from both ends of the political spectrum subscribe to this logic, and both parties are willing to decriminalize “low level” drug offenses.
The only problem with this thinking is that it is not true. For starters, only 16% to 20% of prisoners are in for drug offenses. Of this 20%, very few qualify for release under the current criminal justice reform movement’s thinking.
minimum wage economics explained in simple terms
Resources such as oil, water, and land are scarce. In order to determine how society should distribute scarce resources, society needs a way to determine their value.
Value is the monetary, material, or perceived worth of a good or service.
Prices enable us to allocate resources because prices represent value. Human beings determine value based on how that good or service will benefit them, and this desire creates demand.
Demand helps producers decide how much supply there will be. In essence, supply and demand, prices, and value work together to ensure the economy runs efficiently.
Price Controls
Prices are determined by the…
