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How Election 1936 Gave Us Election 2008, Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, 02/21/2008 The presidential campaign of 2008 advertises itself as being about the present, but it also reflects some old political challenges. One is officials' affection for infrastructure projects. Another is their affection for spending in general. Whether Democrat or Republican, candidates must address the same dilemma: on the one hand, voters have enormous faith in the private sector; on the other, they expect the government to provide them with evermore generous entitlements. In this lecture Amity Shlaes takes us back and demonstrates that the roots of the problem lay in a single election year, 1936, when Franklin D. Roosevelt systematically established modern political interest groups from unions to artists to senior citizens. Reforming America's Health Care System, Robert E. Moffit, Director, Center for Health Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation, 10/01/2007 Most Americans agree that our current health care system needs reform. Arguably, it is the most important part of our economy because it directly touches everyone. But opinions are strongly divided. Some believe we should follow Canada and Europe in socializing health care further, to make sure everyone has at least some coverage. Others feel that the best course is to increase the role of competition and the market, to improve freedom of choice and the quality of care. Robert Moffit, one of the nation's top health policy analysts, provides insights into this important subject. Iraqi Ironies, Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, 05/14/2007 The Iraq War was orphaned from the beginning. It had no natural constituencies either at home or abroad. As a result it has been a topsy-turvy war, plagued from the first by ironies, contradictions and inconsistencies. But the ironies seen in Globalization, Employment and Outsourcing, Timothy Kane, Visiting Fellow, Center for International Trade and Economics (CITE), Heritage Foundation, 03/27/2007 If we try to book an airline seat at midnight, we are just likely now to get someone in India or the Philippines at the other end of the phone. One more American job has been exported overseas -- or so it seems. Outsourcing is part of globalization, so globalization, many think, must be losing us jobs. But is this true? Or is the current very low unemployment rate in the U.S. instead a result of our recent free trade agreements, and so a product of globalization? In this lecture Tim Kane examined the evidence for and against outsourcing and globalization in the light of their effects on employment and on America's economy as a whole.The Decline of the Secular University, C. John Sommerville, Professor Emeritus of English History, University of Florida, 03/08/2007 Despite the impressive size of our secular research universities, they are losing prominence in our national debates. They do not offer political, cultural, social or even scientific leadership to American society, in their increasing devotion to professional education. A denial of any religious values or arguments has finally left universities with a vacuum that is being filled with market values and a business model of organization, which are major faculty complaints today. Professor C. John Sommerville suggested ways in which religious considerations could help to revitalize the universities' core concerns. Manliness, Harvey Mansfield, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government, Harvard University, 02/02/2007 Manliness means confidence in the face of risk and danger, argues Prof. Mansfield. This is a virtue we all have reason to value. If studies in social psychology show it is preponderantly a virtue of men, as they do, this is no reason to disdain it. Manliness serves the function of asserting a cause, standing up for something, making a point, correcting an injustice. It means having spirit and being courageous. It means taking responsibility for the well-being of those entrusted to one's care. At the present time manliness still exists, but in the gender-neutral society it is unemployed. In the world after 9/11, however, it is time to see it again as the virtue that it is. Privatizing Education, Neal McCluskey, Associate Director of the Center for Education Freedom, Cato Institute, 11/21/2006 Many Americans take it as an article of faith that education in a free, democratic nation must be delivered in schools built and controlled by government and paid for out of taxes. But our system of public schools was largely copied from authoritarian Prussia in the 19th century: it is not particularly an expression of freedom or democracy. Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute maintains that the fairest education system is one paid for by those who benefit from it. Experience has demonstrated the best education systems are built on private control and choice, not government authority and coercion. Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws, Richard E. Epstein, Professor of Law, University of Chicago, and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, 10/24/2006 Should employers have the freedom to hire the people they want? This is the controversial question of celebrated legal scholar Richard A. Epstein, professor of law at the University of Chicago and the Hoover Institution. That freedom was once taken for granted in America and inspired employers to create so many millions of jobs that it was the envy of the world, but was taken away by the federal government in 1964. Prof. Epstein argued that the current law undermines economic prosperity and personal freedom and, ironically, hurts the most the very people it was designed to help. The Role of Government in a Free Society, Walter E. Williams, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, 09/28/2006 We expect our government to do many things for us. Some of these things, however, violate both the letter and the spirit of our Constitution, and also have a very high price tag which will prove devastating to future generations of Americans. Renowned economist, controversial author and syndicated columnist Professor Walter E. Williams of George Mason University makes a compelling case for a return to the constitutional limits on government. |