The Declaration of Independence states that our inalienable rights include “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Life and liberty are easy to understand, but that last phrase is less intuitive. How can people have a right to strive for happiness?
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Uniting to Fight Poverty: A TED Talk
How do we solve problems like poverty with so much political polarization?
Welcome to the Pursuit
To pursue our happiness, to achieve our liberty, and indeed to find fulfillment in our lives, we must start with a moral consensus, a fundamental truth around which we all revolve. Think of an atom. The outer field of electrons is full of chaotic activity. Electrons are rapidly orbiting and moving in a constant buzz. What contains that chaos and gives it structure? The fact that the whole chaotic cloud orbits one central nucleus.
We Can Do Better: Only 16% of Prime-Working Age Men Not in the Labor Force Want to Work
In recent weeks, the steady decline in labor force participation among working-age men has attracted a lot of attention. A recent report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) shows that the labor force participation rate among men age 25–54 has fallen by 8.3 percentage points since 1965.
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Could Poverty Be Alleviated With a Tweak to EITC?
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wasn’t successful in every venture he tried to implement to improve the city, and he earned a fair amount of grief for some of his ideas. But as a successful businessman, and one of the world’s wealthiest people, he was the kind of politician who served the same way he ran his corporations — with a willingness to take risks.
It’s that kind of leadership that enabled the mayor to drive New York City’s poverty rate down at a time when poverty rates nationally were rising. Several of the experiments that animated New York can be credited with keeping the city’s poverty rate among the lowest in the nation’s 20 largest metro areas even today.
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Why Dodd-Frank Was Never Meant to Cure Any Banking Woes
Dodd-Frank’s “too big to fail” solution is essentially a speed trap, designed to ensnare more and more firms under greater government control. It was never set up to avoid unsafe behavior in the first place.
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Is College Worth It? Colorado Website Measures ROIs
If you’re thinking of going to college, or sending someone to college, it’s typical to wonder, is college worth it?
Well, a new website provides an interactive look at which educational investments are going to have the kind of return that makes the degree worth it.
Lost Equality of Opportunity Is Biggest Threat to Education
between 2000 and 2014, the percentage of public schools with 75 percent to 100 percent poor black or Hispanic students increased from 9 percent to 16 percent. To rectify discrimination in high-poverty, segregated schools, the Education Department and Justice Department have supported the continuation of desegregation orders.
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A New Social Science Scandal
Some scholars cannot resist the allure of research findings that can be weaponized into ad hominem political attacks — and then cash in on a little media buzz as a result.
read moreZenefits CEO David Sacks on his bold bet: Less than 10% of employees accepted ‘The Offer’
Zenefits CEO David Sacks made a daring turnaround move after the departure of the company’s founder: An employee buyout offer for anyone didn’t feel he or she could get behind Sacks’ plan to save the company. How did it go?
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Mississippi Barriers to Opportunity Broken By Entrepreneurial Hair Braider
Melony Armstrong did not grow up financially disadvantaged, She didn’t suffer an accident that left her disabled. She didn’t make any poor decisions that ended her up in the criminal justice system. An African-American girl growing up in Mississippi in the...
read moreTake Mothers’ Labor Force Participation Seriously
There are two narratives about the labor force participation rates of mothers. The first argues that participation rates are low because women voluntarily choose to cut down on hours worked or quit their jobs after the birth of a child—the so called “opt-out” moms....
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Life After Prison: Try Ordering a Vente Skim Latte With Extra Foam
Imagine meeting a time traveler who ended up 24 years in the future, arriving in 2016. He doesn’t know how to use a cell phone, an electronic gas pump, a debit card. He has never sent an email, never used Google, never ordered a coffee at Starbucks. He feels...
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