Category: America Now

As Abraham Lincoln once said, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Well, he didn’t actually say that of course, but that’s a funny meme that gets trotted out every now and then during debates on message boards and social media. But while most of us understand the general principle, many people may […]

Homeownership is one of the great goals of many Americans. Over half the population owns a home, and many more want to own homes. The idea of a man’s home being his castle is one that has great appeal. By owning a home you’re no longer subject to the whims of landlords, you have stability, […]

One of the core components of many academic disciplines is the idea that human beings act rationally. From economics to international relations, one of the key assumptions is that actors will behave in a rational and predictable manner that allows one not only to understand their actions but also to predict, to a certain extent, […]

The arrival of fall heralds the arrival of all things pumpkin spice. Heck, in most stores we’ve been seeing pumpkin spice products since August. From coffee to candles to protein powder to beer, there’s hardly a product out there that hasn’t decided to take advantage of the popularity of pumpkin spice. But for every person […]

Most people have probably heard about China’s social credit system, which assigns each Chinese citizen a social credit “score.” Behavior that the government likes increases your score, while behavior the government doesn’t like decreases your score. If you fail to pay your debts, if you jaywalk in public, or if you associate with political dissidents, […]

In recent years gardening has become an increasingly popular topic, as Americans are more and more concerned about the quality of their food and where it comes from. Gardening to grow their own food is now less about necessity and more about ensuring that our food is free from chemicals and pesticides. But many who […]

Many American households benefited from President Trump’s tax cuts that took place shortly after he took office. Trump’s changes to tax laws, not only with regard to rates but also with regard to simplification of tax forms, have probably been the most thorough since President Reagan. And it can be argued that Trump’s tax cuts […]

By now most people realize that the world economy is in decline. Europe is falling into recession, the US is headed there, and country after country is seeing economic slowdown and stagnation. Manufacturing activity worldwide is slowing down, with the automotive industry at the forefront. In fact, the slowdown in automobile production is judged to […]

California is the state where good ideas and entrepreneurship go to die. One of the characteristics of the modern economy has been the development of the gig economy, which allows people who want to make a little extra money on the side to do that with relative ease. The company that best typifies that is […]

The cost of higher education has gotten ever more expensive in recent years, and students have had to go ever deeper into debt in order to afford a college degree that, in many cases, doesn’t do all that much for them. With over $1.5 trillion in student debt outstanding today, there are calls across the […]