Christian Britschgi | The Libertarian Institute

CNN Blames San Francisco’s Booming Tech Sector for a Government-Created Housing Shortage

by Christian Britschgi | Oct 20, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live and work in the United States, with average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment approaching $2,500. This is largely the result of the Bay Area adding a tremendous amount of jobs and people over the past decade, but failing to build housing for these new residents. From January 2010 to January 2018, the city added 100,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with many of those in San Francisco's booming tech sector. In that same time period, the city has added a little over 20,000 housing units. The predictable...

Seattle’s Socialist City Council Member Thinks Housing Is a Human Right—Unless it Comes at the Expense of Music Venues

by Christian Britschgi | Aug 17, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant favors raising more money for affordable housing, except when she doesn't. A few months ago, Sawant was fighting for the "Amazon tax," a literal tax on jobs that would have raised some $75 million annually to fund affordable housing and services for the homeless. Now, however, the one self-identified socialist on the Seattle City Council is doing her best to kill a proposed downtown building that would provide 442 apartments and $5 million for the city's affordable housing fund from the project's developer, the Canadian company Onni. Sawant is willing...

Hilarious Straw Ban Memes Hit on the Dark Truth That All Laws Require Force

by Christian Britschgi | Jul 31, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

The straw bans sweeping the nation have been nothing but bad news for liberty lovers, disabled people, and boba tea enthusiasts, but they have produced some choice memes: View image on Twitter View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Those don't just make me laugh out loud. They hint at a darker truth about straw bans, a fact these policies' proponents prefer to ignore: All laws ultimately rest on state violence. This point is often greeted with eyerolls and snorts from straw ban apologists, who would rather focus on their good intentions than the coercive powers needed to bring their...

A New Report Exaggerates the Problem of Housing Affordability To Push Expensive Federal Interventions

by Christian Britschgi | Jun 18, 2018 | Economics, Featured Articles

The average American needs to earn $22.10 an hour in order to afford a place to live. Minimum wage earners would have to work three full time jobs in some states just to afford housing. These are some of the audacious claims made in the 2018 "Out of Reach" report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), which proports to show that millions of Americans can't afford a place to lay their head, a problem that will only be fixed with a massive infusion of federal cash. "In the richest country in history, no family should have to make the awful choice between putting food on the...

London's Bicyclists Have a Diversity Problem, City Officials Say

by Christian Britschgi | Jun 1, 2018 | Featured Articles, Justice, Politics

London's cycling commissioner, Will Norman, is dismayed at the demographic makeup of the city's bikers, finding them to be too white, too male, and too middle class. "It touches on something which is a real challenge for London cycling, which is diversity," Norman told The Independent. "Even when we have seen the growth in the number of cyclists, we haven't seen that diversity." London has been doing its level best to boost the number of people biking around the city. Mayor Sadiq Khan, who pledged to be the "the most pro-cycling mayor London has ever had," has committed to spending £770...

Atlanta Suburb Brags About Fines for Chipped Paint and Incorrectly Stacked Wood

by Christian Britschgi | May 27, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

Improperly stacked wood. A cracked driveway. Chipped paint on a porch. These are the kinds of offenses the government of Doraville, Georgia, is using to fine residents and threaten them with jail, all in an explicit attempt to balance the budget of the 8,000-person Atlanta suburb. Now people hit by some of those fines are suing the city in federal court, arguing that its direct financial interest in convicting people tried by its municipal court violates the 14th Amendment's due process guarantee. The lawsuit, filed by the Institute for Justice, "seeks to stop municipalities from budgeting...

New York the Latest City to Take Aim At Plastic Straws

by Christian Britschgi | May 24, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

Now New York City is considering a plastic straw ban. On Wednesday, three Democrats on city council—Rafael Espinal of Brooklyn, Helen Rosenthal of Manhattan, and Barry Grodenchik of Queens—introduced a bill that would prohibit restaurants, bars, and other food service businesses from giving customers single-use plastic straws. Businesses would be fined $100 for the first violation, $200 for second, and $400 for any violations thereafter. A medical exception would allow restaurateurs to hand out straws to anyone with a disability—including, oddly, people whose disabilities do not have any...

This Year's Farm Bill Is Everything Wrong With Washington

by Christian Britschgi | May 17, 2018 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics

The farm bill is up for renewal, and with it almost everything you think of when it comes to big government: billions in corporate welfare, special-interest handouts, protectionist price supports, and massive federal transfers. At least it doesn't launch any wars. Currently being marked up in the House, the legislation—which authorizes agricultural spending for the next five years—would cost taxpayers $390 billion from 2019 to 2023. That's an increase of roughly $3.2 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill's 10-year price tag approaches $900 billion. The largest share...