Eric Schuler

What Immigration and Gun Control Have in Common

by Eric Schuler | Feb 23, 2017 | Featured Articles, Justice

President Trump is planning to issue a new version of his immigration and travel ban next week. Like the first one, the new executive order will be implemented in the name of national security. Unfortunately, it will likely be based on the same dubious premise as before--that the people being barred, who are mostly Muslim, pose a significant threat to Americans. The evidence supporting the ban is weak at best. But it must be conceded that the broader argument has a certain plausibility for many Americans. For years, Americans have been told that (some) Muslims just hate the US because of our...

What If Food Distribution Worked Like Public Education?

by Eric Schuler | Feb 14, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism

An Analogy One of the most important things to consider when buying a house is the quality of the grocery district. As the name implies, the grocery district determines which public grocery store you and your family get to use. District maps are drawn by the government to ensure each grocery store has an appropriate number of patrons based on its capacity. Most residents are assigned to the public grocery store that is closest to their home. Groceries are paid for primarily by local taxes. If residents go to their local public grocery store, they get their weekly groceries without any...

In Defense of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

by Eric Schuler | Feb 7, 2017 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics

Back during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was fond of suggesting that cuts in "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the federal government would be sufficient to balance the budget. This never made too much sense--because the federal deficit is far larger than most estimates of potential savings. Yet it remains a common political talking point because it upsets no one. It's one of the few things that all sides can agree on--cutting waste, fraud, and abuse is a good idea. That said, I would like to take the opportunity to clear the good name of government waste, fraud, and abuse. If we treat...

Civility and Hypocrisy in the Age of Trump

by Eric Schuler | Feb 2, 2017 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics

As Democrats and NeverTrumpers of all stripes stand up against President Trump's executive order on immigration, one reaction has been quite common: "Where were you when President Obama did [insert cruel/illegal/destructive foreign policy decision here]?" The question is a good one, but it's not as good as you might think. Our minds abhor disorder. An innate dislike for hypocrisy and inconsistency comes along with that. And of course, it is strange that many of the politicians opposing Trump's immigration ban against seven countries did not consistently oppose Obama when he bombed and...

Isolationism Without the Peace

by Eric Schuler | Jan 30, 2017 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

One week into his term, President Donald Trump is shaping up to be an isolationist. Unfortunately, he is omitting isolationism's only redeeming quality--peace. The term isolationism is often misunderstood. It's mostly used as a slur for one's political opponents--especially libertarians and antiwar folks--instead of being openly promoted by a particular group. Indeed, I know of no sitting US politician who self-identifies as an isolationist. That said, the basic tenets of a truly isolationist political system are easy to infer. They are as follows: Highly restricted international trade...

Donald Trump Becomes a War Criminal

by Eric Schuler | Jan 26, 2017 | Blog

It didn't take long. Just a day after President Trump was sworn in, a US drone strike was carried out in Yemen on his authority, killing three people. As usual, the individuals killed were reported as suspected Al Qaeda militants. Like most drone bombings, there wasn't much information available on this latest strike. The US government doesn't publicly discuss specific strikes (unless Westerners were killed), and the general state of chaos prevailing in Yemen at the moment means there are very few journalists in the region that could investigate the strike first-hand. We're left to rely on...

Should Renters Subsidize Homebuyers and Banks?

by Eric Schuler | Jan 23, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

Should renters subsidize homebuyers and banks? That question may sound rhetorical. But judging by the reaction to President Trump's action on the subject, a surprising number of people would answer it in the affirmative. Last Friday after the inauguration, the Trump Administration announced that it was canceling a planned 0.25% cut in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance premiums. The cut had been announced by the Obama Administration less than two weeks earlier, but had not yet been implemented. Thus, Trump's action was a return to the status quo that existed at the start...

We’re All Nationalists

by Eric Schuler | Jan 21, 2017 | Blog

That's the inescapable conclusion after observing the quite impressive turnout for demonstrations around the country today. The marches today are in support of women's rights and anti-Trump, both entirely sensible positions. But to put a finer point on the matter, we must concede that the marches are really just in support of American women's rights. Why? Well, it should go without saying that Trump, like Obama and Bush before him, represents a much greater threat to the rights of women in other countries than he does to the women in America. The women (and men and children, for that matter)...