Rutherford Institute

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Black Youth Unemployment Before Democrats Started “Helping”

Although most people are familiar with more recent statistics on black youth unemployment, not many are aware of the black/white statistics for earlier periods. Table 3.2 (below) shows that in 1948, the two were roughly equal. For that year, blacks aged sixteen to...

Political Discrimination vs. Market Discrimination – Walter E. Williams

Gross racial discrimination alone has never been sufficient to prevent blacks from earning a living and bettering themselves by working as skilled or unskilled craftsmen and as business owners, accumulating considerable wealth. The fact that whites sought out blacks...

GDP is a Scam, Here’s How to Measure Wealth

https://youtu.be/mYfH_9arsRk In 1981, the cheapest IBM personal computer cost $4,459 (in 2018 U.S. dollars), or 210 hours of labor. An Insignia tablet and keyboard combo cost $120 in 2018, or 5.6 hours of labor. - Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know, CATO...

The Democratic Policy Which Keeps Poor People Poor – Walter E. Williams

To criticize occupational licensing laws is not to argue that information about the quality of a licensee's services is not important to consumers. However, it is by no means clear that licensing is the most effective way to provide that information. Indeed, licensing...

How Economic Regulation Hurts the Poor – Walter E. Williams

In the name of protecting public health, California requires that an individual who seeks to perform any kind of hairstyling service must complete nine months (1,600 hours) of classes at a state-approved cosmetology school, at a tuition cost of at least $5,000, before...

My Body My Choice: Abolish Occupational Licensing

The most immediate effect of licensing is to restrict the number of practitioners because of the higher entry costs involved in meeting the qualifications of the activity. Some licenses, as in the cases of cosmeticians and barbers, require many months of schooling....