Listen to Economist Thomas Sowell talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers.
Economist Thomas Sowell
25 minutes, MP3 (46 MB)
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Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Conservative Activist David Horowitz
Listen to economist Walter E. Williams talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers. Economist Walter E. Williams
Reason Foundation Founder Robert Poole
Listen to Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers. Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson
Listen to Fox Host John Stossel talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers. Fox Host John Stossel
Listen to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal
Brazil is one of the BRICs, an acronym that refers to the nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China—the rising powers. The BRICs have been increasing their global economic power at such a fast pace that Goldman Sachs predicts they will become the four most dominant economies by the year 2050. It’s no surprise that Brazil is among the nations with the biggest and fastest growing emerging markets. They have been making smart economic decisions. Among those decisions was to stop depending on foreign energy sources. Since 1980, Brazil has increased its oil production by 876 percent. Now it actually has a surplus.
That’s what we’ve been doing with illegal aliens in America. But that’s not how other nations deal with illegal aliens. In England, they face a $16,000 fine. In Italy, it’s $14,000 and up to six months of detention. In France, it’s $5,000 or up to a year of imprisonment or both. Beyond Europe, the penalties can be even more severe. In Singapore, a jail term up to six months is accompanied by a cane whipping. In China, it’s death if the offender is charged with spying. The message is clear: Stay out unless invited. The idea of keeping illegal aliens out is not a new one. Over 5,000 years ago, the Chinese began to build the Great Wall of China, a series of stone and earthen fortification that now stretches over 5,500 miles.
This is the most recent example of the arrogant notion that elected representatives are not required to operate within the bounds established by the Constitution or act on behalf of the people who elected them. The federal government has increasingly assumed unlimited powers and acted against the will of the people. When they can’t legislate, they regulate. The attitude is: We know you don’t want it, but we are going to force it on you anyway. Who are you to know what is best for you? You are just a pesky voter. We are entitled to discount what you say because you cannot possibly grasp our progressive agenda.
No, President Obama. That’s not why China has been rising. That’s not why China’s economy has grown tenfold over the last three decades. That’s not why it overtook the economies of Great Britain and France in 2005, Germany in 2007, and Japan in 2010. And that’s not why it’s predicted to overtake America’s economy within the next decade or two by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and investment bank Goldman Sachs. China has been rising because it has been rapidly moving toward a concept that made America the envy of the world, while America has been gradually moving away from that same concept.
One branch of American politics shares Krugman’s view that the money you earn—the material manifestation of your mental and physical labor—is not yours. It belongs to the government. This view was recently on display when some referred to the extension of the Bush tax rates as “tax cuts.” With tax cuts, taxpayers pay lower rates. With an extension of tax rates, taxpayers keep paying the same rate. Extending the Bush tax rates prevented tax rates from going up. Nobody got a tax cut. But to the “your money is not yours” crowd, the government gives you a tax cut when it refrains from raising your taxes. It’s a gift. You should be grateful it does not take even more of what you have earned. It belongs to the government, after all.
To get all it can out of the “rich,” the government uses a progressive federal income tax. The top 1 percent of American wage earners pay 40 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. The top 5 percent pay 60 percent, the top 10 percent pay 70 percent, and the top 50 percent pay 97 percent. That means that the bottom 50 percent only pay 3 percent. And that’s just among those who actually pay income taxes. Nearly 50 percent of Americans pay none at all.
“We have to see this as a wake-up call,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview. “The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are.” He added, “I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we consider them to be accurate and reliable, and we have to see them as a challenge to get better.” The most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) measured the math, science, and reading literacy of 15-year-olds in 65 countries and economies. Roughly 470,000 students around the world took the test.
America tends to focus on enjoying today instead of preparing for tomorrow. This trait has led to a nation of debtors. And, like the grasshopper, our lack of savings may lead to our demise. The grasshopper’s indulgence only affected its own life and not the lives of others. In America, however, that is not the case. America’s indulgence will negatively affect future generations in the form of debt.
Students learn to think by hearing both sides of an issue, weighing the evidence, applying reason, and forming independent conclusions. However, American public schools are not presenting students with opposing views. Instead, students are only hearing issues from the perspective of the political left. It does not matter which perspective is correct. If students only heard issues from the perspective of the political right, they still would not be learning to think. Students should be taught to gather relevant facts from both perspectives and then form their own opinions. After all, teachers will not always be around to tell them what to think. And some students may find they don’t always agree with their teachers.
Boys are more likely than girls to earn poor grades, be held back a grade, have a learning disability, get suspended or expelled, and drop out of school. The education gender gap is affecting colleges, the workforce, the marriage rate, and the fatherlessness rate in America. Women outnumber men in college by 4 to 3. Four decades ago, men outnumbered women in college by 4 to 3. The tipping point occurred in the late 1970s. Not only are men less likely than women to go to college, they’re also less likely to graduate once there.
Since embracing market reforms in 1978, China’s economy has averaged over 9.5 percent growth annually. In the last three decades, it has grown tenfold. It overtook the economies of Great Britain and France in 2005, Germany in 2007, and Japan in 2010. China’s economy is predicted to overtake America’s economy within the next decade or two. Jim O’Neill, chief global economist for investment bank Goldman Sachs, predicts it will happen by 2027. Professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts it will happen sooner—by 2020.
Money Magazine calculated that college tuition rose by 439 percent from 1982-2007. According to Mark C. Taylor, author of Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities, four years at a top-tier school will increase from $330,000 in 2020 to $785,000 in 2035 if recent trends continue. What are colleges and universities spending all that money on? If you think it’s on initiatives that improve the quality of education for students, you would be wrong. |
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Listen to Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers.
Listen to conservative activist David Horowitz talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers.
Listen to Reason Foundation Founder Robert Poole talk about current events with Bill Costello and Tony Powers.
In 1980, Brazil imported 77 percent of its oil. Now it imports 
If someone broke into your home, would you treat him as an invited guest? Would you allow him to move in his family? Would you pay for their food, medical care, and education?
The Obama administration plans to continue with implementation of Obamacare despite recent rulings by two federal district judges that it is unconstitutional, despite lawsuits to block it by more than half of all states, and despite polls showing that 60 percent of Americans want it repealed.
President Obama recently attributed China’s rise largely to its education system when he said: “Meanwhile, nations like China and India realized that with some changes of their own, they could compete in this new world. And so they started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science.”
Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times, recently 
The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, a fable by Aesop, provides a moral lesson about greed. A couple owned a goose that laid a golden egg every day. Assuming there must be a big lump of gold inside the goose, the couple killed it. But they found no gold. By trying to get all of the gold at once, the couple deprived themselves of gold they would have otherwise received every day. In modern America, the rich are like the goose and the couple is like the government.
American students are lagging significantly behind their peers from several countries in Europe and Asia according to new results from a key international 
The Ant and the Grasshopper, a fable by Aesop, provides a moral lesson about hard work and saving. During the warm months, the ant worked hard to store up food for the winter while the grasshopper sang and played. When winter arrived, the grasshopper asked the ant for food because it had none. In today’s world, China is like the ant and America is like the grasshopper.
American public schools are not producing students who can think. How can we expect to maintain our liberty when our citizens lack the ability to reach independent conclusions on issues of the day?
In American schools, boys are underachieving and girls are excelling. This gender gap in academic achievement is evident as early as kindergarten. The longer students are in school, the wider the gap becomes.
The economic center of gravity is shifting from West to East as America faces economic problems and China remains the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Do these events signify the eventual end of American predominance?
In America, the cost of higher education has been rising faster than inflation and health care costs for more than two decades.