Minimum wage laws are immoral because, like all government price controls, they violate the moral rights of individuals to act on their own judgment for their own purposes. In order to live and flourish, people need to think rationally, make judgments about what is and is not best for their lives, and act accordingly.

Although some conservatives claim to defend limited government and individual liberty, conservatives in fact fail to defend these values consistently. The reason is that conservatives share with their leftist “opponents” a commitment to the morality of self-sacrifice. Take a recent example. In her article for the Heritage Foundation, “How to…

New York City’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, did not wait to assume his office before brandishing the big stick of government force. Two days before becoming mayor, de Blasio threatened to outlaw horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. For half a century, these carriages have attracted New Yorkers and visitors…

The U.S. government is increasingly seizing control of elementary and secondary education, and all Americans who care about education should be up in arms. The federal government is rapidly expanding its coercive reach by means of a program called Common Core, a set of government-issued educational standards in language and…

In his recent National Affairs essay, “Religion and the American Public,” George Will writes: “I approach the question of religion and American life from the vantage point of an expanding minority,” namely, Americans with no religious affiliation, “a cohort that the Pew public-opinion surveys call the ‘nones.’” Will’s essay is…

In a recent New York Times article, “For Obamacare to Work, Everyone Must Be In,” Robert H. Frank observes that for insurance companies to offer coverage at the same rate to everyone, including those with “pre-existing conditions,” they would have to charge higher premiums, which would induce healthier people to…

At a recent press conference, President Obama declared, Quality care is not something that should be a privilege. It should be a right. In the greatest country on earth, we’ve got to make sure that every single person that needs health care can get it. The proper purpose of government,…

On May 5, President Obama delivered the commencement speech at Ohio State University. Invoking the Founders, he implored graduates to embrace the “quintessentially American value[s] of optimism; altruism; empathy; tolerance; a sense of community; a sense of service”—and to reject a “society that celebrates individual ambition above all else.” It…

During a pre-game ceremony at Fenway Park last weekend, the Boston Red Sox commemorated the city’s return to normalcy following the capture of the Boston Marathon bombers. Addressing the crowd, and on live television, popular Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz shouted, “This is our f***ing city, and nobody…

We do not yet know who perpetrated yesterday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon—whether it was a “lone wolf” or a group, or whether those responsible are foreign or domestic. Nor do we know whether the attackers were motivated by personal grudges or by ideology, or whether the acts were state-sponsored.…