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The Lighthouse®

The Lighthouse® is the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute.
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Volume 21, Issue 47: November 26, 2019

By Benjamin Powell
According to popular lore, Thanksgiving commemorates the bountiful harvest that resulted after Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to plant corn following a particularly destructive winter. The story is apocryphal. In fact, as Gov. William Bradford explained in his 1647 history of the Plymouth Plantation, the Pilgrims suffered chronic food shortages until 1623, when they ended their communal ownership of property. READ MORE »


By Edward P. Stringham (Chicago Tribune, 11/20/19)
Although it’s become fashionable to deplore the fact that household wealth increases at different rates in a population, most high-income earners are productive in ways that benefit not just themselves but also society at large. Indeed, the only entity forcing open our pocketbooks is the one that politicians want to use to combat inequality—the government. READ MORE »

In All Fairness
Equality, Liberty, and the Quest for Human Dignity
Edited by Robert M. Whaples, Michael C. Munger, Christopher J. Coyne


By Randall G. Holcombe (The Beacon, 11/18/19)
One theory about the rise of socialism today is that younger Americans don’t know the true meaning of socialism. But another explanation might be that they don’t know the true meaning of capitalism. READ MORE »



By Richard K. Vedder (Forbes, 11/11/19)
Why is public support for colleges and universities in decline? One answer may be that state spending on higher education isn’t translating into noticeable gains for the state population at large. READ MORE »



By John C. Goodman (Forbes, 11/4/19)
If health insurers didn’t face regulations that incentivized them to attract the healthy and avoid the sickly, they would either pay surprise medical bills or negotiate a settlement with doctors and hospitals. Fortunately, pressures are growing at both the state and federal level to address the problem. READ MORE »



By Luka Ladan (Catalyst, 11/1/19)
Most Americans born between 1981 and 1996 didn’t support the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, even though most are so financially strapped that they don’t have even $500 set aside to cover an unexpected tax bill. Millennials might become solid advocates of tax reform—if only more pundits made the effort to educate them about how tax policy impacts their lives. READ MORE »





  • Catalyst
  • Beyond Homeless
  • MyGovCost.org
  • FDAReview.org
  • OnPower.org
  • elindependent.org