Articles 2024
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Reefer Madness
Why the Clinton administration is terrified by medical marijuana.
Reason, March 1997
When California and Arizona voters gave substantial majorities to the proposition that sick people ought to be allowed to use marijuana (and, in Arizona, other illegal drugs) if it might ease their suffering, the reaction in Washington was predictable: utter horror. Propositions 215 and 200 struck not only at the heart of drug war propaganda but also at the most sensitive assumptions underlying the regulatory state. (See "Prescription: Drugs," February 1996.)
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The Future: Caught in a Cross Fire
Forbes ASAP, February 23, 1997
That great arbiter of left and right, CNN's Crossfire, began 1995 with a show that quickly became less a debate than a meeting of the minds. The entire format broke down, as Pat Buchanan, the host on the right, and Jeremy Rifkin, the guest on the left, discovered they were political soul mates. The subject was the future--and neither Rifkin nor Buchanan had much positive to say about it. Both were deeply pessimistic, upset about changes in the world of work, and eager to find government policies to restore the good old days. Both spoke resentfully of the "knowledge sector" and groused about new technologies.
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Priced to Move
The CPI can't keep up with a dynamic economy.
Reason, February 1997
Styling aside, would you rather have a brand-new 1972 car or the equivalent 1997 model? A new house circa 25 years ago or one built today? The medical care of 1972 or 1997? The restaurants? Winter fruits and vegetables? Disposable diapers, shampoo, TV sets, diet soda, panty hose, sneakers, bathroom cleansers, alarm clocks, contact lenses, or stereo systems?
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Beyond Boredom
No, Haley, the "battle of ideas" isn't over.
Reason, January 1997
It was boring, and now it's over. The 1996 presidential election was boring because it was about so little: It would be won, we all knew, by a man wedded to a fix-it approach to governing--to the notion that for every problem, however minor or complex, a solution is only a bill away. That man would also be commander-in- chief, but would offer little advance clue as to what his commands would be. Neither Bill Clinton nor Bob Dole suggested a grand strategy; ad hoc intervention would remain the rule of post-Cold War foreign policy
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Medical Meddling
Who's afraid of managed care?
Reason, December 1996
I would be extremely upset if someone put an initiative on the California ballot outlawing the payment of salaries to journalists. Quality journalism, the initiative's authors might say, requires per-story payment; many of the profession's finest have made their living that way. Paying salaries to journalists, they'd argue, means people can make money even when they aren't working. A salary system rewards people who undersupply articles and punishes those who turn out lots of them. And there's no incentive to do a good job on the articles you do write, since you get paid either way
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The Other Drug War
The struggle over the FDA has little to do with tobacco, or even David Kessler.
Reason, November 1996
Jennifer Cox could barely breathe. Bronchial asthma and a seizure disorder had not only driven her home from college but left her so weak she couldn't cross the room. Asthma medicine exacerbated the seizures, and the only drugs approved to treat the seizures themselves had terrible complications: One made her chest and respiratory muscles cramp constantly. Another destroyed her bone marrow. The remaining alternative, a three-drug cocktail, gave her tremors, double vision, and balance problems
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On the Frontier: An Interview with Esther Dyson
The promise of unsettled territory -- and the challenge of civilizing it.
Reason, November 1996
"How [Esther] Dyson makes her living is hard to classify," Claudia Dreifus wrote recently in The New York Times Magazine. Actually, it is not. Dyson is a cyberguru--perhaps the only one who's matter-of-fact.
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Flexibility Rules
Forbes ASAP, October 06, 1996
When David Packard was an young engineer at General Electric, the company zealously guarded its tools and parts, afraid that employees would steal them. "Faced with this obvious display of distrust," wrote Packard in The HP Way, "employees set out to prove it justified, walking off with tools or parts whenever they could....The irony in all of this is that many of the tools and parts were being used by their GE 'owners' to work on either job-related projects or skill-enhancing hobbies."
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The Choice
Can Republicans take libertarian votes for granted?
Reason, October 1996
So many people have said so many bad things about Bob Dole's campaign for the presidency that it almost seems unfair to pile on. But it is necessary. There is more at stake than poor organization or an inept candidate
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The Big Uneasy
Forbes ASAP, August 25, 1996
For the past several years, independent bookstores and their intellectual friends, have been attacking book superstores -- those 100,000-plus-title Borders and Barnes & Nobles that sell coffee and atmosphere along with their books. They fear the big stores will run the independents out of business. Critics paint dire scenarios of monopolies stamping out diversity and quirkiness.