The Real Problem with Helicopter Parents: There Aren't Enough of Them | Brink Lindsey | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Real Problem with Helicopter Parents: There Aren't Enough of Them | Brink Lindsey | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Prior to 1995, college-educated moms averaged about 12 hours a week with their kids, compared to about 11 hours for less-educated moms. By 2007, though, the figure for less-educated moms had risen to nearly 16 hours while that for college-educated moms had soared all the way to 21 hours. Similar trends were observed for fathers: The time that college-educated dads spent with their kids rose from 5 to 10 hours, while for less-educated dads the increase was from around 4 hours to around 8 hours.

So while the time parents spend with children living at home has increased across the board, the trend has been especially pronounced among highly-educated households. The parental attention gap is growing."

"since the '70s, divorce rates among the highly educated have fallen significantly; among non-college grads, by contrast, they have stayed high."

"by the time they reach age three, children of professional parents have heard some 45 million words addressed to them — as opposed to only 26 million words for working-class kids, and a mere 13 million words in the case of kids on welfare. By the time kids start school, kids of well-educated parents are much better prepared than their classmates. Consequently, they're much more likely to receive praise and encouragement from their teachers, which means their attitudes about being in school are much more likely to be positive. Even relatively small advantages conferred early in life can thus snowball over time.

The deliberate practice that is going on constantly in well-educated homes extends beyond purely intellectual pursuits. As they march their kids through the weekly gauntlet of organized activities, the practitioners of concerted cultivation are drilling their kids in a host of skills critical to academic and economic success. Skills like managing one's time by making and keeping schedules, getting along with other people from different backgrounds on the basis of common interests, and deferring gratification in order to maximize rewards down the road."

If You Love Public Broadcasting, Set It Free | Trevor Burrus | Cato Institute: Commentary

If You Love Public Broadcasting, Set It Free | Trevor Burrus | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The case for defunding public broadcasting is very simple. First, public broadcasting does not need federal money. "

"Second, our media-rich environment has obviated the need for public broadcasting."

"public broadcasters dangle at the end of a politicized tether, and they are constantly wary that they will offend the wrong people."

A World without Income Taxes | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

A World without Income Taxes | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Why should the federal government bother to impose taxes when it can use the Federal Reserve to "print" all the money it needs to pay its bills? Last year, the Fed bought 77 percent of all of the government's new debt, which is the equivalent of printing money. The government borrowed almost 40 cents for each dollar it spent, with the Fed printing 30 cents of each dollar spent through its bond purchases (creating new money)"

"if the Fed increased the money supply by roughly 3.5 percent per year, the economy could have close to perpetual price stability, with the productivity gains being used to fund government spending.

Currently, the federal government is spending about 23 percent of GDP, and so you are probably thinking it is impossible to have a world where the federal government only spends 3.5 percent of GDP. However, up until World War I (before the income tax), the federal government only spent about 2.5 percent of GDP. In the 1920s, it was spending less than 4.5 percent of GDP."

Obama's Advisers Favor Romney's Tax Reform | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Advisers Favor Romney's Tax Reform | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary: "When it comes to tax policy, the main difference between Romney's and Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and Bipartisan Policy Center's Debt Reduction Task Force advisers is that Romney proposes 1) a slightly lower corporate tax rate, and 2) a much lower bottom rate of 8 percent rather than 12 percent."

"Romney's plan is even tougher than a proposal from economist Martin Feldstein, which would limit deductions as a percentage of adjusted gross income (AGI). Romney instead proposes a very tight lid on the total of itemized deductions — during the first presidential debate, he suggested a cap no higher than $25,000 to $50,000."

"Unlike the Obama plan, the Romney plan would collect huge revenues from many "millionaires and billionaires" such as Warren Buffet and Mitt Romney"

The Great Cigarette-Tax Lie | Patrick Basham and John Luik | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Great Cigarette-Tax Lie | Patrick Basham and John Luik | Cato Institute: Commentary: "First, higher taxes promote illicit trade in cigarettes (both smuggling and counterfeiting), especially among the poor. And, second, a good many lower-income smokers respond to higher butt taxes by cutting back elsewhere — as the New York study demonstrates yet again.

In other words, lower-income smokers don't respond the way the elite public-health establishment thinks they should."