REASON – Free Minds & Free Markets | This, That and The Other

Nowadays, in Manhattan, you'd be hard-pressed to find a pig. But around the middle part of the 19th century, there were some 50,000 pigs raised on the island. Though urban farming is far less common in 2025, it still exists, more frequently for hobby rather than sustenance: Chickens are the animal of choice, with beekeeping also experiencing a renaissance. Urban farming is derided by its critics as smelly and unnecessary. I beg to differ. I used to live in dense East Austin, Texas, and kept a manageable flock of five chickens. As a baker who makes custards and meringues and cakes, I looked at chicken keeping as less a cost-saving measure and more as a means of ensuring my ingredients would be high-quality. It was also a way to become more self-reliant, a modicum more grateful for how food ends up on my plate. Absurd getting-ready photos from my wedding,… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Education choice is booming in popularity across the United States, and the federal government may be ready to join the rush—that is, if everything goes just right. A growing number of state governments have been getting out of the way of parents who want alternatives to government-run schools for their children. That's meant a bonanza of options including homeschooling, charter schools, private schools, and programs like education savings accounts that make education funds portable so families can use them for the approaches of their choice. Federal Tax Credits To Fund School Scholarships The Trump administration's sympathy to school choice creates an opening to expand education freedom to the whole country. The president has ordered the federal bureaucracy to facilitate choice in several important ways. And while its prospects are up in the air, the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) now being considered by Congress would offer tax credits for… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

4/18/1775: Paul Revere's ride.The post Today in Supreme Court History: April 18, 1775 appeared first on Reason.com. ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Mere Economics argues that the economic way of thinking is not merely reconcilable with Christianity, but that "economic principles follow from Christian doctrine." Academic economists and devout Christians Art Carden and Caleb S. Fuller systematically dispel the "folly masquerading as wisdom" that claims their faith is incompatible with support for free markets. The authors explain that profit is the offspring not of avarice but of prudence. Profit lets us determine how best to serve our neighbor by signaling when we're producing more wealth than we're consuming—and when we aren't. Wealth, unless ill-gotten, does not represent domination over other men; it represents man's dominion over the earth, allowing him to satisfy the demands of Genesis 1:28. Carden and Fuller explain that price gouging laws are knowledge embargoes that "bear false witness," thereby preventing us from knowing which of our neighbors are most in need of assistance. Especially important to today's policy debates… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

These three passages appear within pages of each other in Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey's delightful new memoir, The Whole Story: "'If you didn't want to give up control of Whole Foods, then you shouldn't have sold the company to Amazon.'" Then: "For the first time in my life, I felt unconditional love for myself, for all of life, and for God." And finally: "Half veggies (kale, spinach, chard, broccoli, bok choy, and radishes) and half fruit (berries, a banana, a few seasonal fruits, and dates). Three heaping tablespoons of freshly ground flax and chia seeds. That's the recipe for my perfect smoothie." The Whole Story is a business book, a spiritual journey, and a personal journal. Some might say it should have been three books, but for Mackey—a friend of mine and of Reason—to unbraid the strands would have been to fundamentally misunderstand the work and meaning of his fascinating life.The… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.