Author: John Stossel

The government’s environmental rules defeat even environmentalists. Thomas Collier is a Democrat who managed environmental policy for Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Then he noticed a mining opportunity in Alaska, one he calls “the single largest deposit of gold and silver that is not being developed in the entire world.” Tom’s company hired hundreds of […]

  Hillary Clinton gave a speech warning that the new “sharing economy” of businesses such as the ride-hailing company Uber is “raising hard questions about workplace protections.” Democrats hate what labor unions hate, and a taxi drivers’ union hates Uber, too. Its NYC website proclaims, “Uber has the money. But we are the PEOPLE!” The […]

Obamacare! The War on Drugs! A War on Poverty! Prohibition! The idea that government will bring social progress isn’t new. Europe’s monarchs believed in big government long before there was a Soviet Union or a welfare state. Eighteenth-century philosopher Voltaire praised “enlightened” monarchs like Prussia’s Frederick the Great. Since the nineteenth century, so-called “progressives” have […]

Nearly 10,000 people turned out to hear Bernie Sanders in Wisconsin. Why? Apparently, many Democrats want socialism. Sanders is the Vermont senator who is running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Sanders calls himself a “democratic socialist,” not to be confused with New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s preferred label, “social democrat,” but both […]

Have you seen the new Jurassic Park movie, “Jurassic World?” It had the biggest opening of any movie in history. The movie tells how a reckless biotech company releases dinosaurs that kill its customers. Its tale of heroes vs. villains made me think about how America has changed since our independence, the anniversary of which […]

A woman will be on the new $10 bill, bumping Alexander Hamilton aside. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says he will choose the woman by year’s end, based on “input from the public.” In one survey of the “public,” the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, placed fourth. I understand the wish to […]

This year is the 10th anniversary of a book called “The Republican War on Science.” I could just as easily write a book called “The Democratic War on Science.” The conflict conservatives have with science is mostly caused by religion. Some religious conservatives reject evolution, and some oppose stem cell research. But neither belief has […]

Millions go to SeaWorld to learn more about sea life and get closer to killer whales. But fewer go now because the documentary “Blackfish” exposed what one reporter called “the darker side” of SeaWorld. The movie, which CNN bought and ran over and over, tells how greedy businessmen take baby whales from their mothers and […]

Protestors demand “social justice.” I hate their chant. If I oppose their cause, then I’m for social “injustice”? Nonsense. The protesters usually want to punish capitalism. “Spread those resources,” says Hillary Clinton. Even capitalists often make the mistake of talking about “social justice” as if it’s the opposite of free markets or a reason to […]

It’s graduation time! Have we learned much? No. College has become a scam. Some students benefit: those with full scholarships and/or rich parents so they don’t go deep into debt, those who love learning for its own sake and land jobs in academia and those who get jobs that require a college credential. But that’s […]

For years, my scientist brother Tom was the nonpolitical Stossel. I defended free markets on TV, and he studied blood at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Mom asked me when I’d get a “real job” like his. Then the crusade against capitalism reached his world. Medical “journalists” demanded that corporations distance themselves from medical […]

Charles Murray, already controversial for writing books on how welfare hurts the poor, on ethnic differences in IQ and on (less controversial, but my favorite) happiness and good government, has written a new book that argues that it’s time for civil disobedience. Government has become so oppressive, constantly restricting us with new regulations, that our […]

“This vast right-wing conspiracy,” Hillary Clinton said, “has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced.” That was the “feminist” first lady’s response when her husband was accused of having sex with a 21-year-old. Bill was more lawyerly. He said things like, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” […]

I took a camera to Times Square this week and asked people, “What creates jobs?” Most had no answer. One said, “stimulus!” What? Government creates jobs? No! I suppose it’s natural that people think government creates jobs because politicians always say that. “We’ve now created more than 10 million,” said President Obama. But that just […]

It’s not smart to get too enthusiastic about any politician. I’ve been disappointed often. I believed Bill Clinton when he said, “the era of big government is over.” I thought George W. Bush was a “small government guy.” And Barack Obama … Well, never mind. If I want limited government and individual freedom, to whom […]

Religious oppression was one reason many of our ancestors came to America. They wanted to escape rulers who demanded that everyone worship their way. In Ireland, Catholics couldn’t vote or own a gun. I assumed that because many of America’s founders came here to escape such repression, they were eager to allow religious freedom in […]

Bake me a cake, or go to jail! Sadly, that is the new message from “inclusive” America. If you don’t want to cater, photograph, preside over, sell pizza at, sell flowers to or otherwise participate in a gay wedding, you will be punished. If you don’t want your business to pay for a kind of […]

They’re doing it again! When the last housing bubble burst, politicians blamed “greedy banks.” They said mortgage companies lent money recklessly, making loans to people with dubious credit, for down payments as low as 3 percent. “It will work out,” said the optimistic bankers. Regulators didn’t disagree. Everyone said, “Home prices will keep going up.” […]

No matter what you do, modern liberals will tell you you’re wrong. For decades, liberals complained that American society is segregated because rich, white people don’t want to live in ethnically mixed neighborhoods. Sometimes, liberals had a point. From the 1930s to 1960s, as rich white people moved into New York City, urban planner Robert […]

Rahm Emanuel, current mayor of my old hometown, Chicago, is not a gentle soul. But he’s smarter than his big-spending predecessor, Richard M. Daley, and the union pawn, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who becomes the new mayor if he beats Emanuel in a run-off election April 7. Emanuel was the tough Obama chief of staff who […]

Donald Trump’s kids and Paris Hilton’s siblings were born rich. That gave them a big advantage in life. Unfair! Inequality in wealth has grown. Today the richest 1 percent of Americans own a third of the assets. That’s not fair! But wherever people are free, that’s what happens. Some people are luckier, smarter or just […]

A new documentary calls colleges like Harvard and Notre Dame “The Hunting Ground,” where rapists prey on women. A bipartisan group of senators demand new rules to “curb campus sexual assaults.” Apparently, new laws are needed because at colleges, sexual assault is “epidemic.” Rape is so common that there is a “rape culture.” I hear […]

Lots of people sure hate the Koch brothers. The Kochs get death threats like this: “If I had a chance to murder a Koch brother in cold blood, I would surely take it.” Jim Dean doesn’t want to kill the Kochs, but he does want new laws to limit their influence. Dean’s brother Howard was […]

For years, people assumed encyclopedias had to be created by professionals. Then Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attempted to create an encyclopedia without central planners. That sounded like a terrible idea to the old gatekeepers — people who hired experts to carefully fact-check and edit every encyclopedia entry. When they heard that Wales would crowdsource an […]

For most of history, people suffered in miserable poverty. Then, in a few hundred years, some new ideas made life hugely better for billions of us — things like running water, the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, the Internet. We want people to keep coming up with new and better ideas. But there’s a […]

President Obama sure is consistent. His State of the Union address sounded like his other speeches: What I’ve done is great! America is in a much better position. We’ve created a manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs. More oil is produced at home. I cut deficits in half! Give me a break. The deficit is lower […]

It’s easy to “fire” a business that rips you off. Just go to a different one. It’s a lot easier to patronize another business than to get government to fix the problem. But bad businesses and the politicians they own, I mean influence, often don’t want you to have that choice. I’ve written about how […]

Trust — society depends on it. For most of history, our ancestors lived in clans with other family members, or in small villages. Everyone pretty much knew who was trustworthy. People behaved better because they wanted good relationships with family members and neighbors. It’s one reason that today we trust friends and family more than […]

No wonder Cuba wallows in poverty. Last week, the New York Times reported that the Castro brothers opened a special business zone where foreign companies “would be given greater control over setting wages at factories. … (P)roposals would be approved or rejected within 60 days.” What? If I want to give someone a raise, I […]

This Christmas Eve, if you see a fat man in a sleigh distributing presents, tell him he is in violation of several government regulations. The Federal Aviation Administration is upset about his secret flight path, and his gift bag violates charity tax rules. In real life, government barely lets people give each other rides in […]