Downsizing Blog
Republicans Turn Progressive
Rather than supporting land privatization, Republicans today are embracing the opposite.
Government Octopus Threatens Economy
As the government shutdown drags on, it is starting to damage activities across the economy because federal tentacles are in everything.
Privatize to Mitigate Shutdown Damage
Political battles would not impact important activities if they were separated from the federal government.
Privatizing Federal Grazing Lands
The federal government owns 640 million acres of land—mainly in the West—which is 28 percent of land in the United States.
AEI Forum on American Indians
At an AEI forum this week, Naomi Schaefer Riley discussed her insightful new book on Indian policies, The New Trail of Tears.
Education for American Indians
Among the many failures of federal policies over the decades, the failures of Indian policies stand out. The government has deprived American Indians of their lands, resources, and freedom in many ways. It has failed to create an institutional structure supportive of prosperity on reservations. And the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been mismanaged for two centuries, as I discuss here.
Devolving Federal Lands
The federal government owns 28 percent of the land in the United States, including about half of the land in the 11 westernmost states.
Indians, Free Markets, and Property Rights
In a Wall Street Journal oped today, Naomi Schaefer Riley discusses federal policies toward American Indians.
Burt’s Bees and Bureaucracies
The Washington Post discusses an effort by a Maine philanthropist to donate 88,000 acres of land to the National Park Service (NPS). Showing good sense, Mainers are pushing back against the idea:
NYT Reportage on Government Lands
The recent “occupation” of government-owned lands in Eastern Oregon by disgruntled ranchers’ motivated Quoctrung Bui and Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times (NYT) to produce an edifying essay on January 6th. It was aptly titled “Why the Government Owns So Much Land in the West.” Curiously, the NYT essay fails to mention one of the most significant, recent, and contentious attempts to “dispose” of federal public lands.