Richard Larsen's Contributions

A seemingly accelerating trend with many Americans is to look with skepticism and a jaundiced perspective in business, capitalism, and the profit motive. In spite of efforts by some to rewrite history, those of us who are students...

The Brexit vote could be the beginning of the unravelling of the EU. Other countries considering their own "Brexit" are Czechoslovakia ("Czechout"), Finland, ("Finnish"), Italy ("Italeave"), and Netherlands ("Nexit"). As the anti-globalization sentiment grows, there could be a domino effect...

At the Democrat presidential debate two weeks ago, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said we “should look to countries like Denmark…and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.” The good senator should either rephrase his statement...

The middle class in America is shrinking; numerically in terms of the percentage of the total population, as well as qualitatively in terms of the quality of life. Most of us consider ourselves to be members of...

According to a Gallup poll this past week, 72% of Americans see the burgeoning power of the federal government as our greatest threat. This should serve as a wakeup call to the statists in Washington who are continuously expanding the role of government in micromanaging our lives.

There was a time when it was thought to be prudent to not spend beyond one’s means; a time when frugality was a desirable trait, and when such discipline and restraint constituted a man or woman of wisdom in financial affairs.

Listening to the mainstream media and the dominant party in D.C. this week would lead one to believe that the earth would quit revolving on its axis, the sun would no longer rise...

Some of the most vociferous denunciation of Obamacare is coming from those who were so ardently supporting its passage, and the party that was forcing it upon the nation. Last week representatives of three of the nation’s largest unions sent a warning letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

When something substantive emanates from Hollywood, it’s worth taking note of. While so much of the celebrity world, and the pop-culture media, is egocentric, self-aggrandizing, and self-absorbed,..

Today, it’s a broken and dilapidated city with nearly $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities, and no way to pay for them. The city has lost 63% of its population, has lost over 90% of its manufacturing jobs, over 48% of them lost in the last decade alone.

As the stock market has been advancing into all-time high territory this week, many Americans are wondering how the economy can be so great while they’re struggling so hard to make ends meet.

“One man with courage makes a majority,” penned Thomas Jefferson. When that courage is armed with principle and backed by constitutional precepts, it’s formidable. Such was the case this week when Kentucky’s Junior Senator, Rand Paul, took to the floor of the senate in a one-man filibuster, reminiscent of the 1939 “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Listening to our top politician in Washington this week was reminiscent of Chicken Little’s apocalyptic warning, “The sky is falling.” In daily appearances the loss of 2.5% of the federal budget has been lamented, implying catastrophic consequences.

Historically, Presidential Inaugural Addresses have sought to inspire and unite the nation, and provide directional leadership for the next presidential term. Perhaps to some, last Monday’s speech did that. But to adherents of American exceptionalism, it was disconcerting.

The major news services this week universally proclaimed that the “fiscal cliff” had been averted by a last minute deal between congress and the White House. There were many components to the fiscal cliff, some of which have been addressed by the last-minute deal, and many that were not.

I was astounded recently to hear someone say they believe the talk of a “fiscal cliff” is artificial and not a legitimate threat. There is an artificial component to it in that government created it, but the threat is legitimate, and not only will it impact everyone of us in one way or another, even if an agreement is reached in Washington, but the cumulative economic impact could be significant.

The late Allan Bloom, professor of philosophy at Cornell, Yale, and the University of Chicago, wrote some twenty years ago in The Closing of the American Mind, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.” If all truth is relative, all morality becomes relative as well, for the elimination of absolute truth claims absolute morality as its first victim.