Edmund Contoski

The U.K. withdrawal (“Brexit”) from the European Union drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 611 points, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Though the stock market rebounded, more unsettling news is on the way on economic, political and social fronts. Events will be startling, severe and global.

The Keep America Beautiful campaign does not even rank plastic bags in the top ten sources of nationwide litter. Madness.

Despite its reputation for freedom, the U.S. has the world’s highest prison population rate, 716 inmates per 100,000 people. More than half the countries of the world have rates less than one-fifth of that. The United States’ rate is six times that of Canada and six to nine times greater than the rates of Western European nations, with whom we have the most cultural and historical ties. Why is criminality so much higher here than in those countries? The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but 22 percent of its prison population.

The purpose of any economic exchange is to better one’s position, whether a person buys or sells something for money or barters for something else. This is the essence of free market capitalism, where all economic transactions are voluntary because they are of mutual benefit. They are all “win-win” situations in the minds of the participants.