By Kerry McDonald Technology has the potential to decentralize K-12 education and make it more learner-directed, upending a top-down system in favor of individual autonomy and self-determination. But the technology can’t do this alone. It requires a learning environment that fosters creativity and curiosity, using digital platforms and supportive adults to facilitate … [Read more...] about How Microschool Networks Expand Learning Options
Technology
Solar Roads: Another Government-Funded Energy Failure
By Ross Marchand Surprise—solar panels don’t make great roads. The French government recently learned this the hard way after debuting a $6 million solar road in Normandy in 2016. The road generated about half as much power as expected, and costs exceeded any reasonable expectation for a road…or even a solar panel. An American experiment in solar roads fared similarly. In … [Read more...] about Solar Roads: Another Government-Funded Energy Failure
A Tale of Two Bubbles: How the Fed Crashed the Tech and the Housing Markets
By Luka Nikolic Since its founding, the Federal Reserve has had a hand in creating some of the largest bubbles in history. When the bank lowers interest rates, there is excess cash in the economy, making it relatively cheap for anyone to borrow. This creates malinvestment in the economy because while not everyone has profitable ideas, many more people can borrow, causing a … [Read more...] about A Tale of Two Bubbles: How the Fed Crashed the Tech and the Housing Markets
Tech Innovators in Tanzania Connect 5,000 Tutors with Students in New Online Platform
By Goodhope Amani The Tanzanian government has announced free education for primary through secondary school, but a quality education remains an intense debate in Tanzanian society. Tech innovators in Tanzania are hoping to improve the quality of education through technology, seizing on the fact that about 45 percent of Tanzanians are now online, and that number is … [Read more...] about Tech Innovators in Tanzania Connect 5,000 Tutors with Students in New Online Platform
What The 15-Hour Work Week Prophets Failed To Account For
By Saul Zimet There is a utopian vision shared by hard workers everywhere: One day we will look back on all our accomplishments and say “at last, the age of respite and luxury has finally arrived!” But as the forecasted luxury manifests all around us, the respite is nowhere in sight. John Maynard Keynes, one of history’s most influential economists, predicted in 1930 that … [Read more...] about What The 15-Hour Work Week Prophets Failed To Account For
Aristophanes, Central Planning, and the Enduring Appeal of Utopian Fantasies
By Sarah Skwire Ludwig von Mises’s essay “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth,” references Aristophanes’ play The Birds and the medieval fantasy of the idyllic and work-free Land of Cockaigne when Mises notes of socialist planners that, Economics as such figures all too sparsely in the glamorous pictures painted by the Utopians. They invariably explain how, … [Read more...] about Aristophanes, Central Planning, and the Enduring Appeal of Utopian Fantasies
California’s High-Speed Train Makes Solyndra Look Like a Bargain
By David Boaz The ongoing saga of California’s high-speed bullet train may end up being as classic a story of Democratic politicians’ hubris as the Solyndra debacle. The difference is that the bullet train is still going—well, not the train itself, but the taxpayer spending on the planning—despite some optimism earlier this year that Gov. Gavin Newsom was going to put the … [Read more...] about California’s High-Speed Train Makes Solyndra Look Like a Bargain
Electric Cars Aren’t Nearly as Green as People Think
By Catherine Alles For years, I’ve imagined how great it would be to own an electric car. Instead of spending almost 40 bucks every week or so on gas, I could just drop by my local outpost and charge my car while I buy organic vegetables. Wouldn’t that be great? Not only for myself but also for the environment? Maybe not. Although electric cars are a step in the right … [Read more...] about Electric Cars Aren’t Nearly as Green as People Think
We Should All Regulate Facebook and Google
By Max Gulker Our economy depends on the continued forward march of technological progress. But with this growth come new problems and, inevitably, new regulation. We must ensure that this regulation does not stifle tomorrow’s innovations, whose details we cannot predict in advance. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Kara Swisher zeroes in on the way the large tech … [Read more...] about We Should All Regulate Facebook and Google