Author Archives: Ron Unz

Asian Quotas in the Ivy League? “We See Nothing! Nothing!”

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1516 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Last week I was invited to speak at the annual conference of the Education Writers Association, with the topic of my panel being the perspective of Asian-Americans on Affirmative Action policies in college admissions. Despite having the only … Continue reading →

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Does Race Exist? Do Hills Exist?

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Ron Unz - 2217 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Although my own academic background is in theoretical physics, I’m the first to admit that field seems in the doldrums these days compared with human evolutionary biology. The greatest physics discoveries of the last couple of … Continue reading →

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English and Meritocracy: The Gullibility of Our Political and Media Elites

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1764 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Last week I noted in a column that the California Republicans in the Education Committee of the State Senate had joined an 8-to-0 vote to repeal Proposition 227 and restore Spanish-almost-only “bilingual education” in our schools. The academic … Continue reading →

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Romney, Santorum, and Pawlenty Endorse a Minimum Wage Hike—Do I See a Republican Trend?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1254 Words

Republished from The Unz Review On Friday, several top national Republicans including Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Tim Pawlenty all publicly declared their support for raising the federal minimum wage. Such a dramatic political breakthrough—obviously coordinated at the highest levels—greatly increases the … Continue reading →

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California Republicans Vote to Restore “Bilingual Education”

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1425 Words

Republished from The Unz Review After almost seventeen years history may be about to repeat itself in California politics, though perhaps with a strong element of farce. Late last week, the Senate Education Committee voted 8-to-0 to place a measure on the November … Continue reading →

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The Huge Economic Productivity of Divine Monarchs

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1598 Words

Republished from The Unz Review When I first began investigating the minimum wage a couple of years ago, one of my early surprises was its sharp decline across the decades, having fallen by roughly one-third in real value since its … Continue reading →

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Raising the National Minimum Wage to (Almost) $12 per Hour

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1063 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Earlier this week unfortunate Americans were shown the advantages of a functioning political system as the German government announced it would establish a minimum wage of $8.50 Euros or almost $12 per hour. In the past Germany … Continue reading →

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Pelosi vs. Boehner on the Minimum Wage?

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1637 Words

Republished from The Unz Review House Speaker John Boehner, the highest ranking Republican in America, has famously declared that he’d rather commit suicide than pass a minimum wage increase.  Meanwhile, California’s own Nancy Pelosi, his opposite number, is a strong supporter … Continue reading →

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Banquo’s Ghost as a Minimum Wage Initiative

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Ron Unz - 657 Words

Republished from The Unz Review In all respects except one, the last week couldn’t have been better for my California initiative to raise the state minimum wage to $12 per hour, the highest in the America. NPR broadcast a remarkably long … Continue reading →

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Understanding the CBO Analysis of a Minimum Wage Hike

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1643 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Three weeks ago the powerful political momentum favoring a large minimum wage hike received a major setback as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its report indicating that the Democratic goal of raising the minimum wage to … Continue reading →

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A Moderate Democratic Billionaire and a Moderate Republican Billionaire

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Ron Unz - 713 Words

Republished from The Unz Review An important story ran Saturday ran in the Los Angeles Times: Bid to hike L.A. minimum wage gets pair of powerful backers As the L.A. City Council examines the ‘living wage’ issue, philanthropist Eli Broad and … Continue reading →

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Walmart, Peter Thiel, the Weekly Standard, and Other Dog-Biters

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1288 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Our media naturally tends to cover stories that are surprising or unexpected far more than boringly routine ones, and this has certainly been a central aspect of my ongoing initiative campaign to raise the California … Continue reading →

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Should We Cut the Minimum Wage?

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1424 Words

Republished from The Unz Review The current debate raging over the role of the minimum wage is usually presented as being fought between two choices. On the one side are those who advocate a large wage hike and on the … Continue reading →

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What’s Good for America Is Good for Wal-Mart, and Vice-Versa

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1131 Words

Republished from Forbes During the 1950s peak of America’s post-war prosperity, Detroit was our wealthiest city, General Motors our biggest employer, and GM CEO “Engine Charlie” Wilson delivered the famously misquoted claim that “what was good for our country was … Continue reading →

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The Conservative Case for a Higher Minimum Wage

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1199 Words

Republished from Fox & Hounds Daily Over the last couple of months the minimum wage has moved into the political headlines, but most of the arguments for raising it have come from liberals.  That’s fine, but since I’m not a … Continue reading →

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Higher Minimum Wage Would Help Immigrants, Taxpayers

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Ron Unz - 602 Words

Republished from The San Jose Mercury News Millions of California immigrants work in low-wage service industries. They would be among the greatest beneficiaries of our ballot initiative to raise the state minimum wage to $12 per hour. Latinos, many of … Continue reading →

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Raising the Minimum Wage Isn’t an “Anti-Immigrant” Idea

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1604 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Simple ideas buoyed by a tidal wave of popular sentiment are difficult to oppose, and subterfuge is one of the favored methods. National support for raising the minimum wage runs between 70% and 75% in … Continue reading →

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The Minimum Wage and Illegal Immigration

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1553 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Although our school textbooks claim we live in a democracy or a representative republic, a more accurate formulation might label our polity a “mediocracy.” Our views and votes as well as those of our elected … Continue reading →

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Rightwingers for Higher Wages

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1804 Words

Republished from The Unz Review In my last column I had noted that the national debate over poverty and inequality had drawn a peculiar response from mainstream conservatives. Whereas liberals advocated making work pay by raising the minimum wage, their conservative counterparts … Continue reading →

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How California Can Raise All Boats

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Ron Unz - 890 Words

Republished from The Los Angeles Times California is home to both Silicon Valley and Hollywood, two of the world’s greatest wealth-producing engines, and much of the state enjoys tremendous affluence. By some estimates, my own town of Palo Alto has … Continue reading →

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Conservatives for More Welfare

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Ron Unz - 970 Words

Republished from The Unz Review As economic inequality and the plight of the working-poor have suddenly erupted as leading topics in the national debate, the proposed solution of a big minimum wage hike has evoked many varied reactions. On the Democratic side, … Continue reading →

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Raise the Minimum Wage to $12 an Hour

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Ron Unz - 585 Words

From Making Low Wages Livable – A Symposium  in The New York Times Tens of millions of low-wage workers in the United States are trapped in lives of poverty. Many suggestions have been put forth to improve their difficult situation, ranging from … Continue reading →

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A $12 Minimum Wage: Transforming Policy Idea into Political Reality

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Ron Unz - 2441 Words

Republished from The Unz Review As most readers have no doubt already heard, early last week I filed the text of an initiative that would raise California’s minimum wage to $12.00 per hour, a figure far higher than that of any … Continue reading →

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Open Borders, American Elites, and the Minimum Wage

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Ron Unz - 383 Words

Read at The Unz Review Last week I took a brief break from two months of concentrated software development effort on my new publication The Unz Review to travel to NYC for a debate on a hypothetical “Open Borders” proposal for private … Continue reading →

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Announcing The Unz Review

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Ron Unz - 233 Words

Following over two months of concentrated development effort, I’m very pleased to finally release my new webzine, The Unz Review, intended to provide a convenient platform for many of those important and controversial perspectives regularly ignored by our mainstream media outlets. … Continue reading →

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