The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. To the naive mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement, it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions and that a division of authority will actually extend the possibility of overall order. Yet that decentralization actually leads to more information being taken into account.

In some places, a college degree is still like a "union card" for getting a job. They may be a rough indicator of how much information is in a person's head, but information is not the same as knowledge. William F. Buckley once said that he would "rather live in a society ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than in a society ruled by the 2,000 faculty members of Harvard University." He said this for a good reason.

Person A in my model was Robert Moses, who lived from 1888 to 1981 and had a lot of power as an official "planner" for New York City for decades, under both Democratic and Republican mayors. He is the best example of how power corrupts, because the longer he stayed, the less he cared about different points of view.

His "renewal" projects were full of cockiness. When he used the city's power of eminent domain to destroy whole neighborhoods, he made fun of the people whose homes he destroyed. In his mind, the "city" wasn't made up of its people as much as it was made up of the concrete buildings he saw in their place. The people who lived in the city were the "jungles" that he would "clear out" and clean with the help of the city government.

Jane Jacobs, who lived from 1916 to 2006, was Person B in my model. She was a hero of urban culture if there ever was one. She was very smart and observant, and she was not afraid to say what she thought. She knew places from the bottom up. "Well-educated" Robert Moses saw jungle when he looked down on cities from above, but Jacobs' principled opposition to his grandiose plans showed that "the real jungle is in the office of the bureaucrats."

Today, May 4, 2023, is the 107th anniversary of the amazing Jane Jacobs's birth. No one can claim to be an expert on cities if they don't know what she thought, wrote, and did.

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City is an amazing documentary movie that I think everyone should watch. One of the many people featured in the film says this about Jacobs:

Never mind high-falutin’ theories and so forth. What are we looking at? What are we seeing? Do you want to trust some theory that somebody figured out sitting in an office somewhere, or do you want to trust what you actually see out there with your own eyes? Maybe the experts didn’t really know as much as they pretended to know.

When Robert Moses was at the top of his power and influence, he tore at the heart of New York City's lively, often mixed neighborhoods. He got rid of the lively streets and sidewalks and put up lifeless high-rise public housing in their place, which even the people who lived there didn't like. He liked his bulldozers, but he liked people more.

During one of the many public events she helped plan, Jacobs wore a sign around her neck that said "Conscience: the Ultimate Weapon!" in big letters.

Jacobs was a writer for a living. She was smart not because she went to college and got a degree, but because she knew how people and cities worked from living in them. Moses wanted to build a road through a park that people loved, but she led the people to stop him. This showed how smart she was. Jane Jacobs was Moses' David when he wanted to build a highway through Lower Manhattan, which would have ruined life in Greenwich Village and Soho for good. It's an inspiring story about how a small group of people stood up to the government and showed that the ruler was wrong.

In the name of "urban renewal" and with all the political fanfare of its ribbon-cutting events, Jacobs asked us to look at what government bullies like Robert Moses had actually done:

Look what we have built…Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism, and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace. Middle-income housing projects which are truly models of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life. Luxury housing projects that mitigate their inanity, or try to, with a vapid vulgarity. Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums…Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.

In this essay, I'm not going to talk about the famous fights between Jacob and Moses in great detail. Instead, I'm going to share some of her best ideas to celebrate her birthday and encourage people to read her classic book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. There are also some great stories about her in the list of suggested reading below.

I hope that these words by Jacobs will inspire many new people to read her books:

"There is nothing more inert than a government bureau. There is nothing more inert than a planning office. It gets going in one direction and it’s never going to change of its own accord…The citizens are going to have to frustrate the planners. I thereupon began to devote myself to frustrating planners, and so did the whole neighborhood."

_____

"I was brought up to believe that there is no virtue in conforming meekly to the dominant opinion of the moment. I was encouraged to believe that simple conformity results in stagnation for a society, and that American progress has been largely owing to the opportunity for experimentation, the leeway given initiative, and to a gusto and a freedom for chewing over odd ideas."

_____

"I was taught that the American’s right to be a free individual, not at the mercy of the state, was hard-won and that its price was eternal vigilance, that I too would have to be vigilant. I was made to feel that it would be a disgrace to me, as an individual, if I should not value or should give up rights that were dearly bought. I am grateful for that upbringing."

_____

"Extremists typically want to squash not only those who disagree with them diametrically, but those who disagree with them at all. It seems to me that in every country where extremists of the left have gotten sufficiently in the saddle to squash the extremists of the right, they have ridden on to squash the center or terrorize it also. And the same goes for extremists of the right. I do not want that to happen in our country."

_____

"Advanced cultures are usually sophisticated enough or have been sophisticated enough at some point in their pasts, to realize that foxes shouldn’t be relied on to guard henhouses."

_____

"There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served."

_____

"The pseudoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success."

_____

"The trouble with paternalists is that they want to make impossibly profound changes, and they choose impossibly superficial means for doing so."

_____

"The first thing to understand is that the public peace—the sidewalk and street peace—of cities is not kept primarily by the police, necessary as police are. It is kept primarily by an intricate, almost unconscious, network of voluntary controls and standards among the people themselves, and enforced by the people themselves…No amount of police can enforce civilization where the normal, casual enforcement of it has broken down."

_____

"To see complex systems of functional order as order and not as chaos takes understanding. The leaves dropping from the trees in the autumn, the interior of an airplane engine, the entrails of a dissected rabbit, the city desks of a newspaper—all appear to be chaos, but they are seen without comprehension. Once they are seen as systems of order, they actually look different."

_____

"Historically, solutions to city problems have very seldom come from the top. They come from people who understand the problems firsthand because they’re living with them and have new and ingenious and often very off-beat ideas of how to solve them."

_____

"Under the seeming disorder of the old [pre-“urban renewal’] city…is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the street and the freedom of the city. It is a complex order. This order is all composed of movement and change and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city, and liken it to the dance—not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole."

During the 2020 campaign, when Joe Biden wasn't hiding out in his Delaware basement, he often walked on stage to the Staple Singers' song "We the People." The theme of the song was "unity," but his government does the exact opposite: it promotes division, class warfare, groupthink, racially charged rhetoric, and brazen attempts to censor.

Love him or hate him, or feel something in between, Trump was more true to the spirit of his 2016 song, "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister, than Biden was to his.

Ross Perot, an independent and oddball presidential candidate in 1992, chose Patsy Cline's song "Crazy" as his campaign song.

In 1982, when I was 41 years old, I ran for a seat in Congress as a candidate for a big party. I didn't have a campaign song, so I lost to the person who was already in office. There might have been a link. If I were running today, I think I would choose "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from the 2012 movie Les Miserables.

If my opponent was a leftist or "progressive" (Is there a difference? ), I would love to pick a song for his campaign. He or she would probably disagree, but I'm pretty sure that the Beatles song "Taxman" from 1966 would be great.

The setting in which George Harrison wrote the words to "Taxman" is very important to the meaning of the song. In 1966, when the Beatles became famous all over the world, they were suddenly put into the top income tax rate in Britain, which was 90%. Harold Wilson, the new Labour Party Prime Minister, added another 5% super-tax. This meant that the young artists owed almost all of the money they made to an organization that had almost nothing to do with making music.

The Fab Four got a good idea of what John Lennon meant when he talked about a world with "no possessions." They almost went broke because Wilson's taxes were so high. Paul, John, George, and Ringo's accountant told them, "Two of you are close to being bankrupt, and the other two could soon be." It's clear why they wrote these lyrics:

Let me tell you how it will be.

There’s one for you, nineteen for me,

‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman.

Should five per cent appear too small,

Be thankful I don’t take it all,

‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman.

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,

If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.

If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat.

If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.

Don’t ask me what I want it for

If you don’t want to pay some more,

‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman.

Now my advice for those who die:

Declare the pennies on your eyes!

‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman.

And you’re working for no one but me.

High-income people didn't see a big drop in their tax rates until Margaret Thatcher was in office. She cut those rates in half, which helped turn Britain from "the sick man of Europe" under "democratic socialism" back into an economic growth engine.

Campaign songs are a part of politics, but I still find it hard to sing about government, even if the tune is catchy. Given how the government usually acts and all the bad things that come with having a lot of power, I find it more normal to gag. But I could sing this song about government like a bird.

Chang and Halliday explained that Mao “went far beyond anything either Hitler or Stalin achieved: he converted people’s colleagues into their jailers, with former colleagues, prisoners and jailers living in the same premises.” Mao’s terror “innovation” resulted in an enormous increase in repression:

In this way, Mao not only drove a massive wedge between people working and living side by side, he greatly enlarged the number of people directly involved in repression, including torture, making the orbit significantly wider than either Stalin or Hitler, who mostly used secret elites (KGB, Gestapo) that held their victims in separate and unseen locales.

Communism's main product wasn't goods or services; it was "interrogations and terrifying mass rallies" where young volunteers were forced to admit they were spies and name others in front of large, frenzied crowds.

When communists were in charge, "fear" was the most common feeling, and Chang and Halliday said it was awful.

If you weren't being questioned or shouting slogans "hysterically" at protests, you were "pounded flat at indoctrination meetings." When you were alone, you "spent" your time writing "thought examinations." Mao said, "Tell everyone to write their thought examination, and have them write it three times, five times, over and over again... Tell everyone to come clean about everything they have ever kept to themselves that is bad for the Party."

Everyone turned into an informant, even themselves. Chang and Halliday said, "Everyone was told to write down information that was passed along by other people informally. The government called these "small broadcasts." One person who lived through the revolution said, "You had to write down what X or Y said, as well as what you said that wasn't so good."

The standards for "not so good" were "vague," so "out of fear, people would err on the side of including more."

Progressives in the United States look through tweets to find "small broadcasts." If you like a "not so good" social media post, you could lose your job.

Mark Tykocinski, the president of Thomas Jefferson University and head of its medical school, liked tweets that questioned COVID vaccines, gender reassignment surgery for children, and university diversity offices. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Susan Snyder wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer about what she thought were Tykocinski's mistakes. She didn't care about freedom of speech.

On American college campuses today, students are told to call "bias response teams" if they want to say something bad about other students, teachers, or guest speakers. They haven't killed a professor or speaker yet, like they did in Mao's China, but they do interrupt speakers and threaten to do so.

The Minnesota House has passed a bill that would watch what people say for "biased" content that is said to make people hate and be afraid of each other.

People in America say, "I have nothing to hide," even though the government has been caught spying on its own people. These people have no idea that they are giving up their liberty.

Chang and Halliday said that in Mao's China, "the idea of privacy could not be brought up because a Communist had to reject the private." Any sign that a person didn't want to be reported was seen as "proof" that they were a spy, because "if you are innocent, there shouldn't be anything that can't be reported to the Party."

As Mao's orders were being carried out at one college, a guy joked, "Do we have to write down what we say to our wives when we go to bed?" Soon, everyone at his college, except for one teacher or administrator, was thought to be a spy.

Chang and Halliday reported how Mao broke the bonds of trust and prevented the exchange of views:

By suppressing “small broadcasts,” [Mao] also plugged what was virtually the only unofficial source of information, in a context where he completely controlled all other channels. No outside press was available, and no one had access to a radio. Nor could letters be exchanged with the outside world, including one’s family: any communication from a Nationalist area was evidence of espionage.

Under Mao, people could no longer think for themselves. "Indoctrination and fear turned the lively young volunteers...into robots," said one historian.

Irony, comedy, and humor were all against the law. The crime for doing these things was called "Speaking Weird Words." Mao wanted to make robots. Chang and Halliday said, "He didn't want active, willing participation (after all, willingness can be taken away). He did not want helpers. He needed a machine whose gears would all work together when he pushed a button."

When writers were let into Yenan in 1944, one of them said it had "an eerie uniformity." The writer wrote, "If you ask twenty or thirty people, from intellectuals to workers, the same question about any subject, their answers are always more or less the same... Even when it comes to love, it seems that meetings have decided on a point of view."

These eager volunteers and students "denied vehemently and as a group that the Party had any direct control over their thoughts." In the same way, some Americans don't care about free speech and invasions of privacy.

During the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, which were still to come, tens of millions of people would die. Ten years after the events in Chang and Halliday's book, Mao's plan for a totalitarian China was put into place across the whole country. Dikotter said, "Ideological education became the norm, with daily sessions of self-criticism, self-condemnation, and self-exposure, until all resistance was crushed and the individual was broken and ready to serve the collective."

Everyone had to say things about family and friends that were very bad. Dikotter said, "Even fleeting impressions had to be caught and looked at, because they often showed the bourgeois that was hiding behind a mask of socialist conformity."

Hatred joined fear as the dominant emotions; love and compassion were crowded out. Dikötter described the sad reality of a Maoist country made mad by hate:

[Buddhist] monks, like teachers, professors, engineers or entrepreneurs, had to reform themselves, denounce each other, abandon their ‘feudal ideology’ and demonstrate their hatred towards class enemies. Gone was the idea of compassion and kindness extended to all living beings.

Without freedom of thought, progress is impossible. When human beings have no freedom to flourish, hatred triumphs over love. Maoism brought death and destruction; today’s Maoists will do the same.

There is also a lot of good news about the world's environment:

Over the last 100 years, the chance of dying in a natural disaster like an earthquake, flood, drought, storm, wildfire, collapse, or disease has dropped by almost 99 percent.

From 1982 to 2016, the world's tree canopy grew by an area that is bigger than Alaska and Montana put together.

In 2017, the World Database on Protected Areas said that protected areas covered 15% of the land surface of the Earth. That's almost twice the size of the United States.

In that year, nearly 7% of the world's seas were protected by marine protected areas. That's a bigger area than South America by more than two times.

Another good thing for fish is that since 2012, more than half of all seafood eaten came from aquaculture instead of fish caught in the wild.

Even though the total amount of CO2 released around the world is still going up, both the total amount and the amount per person are going down in rich countries.

Why are we so sad when there is so much good news around us? We have evolved to look out for danger. When the world was much more dangerous, that was the best way to stay alive. But our genes haven't changed, even though the world has. That's why the most terrible news always makes it to the front page of the newspaper. If it hurts, it's news.

Even worse, the media have to fight with each other for the same limited number of eyes. So, telling stories in the most exciting way possible pays off. Or, a recent study found that for an average-length headline, "each additional negative word increased the click-through rate by 2.3%." So, in a race to the bottom, the news has gotten a lot worse over the last 20 years.

We are actually scaring ourselves to death. In some parts of the world, the number of people with anxiety, depression, and even suicide is going up. Follow the trends, not the news, to keep your head on straight and keep things in perspective. You will find that the world is in much better shape than it seems. You'll feel happier and, most importantly, you'll know more.

According to the 1864 census, the one thousand residents of Coto Mixto did not have a monarch or a feudal lord and retained their historic privileges. Its social structures could be considered anarchic because the mayor, known as the judge, was elected by one family chief in an assembly every three years, and he was advised by three men from the region's villages. It operated similarly to a contemporary neighborhood association, in which every one or two years, one member per home elects a chairman. In addition, laws were ancient unwritten traditions and customs that were not dissimilar to the natural law.

Throughout seven centuries, they maintained historical privileges recognized by other kingdoms, such as free citizenship selection, tax exemptions, and voluntary military service. In Coto Mixto, there were no security forces, and anyone could be detained or deprived of his possessions, although locals turned over murder suspects to Spanish forces if the evidence was conclusive. They also had asylum and farming privileges, allowing them to cultivate tobacco, which was and still is a state-enforced monopoly in Spain. Thanks to the "Camio Privilegiado," a commercial route between Portugal and Spain on which no foreign authority could impose tariffs, they could have engaged in free trade.

Contrary to the assertion of statists that anarchist societies are insecure, there is no evidence that Coto Mixto's free society has a higher crime rate than Portugal or Spain. Moreover, the locals were devout Catholics who respected all traditions and worked together for the common welfare; therefore, it appears that the notion that we need the government to enforce morality and virtues is another myth. This anarchist society was finally stable for seven centuries without violence or the need for a state to maintain peace, prosperity, and stability.

After examining the merits of this regime, we must inquire as to why Coto Mixto disappeared. Queen Isabella II's liberal administration (known as Jacobin liberalism in Spain) viewed Coto Mixto as a hindrance to their homogeneity and egalitarian objectives.

In the name of national security, they launched a smear campaign against mixtos, claiming that the hundreds of people who benefited from mixtos supported smuggling and criminality. As we have seen, such claims are blatant slander, but they were sufficient for the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to sign the Treaty of Lisbon in 1864 and divide the territory of Coto Mixto. In 1868, the locals ultimately surrendered.

There are numerous concerns regarding genuine anarchy. Could anarchy coexist with order? Yes, since it is the natural human organization system based on natural law. Could this system stand the test of time? Yes, but we must not forget that Coto Mixto persisted so long because of feudal rights and the inaction of the Spanish and Portuguese governments. Because they had more powerful armies, whenever these powers desired, they abolished all historical legal customs and liberties, just as any modern government would do if it wished to eliminate constitutional restrictions on its authority.

The utopian solution of dividing Europe into hundreds of political units in which no state is larger than Liechtenstein or the small principalities of the Holy Roman Empire will be difficult if we do not reconsider feudal rights, not as evil institutions but as a viable alternative to the increasing centralization of state power in Brussels, the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union. Secession is only possible if the citizens of neighboring city-states never sanction military attacks against one another. All secessionist and anarchist movements will be crushed with disproportionate force if the culture war is not won.

Coto Mixto is just one of a lengthy list of anarchic societies with some degree of order. The reader may also refer to the American West (19th century), Celtic Ireland (650–1650), the Icelandic Commonwealth (930–1262), Rhode Island (1636–48), Albemarle (1640–63), Pennsylvania (1681–90), and Cospaia (1440–1800) for additional examples. Anarchy is not unachievable.

In an article about the bill in the Orlando Sentinel, a professor says, "The government has no business banning or censoring subjects in higher education." Another person told The Washington Post, "It's basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy." (I have problems with the God of "democracy," but in a democracy, don't the majority get to set the rules, and didn't DeSantis just win in a landslide?).

Remember that the new Florida law applies to public schools and universities, which are higher education institutions that the state of Florida set up and pays for. It doesn't work for private schools or colleges. You might also want to know that most public schools and universities don't include different points of view when they talk about "diversity" these days. When it comes to intellectual viewpoints, they are all too often monopolies with only one point of view that fits everyone.

So, what the two academics are saying, in effect, is this: Once we get taxpayer money (basically at gunpoint, since you go to jail if you don't pay your taxes), we can do whatever we want with it. We don't have to listen to the people who pay the bill or their elected officials who gave us the money. In other words, even highway robbery is fine as long as we get the money; no one else has a say.

And, of course, those professors would be happy if even more money fell from the sky and landed in their already full laps.

No matter how many PhDs are after your name, I don't care. If you're so self-centered and moralistic that you think you have a right to other people's money that can't be taken away, you need to go back to school and learn who pays the bills.

Do I like the idea of politicians telling schools what they can and can't teach? No, I don't. I also don't like the idea of teachers asking for my money and getting mad when I tell my elected officials I don't want what they're selling.

There is something wrong with this situation that can only be fixed in one way. The trouble is that when governments pay for something with money from taxpayers, it always leads to disagreements that can't be solved. Not so in free markets, where I don't have to pay for a place I don't like. The answer, then, is freedom—the freedom to choose what you want, pay for what you want, and not pay for what you don't want.

In a free society, you can't force someone to give you money and then get mad when they say "no thanks." DeSantis should tell schools and universities in Florida the following: If you want to do whatever you want on your own, that's fine. We'll stop giving you money. You will then be free to get money from users, investors, donors, or anyone else who is willing to pay you. Or do what almost everyone else has to do when sales go down: cut costs.

Researchers in my state have found that there are "3.2 times as many DEI staff as history professors" at Georgia Tech. Sorry, Georgia Tech, but I thought I was paying for something else. If my lawmakers and governor decide to spend my money in ways that make me happier, you'll just have to eat it.

It's funny that some academics who want to force unpopular policies on people who don't want them are also the first to call "fascist" anyone who has a different view. But fascism is all about causing other people to pay for your own personal goals.

People who ask for money but freak out when responsibility is brought into the "exchange," I say, stop whining and grow up. At the very least, if you feel deeply about the issue, go work for a private school or start your own.

Whoever pays for the music has every right to decide what it sounds like.

Still, there are a lot of news stories about how children are supposedly being used in the workplace. Last month, a story about how McDonald's restaurants hire people made people worried about two 10-year-olds who were at a Kentucky McDonald's after midnight. They turned out to be the children of the night manager, who they were visiting.   

Other McDonald's owners and some Dunkin Donuts shop owners have recently been fined for hiring 16- and 17-year-olds for more than nine hours a day or asking them to work past 10:00 pm, among other things. The real question in these situations is who should be in charge of what the teen does. Why should the government stop a 17-year-old from working at McDonald's until 10:30 p.m. if her parents agree?

Proponents of youth employment laws say that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which was passed in 1938, put an end to child labor in the US, and that if the government hadn't stepped in, young kids would still be working in factories and other places. In the developed world, this kind of child labor stopped when the economy got better because of free markets, not because of government rules.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most children who worked in places like mills did so because they were poor. As the country got richer and the average income per person went up, parents were able to take care of their families without depending on their children's jobs.

Robert Whaples, an economist at Wake Forest University, says, "Most economic historians agree that this [FLSA] law was not the main reason why child labor went down and almost went away between 1880 and 1940." Instead, they say that development and economic growth led to higher wages, which gave parents the freedom to keep their kids out of work.

This is still happening in poor countries today. No matter what the government does, child work goes down as the average income per person goes up.

Thanks to the great economic health of our country, most kids don't have to work. The things that state lawmakers did today to make it easier for teens to get jobs are smart ways to make it easier for teens who want to work. No one, teen or adult, should ever be forced to work. We have rules against forced labor that have been around for a long time. The current plans to give more teens access to jobs are based on the idea that people should be able to trade freely in a free labor market.

In Wisconsin, for example, lawmakers proposed a bill that would allow younger teens to serve alcohol in restaurants. This is currently illegal, which can make it hard for these teens to get work in restaurants. A similar law was just passed in Iowa, which also lets 14- and 15-year-olds work up to six hours a day instead of just four during the school year. Ohio lawmakers want to let 14- and 15-year-olds work until 9 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., all year long, as long as their parents and schools agree. And earlier this year, Arkansas lawmakers passed a bill that says 14- and 15-year-olds no longer need work permits.

Getting rid of hurdles to work for teens doesn't mean taking advantage of them. Instead, it gives them more power. When I was in high school, my first job was as a cashier in a drugstore. Outside of home and school, it was exciting to meet so many new people and learn about different points of view. Getting a job as a teen is a big step in life and a good way for young people to gain skills and confidence on their way to becoming adults. It can also level the economic playing field by letting teens with less money buy the goods and tools that teens from wealthier homes often get as gifts.

We should try to get more teens to work and make it easier for them to do so, so that more young people can enjoy the financial independence and emotional satisfaction that work gives.

This is especially true now, when figures on employment show that the number of teens who are working is at a record low. In 1979, nearly 58% of 16- to 19-year-olds had jobs. This number has been around 35 percent since 2010. During the school year, teens are less likely to work because school and events like school take up most of their time. However, teens are also less likely to work during the summer.

People worry a lot about how much kids use social media, but it could be that many teens don't have many other ways to spend their time. Teens can't work and are getting kicked out of public places like malls, so it's not surprising that more of them hide behind computers and social media.

By making it easier for teens to get jobs, they could have healthier, more real interactions with the people in their communities and learn important skills that will help them no matter what road they choose in life.

In every country that has moved toward socialism the phase of the development in which socialism becomes a determining influence on politics has been preceded for many years by a period during which socialist ideals governed the thinking of the more active intellectuals. In Germany this stage had been reached toward the end of the last century; in England and France, about the time of the first World War. To the casual observer it would seem as if the United States had reached this phase after World War II and that the attraction of a planned and directed economic system is now as strong among the American intellectuals as it ever was among their German or English fellows. Experience suggests that once this phase has been reached it is merely a question of time until the views now held by the intellectuals become the governing force of politics.

Hayek did not mean smart or even educated people when he said "intellectuals." What he meant by "secondhand dealers in ideas" was people whose job, vocation, or obsessive hobby was to talk about and analyze the ideas of others and advocate for one or more of these great systems to be put into place. Intellectuals always do things because they think it will lead to good things. Autocrats may use ideas to get power, but intellectuals are true supporters. This is why thinkers are good at what they do.

How does someone become a "intellectual?" Hayek says that their position or part in society as a broker or intermediary gives them a big advantage when it comes to spreading ideas that seem to come from a reliable source. He says that what he means is:

journalists, teachers, ministers, lecturers, publicists, radio commentators, writers of fiction, cartoonists, and artists,” but also professionals, “such as scientists and doctors, who through their habitual intercourse with the printed word become carriers of new ideas outside their own fields and who, because of their expert knowledge on their own subjects, are listened to with respect on most others. (emphasis added)

Robert Nozick wrote the famous essay "Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism?" nearly fifty years later. It's worth reading the whole thing, but the main point can be summed up in one name: Al Czervik, the poor but wealthy real estate developer from the movie "Caddyshack." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this short movie).  Nozick says that thinkers have always been nerdy kids who did well in school. People like Al Czervik were sitting in the back of the room and playing cards. But now they run their own businesses and sell cars or real estate. Any system that rewards people for being businesses instead of getting good grades and helping the teacher clean the erasers after class is obviously unfair.

Intellectuals think that experts and technocrats like themselves (or how they think of themselves) will be in charge in a socialist government. In fact, the smart people are wrong in two ways: First, people who make things worth having should get paid more than people who can quote "great thinkers" word for word, especially now that we have GoogleTM. But even more important, there isn't a single case in the history of real socialist governments, which run countries, that makes us think that anyone other than violent thugs and dictators will be in charge. Hayek said that "the worst get on top" in socialism. The smart people are rounded up and killed.

Still, thinkers are smart, that much is true. Why do they fall for this seductive horse over and over again? The other day I was listening to Bob Dylan when I suddenly realized that I had heard some of his words a thousand times but never really understood them. Dylan asks in "Blowin' in the Wind," a song he wrote in 1963, "Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly | Before they are banned for good?"  How will you stop people from using cannonballs if no one has any?

The answer seems to be that the good people, the smart people, and the thinkers will have the cannonballs and make sure that the rest of us don't use them.  Libertarians tend to think that everyone has the right to defend themselves. thinkers, on the other hand, think that the problem will be solved if everyone loses the right to defend themselves and power is given to thinkers. And since capitalism spreads power among the many people who get rich, it needs to be replaced with a system that keeps power in fewer hands.

What it comes down to is this: in capitalism, wealth is the power to get things and services that I want. This kind of power is not "zero sum," because Al Czervik, you, and I can all have it. Al Czervik might have more money than you or me, but we can all be rich.

But intellectuals like socialism, which turns the causal line around. Under capitalism, having money gives you power and lets you buy what you want. But under socialism, having power gives you money. Party apparatchiks and technical functionaries have a lot of power over how things are made and how they get to people. But political power, which is what I mean by "power," is always a zero-sum game. If the intellectual class has it, you and I don't. And Al Czervik drives a trash truck because he insulted a smart person in fourth grade, and the smart person told his father, who was the party boss. When businesses are owned by the government and run by the government, comparing standing becomes important. If I'm strong, then you're not. Socialism is a way to make people jealous because it is based on the idea that "elites"—"people who are educated, like me"—will come out on top.

It is Shafarevich's most important and memorable work outside of mathematics. It is called The Socialist Phenomenon, and it should be considered a classic among the many, definitive attacks of socialism. My copy, which I bought in 1981, is full of marks and notes where I wanted to remember important ideas.

The first 200 pages of the book talk about socialist ideas and experiments throughout history, from Plato and Greece to Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and the Inca culture in South America. The part of the book about the Incas can be read in a good way. The Incan country didn't last long because it couldn't defend itself against a few hundred Spanish. However, it may have been the most regimented and centralized society the world has ever seen.

Shafarevich talks about socialism in the last third of the book, which is about 100 pages. He makes a strong case that "at least three parts of the socialist ideal—the end of private property, the end of the family, and socialist equality—can be derived from a single principle: the suppression of individuality."

Socialism comes in many different forms, but in its purest form, it offers "the greatest possible equality." Shafarevich says this is the height of hypocrisy and delusion because socialism offers "a strict regimentation of all of life, which would be impossible without absolute control and an all-powerful bureaucracy that would create an incomparably greater inequality."

People take part in life as unique, thinking, acting people, not as parts of an unrecognizable collective blob. "Cultural creativity, particularly artistic creativity, is an example," says the author. The Last Supper was not painted by Italians during the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci did. "And when socialist movements are growing, the call to destroy culture becomes louder and clearer," Shafarevich says.

Socialism is inherently against culture because it wants to replace individual effort with top-down rules that fit everyone. Its centralized, ordered plan is a death sentence in the end, because "people and animals cannot live if they are reduced to the level of cogs in a machine." Shafarevich says:

[A]ll the aspects of life that make it attractive and give it meaning are connected with manifestations of individuality. Therefore, a consistent implementation of the principles of socialism deprives human life of individuality and simultaneously deprives life of its meaning and attraction…it would lead to the physical extinction of the group in which these principles are in force, and if they should triumph through the world—to the extinction of mankind.

In the end, the unity that socialism promotes is a mirage. There is no "blob" that can think and act. No one else does. So the so-called "collective" comes down to some people having control over other people. So, socialism is cannibalism that is driven by theory. Shafarevich basically told the world this over 50 years ago, but people still don't get it.

At least, we should thank him for telling us on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Economists advising California’s task force on reparations have, at long last, released an estimate of the damages caused by the state’s history of slavery and its many vestiges of white supremacy: up to $1.2 million per Black resident over a lifetime.

…

Lawmakers and Newsom created the task force in 2020 and directed its members to study the history of slavery in California and its enduring inequities for Black people. While the Golden State was admitted to the Union as a “free state” in 1850, historians say slavery continued to be openly practiced for years by white Southerners, who brought enslaved people to the state and forced them to work in gold mines and on plantations.

The economists who advised the panel, which is almost entirely composed of black members, said that their estimate was “conservative,” though they said it was not a recommendation on the final compensation amount.

Morris Griffin holds up a sign during a meeting by the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The number is said to include not only the damage caused by slavery, as bad as it was, but also "mass incarceration," housing discrimination, and health risks that are worse for black residents.

It's not clear how California would be able to pay the described compensation. One estimate puts the cost at $800 billion, which is a lot more than the state's yearly budget. The head of the task group has backed a "wealth tax."

There are also other groups working on making amends. A group in the City of San Francisco is thinking about a plan to give each long-time black citizen $5 million. It is not clear where the money for this would come from, though.

Several other places, like Evanston, Illinois, have thought about compensation and some have even given them out. All of these places are in states that banned slavery. Many people want to show the rest of the country what to do.

Trump said that he was also surprised that Fox News settled with Dominion, but he also suggested that Carlson might have left FNC because he wasn't given free reign.

“Well, I’m shocked,” he said. “I’m surprised. He’s a very good person, a very good man, very talented, as you know. And he had very high ratings … I don’t if it was voluntary or was somebody fired. But I think Tucker has been terrific, especially over the last year or so. He’s been terrific to me.”

“I was surprised they made a settlement on that case,” Trump added. “That was a case should easily be won, and they made a settlement. Look, you’ll have to ask them. I’m not representing them at all by any means. But the Tucker situation — look, you don’t know if it was a firing. Maybe he left because he wasn’t being given his free rein. He wants free rein, maybe. But I was surprised by it.”

Trump also took to social media to add his voice to those lamenting Carlson’s exit while wishing him well.

“The fact that Tucker Carlson will no longer be on FoxNews is a big blow to Cable News, and to America. Tucker was insightful, interesting, and ratings gold. He will be greatly missed!” he said on his own Truth Social network:

As was said, Fox News quickly told the opinion anchor and commentator who hosted the popular show Tucker Carlson Tonight that they would no longer work together.

“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the press release making the departure public read. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”

Former President Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene during the 3rd round of the LIV Golf Invitational Series Bedminster on July 31, 2022 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21,” the company added. “Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”

Trump’s praise for Carlson on social media followd that of his son earlier in the day.

“Confirmed: Tucker Carlson out at Fox News. OMG,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote:

Confirmed: Tucker Carlson out at Fox News. OMG.

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 24, 2023

When the company said it was getting rid of the famous conservative host, shares of Fox Corporation dropped sharply.

After the news came out, shares fell by as much as 5.1%. Since then, they have made up some of that ground.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, we respect Lia, as a woman, as a trans woman or whatever, we respect her identity, we just don’t think it’s fair.’ You can’t really have that sort of half-support where you’re like, ‘Oh, I respect her as a woman here, but not here,'” Thomas said on Bailar’s new podcast Dear Schuyler.

“They’re using the guise of feminism to sort of push transphobic beliefs. I think a lot of people in that camp sort of carry an implicit bias against trans people, but don’t want to, I guess, fully manifest or speak that out. And so they try to just play it off as this sort of half-support,” Thomas added.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Schuyler Bailar (@pinkmantaray)

Bailar agreed with Thomas and lamented how women have supposedly “twisted” feminism to bash transgenders.

“They think about how twisted ‘feminism’ has become their arguments. In order to exclude anybody in the trans category, you have to reduce women to reproductive capacity, which is, in my opinion, extremely anti-feminist,’ Bailar said.

Some women have been dubbed TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) for their opposition to the transgender movement, particularly in regard to the movement's erasure of women. One such woman is the author J.K. Rowling.

The Biden administration's proposed modification to Title IX, which would effectively forbid schools K–8 from defending women's sports against transgender athletes, received backing from Lia Thomas, as was reported last week.

“I’m a transgender woman, a former college swimmer, and the first trans athlete to be named Division I NCAA champion,” Thomas said in a video. “I started swimming when I was 5 years old and it has given me so much. It has given me so many opportunities to learn, grow, develop and connect with my peers — opportunities I wouldn’t have gotten if I didn’t have access to athletics. That’s why it breaks my heart to see trans kids across the country lose out on these opportunities.”

“The Department of Education has proposed a new rule for Title IX regarding transgender athletes; this rule would prohibit blanket bans on transgender kids, especially in grades K through 8. However, it would not prohibit discrimination against trans kids in the high school and college levels under the guise of competitive fairness,” Thomas added.

Lia Thomas mentions that the bill allows for “discrimination against trans kids in the high school and college levels under the guise of competitive fairness” and asks followers to comment “demanding equal protection for all transgender athletes” pic.twitter.com/QaDEa45U0j

— boysvswomen.com (@boysvswomen) April 18, 2023

Riley Gaines, the Kentucky swimmer who tied with transgender athlete Lia Thomas in the women’s 200-meter freestyle event at the NCAA championships, responded to Lia Thomas and called him “selfish.”

“Under the guise of competitive fairness? Are you really trying to say you would have won a national title against the men? Does it not break your heart to see women lose out on these opportunities? The Biden Admins proposed bill denies science, truth, and common sense,” tweeted Gaines.

“This take is selfish and shows an utter disregard for women. The Biden Administration is actively and aggressively working to pass laws that erase decent and fair treatment for women in sports,” she added.

The senior judge told lawyers in the countries to keep looking for ways to use generative artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, inside and outside of the courtroom. This goes against the advice of others in the tech industry, who have said that research should stop until regulations catch up with technological advances.

Vos, however, said at the Lincolns Inn on Wednesday that London's business courts should be very interested in using A.I. He said that the technology has already shown that it can deal with problems in the legal field.

"You've probably all seen that when GPT-3.5 took the Bar exams (US ones, I'm guessing), it scored in the bottom 10%, but when GPT-4 took them, it scored in the top 10%," he told a crowd as part of the McNair Lecture series.

“This demonstrates the speed at which generative AI is developing. It perhaps makes the point that there is a real possibility that AI may become more intelligent and capable than humans,” he added. “It is obvious that these advances will affect the legal world as much as any other part of our society.”

A man reportedly committed suicide after speaking with an AI chatbot called Chai, sparking debate on AI's impact on mental health. The man's widow blames the AI Chatbot for his death, claiming it encouraged him to kill himself. https://t.co/B7fgHB6Nf2

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 3, 2023

In particular, the senior judge talked about how expensive commercial cases are in the UK court system and said that A.I. adjudication in some UK courtrooms could make the civil justice system in the country cheaper and faster for businesses, making it easier to come to a solution.

“If London is to retain its place as a litigation and arbitration destination of choice, it will be imperative to embrace digital innovation and AI to do what it does best, namely dealing with a complex mass of material,” he argued.

“The central element of any dispute resolution process is to identify the issue or issues that divide the parties,” Vos continued. “It is here that generative AI may be able to help. It may be that the power of AI could identify, from a mass of complex facts and transactions, the real issues that divide the parties and that require resolution.”

The senior judge said that such a speed-up would probably be helped by the rise of digital currencies, both those issued by the Central Bank and cryptocurrencies. These will make it easier to figure out the nature, value, and timing of transactions because they will be recorded on a blockchain that is easy to look up.

He also said that these kinds of artificial decisions should be clearly labeled. Vos thought that a person should be able to appeal a decision to a human judge for this kind of change to be made.

“I am not offering any kind of blueprint for reform tonight,” he went on to say. “But I am sure that if London is to remain at the forefront of international commercial dispute resolution, it will need to move fast to address these and other fundamental issues of litigation and arbitral procedure.”

1,000 AI experts, including Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, have called for a temporary halt on the advancement of AI technology until safeguards can be put in place. https://t.co/oXX09BJ7q1

Analysts warned that U.S. military support for Ukraine has pushed U.S. military stockpiles to "dangerously low levels." https://t.co/IgOfzlbXeD

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 2, 2022

Pentagon planners are concerned about the supply running out, so the Army is now planning to invest billions in munitions sites around the nation in what it considers its most important overhaul in 40 years.

The United States has given Ukraine weaponry and equipment worth more than $35 billion so far.

To speed up delivery to Ukraine's front lines, the Pentagon has withdrawn ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, precision aerial bombs, TOW guided missile systems, AT-4 anti-armor weapons systems, anti-tank mines, and demolition munitions.

On March 21, 2023, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces fire with a D-30 artillery towards Russian positions close to Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine. Getty Images (SERGEY SHESTAK/AFP)

The help stems from the President's ability to use existing U.S. military stocks under the Presidential Drawdown Authority.

The 155 mm shell, along with sophisticated air defense systems, long-range missiles, and tanks, is one of the most frequently requested and supplied items.

According to AP, the rounds are essential to Ukraine's battle since they enable the country to hit Russian locations up to 20 miles away with a highly destructive munition.

An 155 mm M795 artillery projectile during the manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. One of the most important munitions of the Ukraine war comes from a historic factory in this city built by coal barons, where tons of steel rods are brought in by train to be forged into the artillery shells Kyiv can’t get enough of — and that the U.S. can’t produce fast enough. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“Unfortunately, we understand that the production is very limited and it’s been more than a year of war,” Ukraine parliamentary member Oleksandra Ustinova said at a German Marshall Fund media roundtable in Washington on Monday. “But unfortunately we are very dependent on 155.” the AP reports then makes clear the trouble that lies on the horizon:

But even with higher near-term production rates, the U.S. cannot replenish its stockpile or catch up to the usage pace in Ukraine, where officials estimate that the Ukrainian military is firing 6,000 to 8,000 shells per day.

In other words, two days’ worth of shells fired by Ukraine equates to the United States’ monthly pre-war production figure.

The Texas State Senate on Thursday passed SB 1515, mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom.

“This is American tradition,” State Sen. Phil King (R) said. pic.twitter.com/ntY0LGSoML

— The Recount (@therecount) April 21, 2023

“This is an American tradition,” King said. “If schools in Texas do not have it in their funding to [display the Ten Commandments], they can accept private dollars for this.”

The second bill, which is sponsored by Republican State Senator Mayes Middleton, would force public schools to have a daily prayer time for both students and staff. In the same way, the plan would let teachers include readings from the Bible and other religious texts in their lessons.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who supports the bills, said, "Allowing the Ten Commandments and prayer back into our public schools is one step we can take to make sure that all Texans have the right to freely express their sincerely held religious beliefs."

“I believe that you cannot change the culture of the country until you change the culture of mankind,” Patrick continued. “Bringing the Ten Commandments and prayer back to our public schools will enable our students to become better Texans.”

THANK YOU TO THESE BEAUTIFUL DRAG QUEENS FOR SHOWING THEIR PRIDE IN TENNESSEE ♥️💛💚💙💜 pic.twitter.com/wRe7cOpBvO

— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) April 22, 2023

The singer also posted a photo with the men dressed as women to her Instagram account.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating)

The singer also shared a video of her on stage during her performance, where she stated, “In light of recent and tragic events and current events, I was told by people on the Internet, ‘Cancel your shows in Tennessee, don’t go to Tennessee.'”

“And their reason was valid, but why would I not come to the people who need to hear this message the most?” Lizzo continued.

“Why would I not create a safe space in Tennessee where we can celebrate drag entertainers, and celebrate our differences, and celebrate fat, black women?!” the pop star exclaimed.

Watch Below:

You have my heart Knoxville

Thank you for sharing a safe space with me 💖 pic.twitter.com/t4sCiJIThz

— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) April 22, 2023

“What people are doing in Tennessee is giving hope, so thank you so much for standing up for your rights, protecting each other, and holding the people accountable who should be protecting us,” Lizzo added.

The law in Tennessee that limits drag shows was meant to go into effect on April 1, but it was temporarily blocked. This means that the law won't be enforced until late May.

Last month, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that makes it illegal to put on a drag show in public or where children can see it. State Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, put forward the bill. He called it a "common sense child safety bill." As Breitbart News has said before, the bill defines "male and female impersonators" as adult cabaret acts.

Macron Hounded by Protesters During First Public Appearance After Signing Pension Reforms https://t.co/MBHlXYcKwQ

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 20, 2023

This is not the first time that the French government has gone after a member of the public for insulting Macron. A woman who compared the President to trash on social media got in trouble with the law.

The woman is said to have been arrested by three police officers who showed up at her home because of a post she made online. The post showed her standing in front of graffiti that made fun of Macron, which officials now say she made herself.

The woman denies this claim. If a French court finds her guilty of insulting Macron, she could get up to €15,000 in fines and a year in jail.

In the UK, a man who is thought to have taken part in anti-Macron protests in France has also been held under an anti-terrorism law, which has angered people both in the UK and around the world.

Ernest Moret, a French publisher with left-wing views, was held soon after he got off the train in London. He was officially arrested the next day because police say he refused to give them his cell phone and passwords when they asked him to.

What Jihadis? Outrage After UK Police use Terrorism Laws to Arrest French Publisher Over Anti-Macron Protests https://t.co/GSVTgfIQQn

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 19, 2023

This last case has caused a lot of anger around the world, so bringing charges against the three Sélestat protesters is probably the last thing President Macron needs right now.

Already in trouble because of ongoing protests, the French leader has started a tour of his country to try to win back the support of the French people, who have turned violently against him in recent weeks because he raised the retirement age by two years.

Macron's support is now at its lowest point ever, with just a little more than a quarter of the country liking him.

At the same time, the right-wing populists in France have become more popular, and polls show that Marine Le Pen would win the presidency if France had an election tomorrow.

Le Screw Up: Emmanuel Macron Popularity Sinks to Record Low https://t.co/uIE3NNT5BF

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 22, 2023

“Congratulations to the @sixers on sweeping the Nets in the first round. Hopefully it won’t get all fucked up in the Finals, like with the Phillies and Eagles, by the curse of DOCTOR Jill Biden showing up,” he snarked.

Congratulations to the @sixers on sweeping the Nets in the first round. Hopefully it won’t get all fucked up in the Finals, like with the Phillies and Eagles, by the curse of DOCTOR Jill Biden showing up.

— Lenny Dykstra (@LennyDykstra) April 23, 2023

Dykstra, who played for the Phillies for eight seasons in the 1990s, has called "Doctor" Jill Biden a bad luck charm for Philadelphia sports teams before. The tweet on Saturday night was not the first time he said this.

When the Phillies lost the 2022 World Series in six games to the Houston Astros, Dykstra told the team not to let Jill back into the stadium.

“Better luck next time, #Phillies,” Dykstra tweeted. “Might be better off rolling out that red carpet for Lenny Dykstra instead of Dr. Jill Biden. (9 hits in 3 games since she showed up.).”

Better luck next time, #Phillies. Might be better off rolling out that red carpet for Lenny Dykstra instead of Dr. Jill Biden. (9 hits in 3 games since she showed up.)

— Lenny Dykstra (@LennyDykstra) November 6, 2022

Even though Dykstra didn't say it, Jill went to another game that finished badly for a Philadelphia team.

Jill and her grandson went to Super Bowl LVII this year. The Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, even though it looked like the Eagles were going to win their first Super Bowl ring.

If Jill wants to go to the NBA playoffs, it might be best for the 76ers to suggest that she take up another sport.

While it is unclear whether those outposts are being used as clandestine police stations, Safeguard Defenders noted that Chinese security forces often use non-profits and community groups as a front to spy on and harass dissidents overseas.

China's foreign ministry has disputed the existence of such police stations, but has acknowledged what it says are volunteer-run sites in the US and other countries to assist overseas Chinese nationals with tasks such as renewing drivers licenses.  

A secret police station above this ramen store in Manhattan's Chinatown was shut down by the FBI. Two men were arrested in connection with the scheme

Lu Jianwang, who is 61 and lives in the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, who is 59 and lives in Manhattan, were both taken at their homes in New York on Monday.

Prosecutors say that the two men set up the office in Chinatown in Manhattan last year at the request of the Fuzhou unit of China's national police force, the Ministry of Public Security.

They are both US citizens, and they are accused of working together to be Chinese government spies.

 

Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx was arrested on Monday morning 

Federal prosecutors said that the arrests were part of a crackdown on China's targeting of dissidents, which Beijing rejects.

At a regular press conference, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, "We will not allow the PRC government or any other foreign government to harass or threaten U.S. persons."

China called the arrests "political manipulation" and part of a false and unfair effort to hurt the reputation of China.

'China firmly opposes the US side's slandering, smearing, engaging in political manipulation, and maliciously concocting the so-called transnational repression narrative,' foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

'We urge the US to immediately reflect on itself, abandon Cold War thinking and ideological biases, immediately stop related erroneous practices, stop political manipulation, and stop smear attacks against China,' he added.

US and Western officials have warned that China's government is putting more pressure on other countries to silence its critics. They say that China often uses covert operations to target people of Chinese descent in order to silence criticism or force them to go back to China, where they might be punished.

Human rights groups have also said that Chinese students at foreign universities are being watched and that their academic freedom is being threatened.

Lu Jianwang, 61, (third left) and Chen Jinping, 59, (second left) were both arrested on Monday morning at their addresses in New York

Rick Waters, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan, said in a separate meeting of the US House of Representatives that Washington was aware of China's transnational law enforcement in 'dozens of countries.'

Waters said that the US was working with other countries that had the same problem through "private diplomatic channels" and "public diplomacy."

Waters said, "We have been working pretty hard to share what we know and come up with the best tools and ways to respond to this unique part of China's influence agenda."

A human rights group in Europe called Safeguard Defenders put out a report in September that said there were dozens of Chinese police "service stations" in big towns around the world, including New York.

China sets up unofficial police offices in Britain to find people it wants to send back

China has opened illegal police stations in London as part of a growing network of Communist Party-linked offices that are accused of hunting down and blackmailing Chinese citizens to force them to go back home.

A new report says that in the last few years, Chinese authorities have set up 54 "overseas police service centers" around the world. This is part of Beijing's plan to increase its power abroad.

The "110 overseas service stations," which got their name from China's national police emergency phone number, were set up by local public security offices in China. At first, they were set up to fight telecom fraud overseas.

But the number of unofficial police stations is growing at the same time that China is being accused of bothering political activists abroad, including in the UK. There is no proof that this is what the "police stations" have been used for.

A non-profit group called Safeguard Defenders put out a report this week saying that they are run by Chinese community groups in different countries.

Centres run from innocuous locations

The "service centers" of the police are often run out of places that don't seem suspicious, like Chinese restaurants, convenience shops, or the offices of business groups.

One of London's two police "service" offices is also a real estate office. Another one is a Chinese restaurant in Glasgow.

When The Telegraph went to the estate office in north London, they were told there was no connection. But they said that a law company also works out of the office. Its website says that most of the problems it solves are related to Chinese immigration.

When a reporter went to a food delivery office in Croydon that was said to be part of the network, they also rejected any ties.

The stations are supposed to help Chinese people living abroad with things like extending their Chinese driver's licenses and other official papers. But stories from state media show that some of the centers have worked with Chinese police to carry out operations outside of China.