Theory 2 Action Podcast

MM#420--Curves, Courts, and Change: Celebrating Landmark Anniversaries in American Liberty

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A century of parental educational rights. Fifty years of revolutionary economic thinking. One year since a presidential debate that changed American history. Today's episode celebrates these critical anniversaries that have shaped American liberty and prosperity.

Pierce v. Society of Sisters stands as a cornerstone of American educational freedom. When Oregon attempted to mandate public schooling for all children in 1922, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down this overreach, declaring "the child is not the mere creature of the state." This landmark ruling has protected parental rights and educational diversity for 100 years, establishing boundaries on government authority that continue to influence school choice debates today.

The Laffer Curve—sketched on a napkin during a dinner with government officials—transformed economic thinking by illustrating a counterintuitive truth: beyond a certain point, higher tax rates actually decrease government revenue. Though initially ignored by the Ford administration, this insight eventually powered Reagan's economic revolution, launching decades of prosperity. Kennedy had recognized this paradox years earlier, noting "tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low." This principle, validated repeatedly through American history, demonstrates how economic freedom fuels both individual and collective flourishing.

We also mark one year since the Biden-Trump debate that reshaped the 2024 election and triggered remarkable transformation: border policy shifts, economic rebounds, international developments, and party realignments. These anniversaries remind us how foundational ideas about liberty, properly applied, create lasting prosperity. Which of these milestones has most directly impacted your life? Explore Hillsdale College's free course on supply-side economics to deepen your understanding of these principles.


Key Points from the Episode:


• Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) turns 100 years old, establishing the fundamental right of parents to choose their children's education 
• The Supreme Court's unanimous decision declared "the child is not the mere creature of the state," protecting private and religious schools
• Art Laffer's curve sketched on a napkin approximately 50 years ago revolutionized tax policy by showing how lower tax rates can increase government revenue
• The Laffer Curve became the foundation for Reagan's economic policies in the 1980s, spurring decades of prosperity
• One year after the pivotal Biden-Trump debate that led to President Biden's withdrawal from the race
• Reflection on the dramatic policy shifts and economic changes that have occurred in just one year

Be sure to check out Hillsdale College's free course on supply-side economics taught by Art Laffer himself for more insights into these economic principles.


Other resources: 



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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser. Flourishing life Now, here's your host David Kaiser.

Speaker 2:

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. And we've got some celebrating to do. C love that music. That's celebration time. So some celebrations of anniversaries that we are going to talk about today. We are going to kick it off our first celebration with our first pull quote. Go on to the quote the child is not the mere creature of the state. Those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations. Friends is a pull quote from the written majority opinion by Supreme Court Justice James Clark McReynolds in a case titled Pierce versus Society of Sisters, 1925. And that was and has been the bedrock opinion for parental choice in children's education. Let's take a trip down memory lane about this issue.

Speaker 2:

Pierce v Society of Sisters, again written in 1925, decided in 1925, is the landmark US Supreme Court case that established important precedents regarding parental rights and the limits of state power over education. Now the case context is it began in 1922. Oregon passed the Compulsory Education Act, which required all children between ages 8 to 16 to attend public schools, effectively outlawing private and parochial schools. The Society of Sisters, a Catholic organization operating private schools there at the time and the Hill Military Academy, a private secular school, challenged the law, arguing it violated their rights and those of parents. The case centered on whether the Oregon law violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment by infringing on the rights of parents to direct their children's education and the rights of private schools to operate. The ruling was unanimous 9-0. The Supreme Court struck down the Oregon law. Its key points and major takeaways is the court held the law unreasonably interfered with the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children, a right protected under the due process clause. The decision recognized that private schools have a property interest in their business operations which the state cannot arbitrarily destroy, and the court also emphasized that the state does not have unlimited power to standardize education and compel public school attendance.

Speaker 2:

Most people don't know this. People don't know this. The notable quote from the justice, or the notable quote from the opinion, comes to us from Justice James Clark McReynolds, which we have already quoted, but we will give it to you again. The child is not the mere creature of the state. Those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations. Now the significance established a constitutional precedent of protecting the rights of parents to choose private or religious education for the children. It limited state power, reinforced limits on government authority to impose uniform educational mandates, protecting individual liberty which we love here and diversity in education. It would go on to be a groundwork and foundational case for later cases involving parental rights and educational freedom, such as Wisconsin v Yoder, decided in 1972. This case also had an economic liberty nuance to it. It helped to protect the property rights of private institutions. It affirmed their ability to operate without undue state interference. So the decision still remains a cornerstone for debates on school choice, parental rights, the balance between state regulation and individual freedom and education, individual freedom and education. So today we say happy 100th anniversary to this Supreme Court case in discipline. Happy anniversary to Pierce versus Society of Sisters. Like we said, parents have been cheering this ever since and the children certainly have appreciated it for the last 100 years. Now, moving on to another anniversary Roughly about 50 years ago, art Laffer drew a curve on a restaurant napkin to two gentlemen messers, donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, to illustrate the power of tax cuts.

Speaker 2:

That curve showed both men that, as tax rates would go up, the revenues to government would eventually go down and slowing the GDP gross domestic product of the country would result. Unfortunately, both men who were in the Ford administration at the time would advise Gerald Ford to raise taxes in order to reduce economic demand, which they at the time thought was the right choice to conquer inflation. As history has taught us, they were both. As history has taught us. They were both absolutely wrong, badly wrong, horrifically wrong. The economy went into a deep recession and inflation wasn't conquered at all Until the great communicator, ronald Reagan, came on the scene in the early 1980s advocating for supply-side economics. Reagan had been humble enough to listen to Mr Art Laffer in the 1970s and Reagan knew his history from the JFK tax cuts and the Calvin Coolidge tax cuts in the 60s and 20s respectively. And in fact, let's go to the preeminent book on all things taxes and hear from the great art laugher himself.

Speaker 2:

Over the last years of President Lyndon Johnson and on through Presidents Richard Nixon, gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and ending after Ronald Reagan's second year in office, the decline in the average income of the rich came at great expense. This was the maddening combination of negligible economic growth with enormous price inflation. The name it went by was stagflation, one important countermeasure, a capital gains tax cut, no-transcript. So the Laffer curve that is shaped like the first half of the letter M it goes up and then it bends itself all the way back down tells us that if tax rates get too high, tax revenue would eventually fall and fall and fall some more. But if tax rates are reduced then both economic growth and revenues rise Again. Laffer showed the historical examples to Reagan in the late 1970s and again in the early 80s, when he was president, reagan actually raised taxes as governor back in California and he knew that he had stubbed his toe back then as one of the few states, as one of the states, california being the largest, one of the largest economies at the time, and Reagan would not make the same mistake again.

Speaker 2:

We have covered this great change in Reagan, Ronald Reagan's approach to taxes in previous podcasts. We especially covered it with a fantastic book by Larry Kudlow titled the JFK and Reagan Revolution and speaking of the great JFK and tax cuts of the 1960s. Here is what President Kennedy said, quote it's a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now. Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus. End quote Gosh, so simple yet so hard for Washington to understand. So Art Laffer, being the student that he was during the 1960s, began looking at the correlation between the Harding-Coolidge-Mellon tax cuts in the 1920s and the 1960 tax cuts under JFK, and he knew he was on to something. After advising many others throughout Congress, of both the left and the right, of Democrats and Republicans, especially one, jack Kemp from Michigan, the former NFL star quarterback, who became a devout believer.

Speaker 2:

Reagan led the charge in the early 1980s with Laffer's curve, and what happened? Well, we had very high growth and low inflation from the Reagan tax cuts and it spawned nearly a 30-year economic boom into the 2000s, with the only bumps happening from Bush 41 and his no new taxes pledge, which he went against and the voters voted him out. With a very soft economy and then with Bill Clinton and his massive attempt to take over health care, which slowed the economy in 1993, until the Republican majority worked with him to get the economy moving again with not a tax cut, but with welfare reform in the mid-1990s, that economy became strong with tons of mojo. Fast forward to 2017 and Donald Trump, following the Laffer curve, implemented his tax program in the first term and we had economic growth. And President Trump rightly awarded Art Laffer the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019. And rightly so. Without question, art Laffer deserves a Nobel Prize for economics, but the left-leaning economics profession simply won't give it to him. That's a tragedy. Profession simply won't give it to him. That's a tragedy. So, for all that economic history, we say happy anniversary, roughly 50 years ago, to the Laffer curve, which has given us incredible economic prosperity, and hopefully we're just around the corner from more economic flourishing, with the big, beautiful bill at the doorstep in the Senate and ready to be signed by President Trump. How about another 30-year run of tax cuts, deregulation and supply-side economics? We think that is the right move. Why? Because we know it works. So in today's Mojo Minute. We know it works. So in today world. Could I have ever forgotten this anniversary just yesterday, as we were going to tape this one year ago yesterday?

Speaker 2:

Once this airs, june 27 2024 marks the one-year anniversary, in June 27, 2025, of the first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which was the pivotal moment leading to Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the race. And although Biden did not announce his withdrawal on that exact date race. And although Biden did not announce his withdrawal on that exact date, his poor debate performance fueled concerns about his age and his fitness, ultimately leading to his exit from the presidential race some three weeks later, on July 21st. That debate performance will go down in history as the worst debate performance ever. As you know, the debates fall out, reshape the 2024 election, pushing VP Harris into the spotlight as the nominee, and the Democratic Convention held in August in Chicago navigated this unprecedented coronation, with Harris securing over 500 delegate endorsements in just a mere 24 hours. It was a coronation unlike anything we've ever seen in a major political party since the old days of backroom deals and party bosses the old days of backroom deals and party bosses. We still have yet to hear the full story, the full airing of what happened. But one year ago today, or one year ago yesterday, by the time this airs was the Trump-Biden debate and we talk about it being a pivotal point in our country's history.

Speaker 2:

What happened in the last year since that debate performance. Let's just run down a quick back of the napkin top 10. Here we go. We've had two assassination attempts on President Trump. We had the Democratic Party ram through their candidate with an unbelievable coronation. We had President Trump completely change the election outcome and possibly change the direction of each of the parties aka similar to what FDR did in the 1932 election. Stay tuned for that one. We're watching it closely.

Speaker 2:

President Trump has completely shut down and stopped and closed off the southern border. I mean the numbers are staggering how quickly that was locked down. With new leadership, we have eliminated the nuclear threat from 46 years of the worst terror state and state sponsor of terrorism around the world. In Iran, oil prices have come down significantly. The legacy media is unbelievably broken and hell. The Democratic Party is still broken one year later. They don't know what is up or down anymore. They have no leader. They're in shambles.

Speaker 2:

We are on the cusp of a great tax cut bill, similar to the 2017 tax cut and Reagan's 82 and 86 tax cut bills, which jump-started an economy in shambles, and if we can get this tax cut bill across the finish line, this economy will go gangbusters. We have Doge and they're reigning in in federal waste, which has been incredible, and military recruitment breaking records. I know, speaking of breaking records, the NASDAQ and the S&P has hit all-time highs yesterday, just as we were going to press. Boy, oh boy, catch your breath, that was a mouthful. And that was just in the last year, with a change of leadership. And what a change in the direction of the country, in the mood of the country. And, oh, by the way, these Supreme Court rollings that just came out in the last 24 to 48 hours Can't forget those.

Speaker 2:

I think we can all agree with the president that we are on the verge of a golden age and two of those items we want to appreciate here in our first two anniversaries that we mentioned. So finally, in today's Mojo Minute happy anniversary to Parental Choice, at 100 years old, and happy anniversary to the Laffer Curve, at roughly 50 years old. Both of those anniversaries are nuggets of wisdom which you can take and go down very long rabbit trails and still come back with fruitful knowledge, and it will have been time well spent, because they are roads leading to a flourishing life with more money in your pockets and parents back in charge of their children's education. As always, keep fighting the good fight, keep fighting for a flourishing life. And a little PS here. Be sure to check out the Hillsdale College free course on this subject of supply-side economics, which is taught by the great Art Laffer himself. It's worth a tumble, it's worth your time. Tons of nuggets of wisdom over there. So go out and celebrate these anniversaries today.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.