Tag: Locke

Welfare Reform from Locke to the Clintons

In a draft of his “Essay on the Poor Law,” Locke writes: Now no part of any poor body’s labour should be lost. Things should be so ordered that everyone should work as much as they can. That passage, which Locke ultimately deleted, came right after his complaint that women were staying home with their kids and not working. As a result, he wrote, “their labour is wholly lost.” Locke follows this observation up with a complaint about the existing poor laws in England: the problem with them is that “they are turned only to the maintenance of people in idleness, without at all examining into the lives, abilities, or industry, of those who seek for relief.” That is what […]

Out in Texas: Where public is private and private is public

The news this morning out of Texas: On Sunday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a formal opinion declaring that county clerks throughout the state may refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Clerks need only state that serving a gay couple would violate their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” Paxton explained, and they are exempt…. Paxton believes that Texas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act gives clerks the right to turn away gays, because serving them would substantially burden their religion…. At least one Texas county clerk has already turned away gay couples. More are likely to follow suit in the deep red state. The Texas legislature may consider passing a North Carolina-style law that permits clerks to opt out of performing marriages or […]