The Big Idea
Outside contributors’ opinions and analysis of the most important issues in politics, science, and culture.
Many employers can force minimum-wage workers to sign “noncompetes.” That makes no sense.
An American Bar Association journal commissioned an article on Donald Trump’s frivolous lawsuits — then worried they’d be a target.
The campaign exposed ugly currents in American politics. But Donald Trump may be headed for a McGovern-level defeat.
She may or may not be a wise strategic choice this year. But she’s the consistent progressive.
Premium increases have slowed overall — and prices are down substantially for some people.
You can’t explain away premium increases and the breakdown of insurance exchanges.
In the face of Trump’s charges of a “rigged election,” Republican leaders must defend our system.
Americans have strong ideas — sometimes, subconscious — about what constitutes “white space” and “black space.”
When their candidates lose, voters’ faith in democracy weakens.
More and more people believe the American “meritocracy” is rigged.
His rise was an inevitable reaction to the Era of Hurt Feelings.
The risks remain low, and living donations offer hope to the 100,000 people on waiting lists.
The health insurance exchanges need reform, but they gave millions of people affordable coverage.
Critics pointed out the flaws in the insurance “exchanges” from the start. Liberals wouldn’t listen.
Trump could win the race, but Pence could run the country.
Unlike many academic economists, the candidate understands stonewalling can work.
The relationship trips up hypocritical conservatives — and feminists, too.
Hillary Clinton has identified a major economic problem. But her proposals don’t go far enough.
A targeted attack on hot spots, and focusing on at-risk populations, could reverse the uptick in homicide.
There’s long been a pessimistic strain of conservatism. But the doom and gloom are out of hand.
A 30-year study of public opinion in Israel suggests that terror attacks undermine a pillar of democracy.
The term adds zero to our understanding of the problem, and offends people we need on our side.
A hunger for growth and wealth has triumphed over exclusion in the long run. There’s no going back.
They aren’t the demographic group that’s shifted the most this election. And they do a poor job of remembering their economic fortunes under each party.
A revolution in reproductive technology will bring a host of ethical and legal challenges.
The Great Recession shattered liberal views on economics. Here’s what’s replacing them.
In a rollicking but flawed book, Wolfe argues that Chomsky’s theories about language and the brain fall apart under scrutiny.
It’s a sign of the play’s richness that it has inspired sophisticated criticism.
150 years ago a “coronal mass ejection” from the sun set telegraph machines ablaze. We’re even more vulnerable today.
Insurance companies are retreating from state-run exchanges. “Medicare for more” could fill the gap.
A new work of political philosophy argues that there’s no alternative to attacking one injustice at a time.
Trumpism is the culmination of a proud political party’s steady descent into a deeply destructive and dysfunctional state.
The economy gets rigged when people protect their jobs through regulation.
What if everyone got money just for being alive?
It’s a morally toxic goal. The sooner we stop pursuing it, the better.
The overwhelming majority of people who die from guns in the US do not die because someone shot them — they die because they shot themselves.
Bill Gates on what the world needs to learn from the 20th century’s “death chart.”
