August 18, 2026

Photo credit: Portland Press Herald / Contributor / Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

“The U.S. government redistributes far more from young to old than from rich to poor, a practice intended to support senior citizens when they are most vulnerable,” Chris Pope writes. “But we are now overdoing it and exposing young people to consistently greater hardships.”

Indeed, surveys show that working-age Americans are three times more likely than seniors to skip meals and to have trouble paying utility bills, while 50 percent are more likely to live in areas where they feel unsafe. In 2022, their annual incomes were higher, but they held $205,000 less in assets. Meantime, they paid $12,398 in direct taxes, while seniors paid just $5,545 in tax.

“Federal policy rightly does much to assist the nation’s seniors,” Pope writes. “But it should be reformed to recognize that Americans often need more help earlier in their lives.”

Read what he thinks policymakers should do.

In the 1970s, New York’s abandoned industrial lofts evolved from illegal artist studios into valuable residential spaces. Judge Glock outlines how this transformation succeeded when zoning and building laws adapted to changing demand. Glock identifies a parallel today in the conversion of vacant downtown offices into housing following the work-from-home shift. The central lesson: cities should embrace market-driven changes by reforming zoning and building codes and using tax incentives sparingly, rather than creating unnecessary regulatory barriers.

“Just as they did during the loft era, cities in the work-from-home age must rethink their purpose,” he writes. “A city centered on white-collar office work was once unimaginable; cities were thought to exist primarily for making tangible goods and trading them. Today, a city composed largely of residences may seem equally hard to imagine, but it’s likely to become more common. If cities do not want to be left behind, they will need to let that future unfold.”

Read more here.

Earlier this summer, the American Association of University Professors endorsed Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Party nominee for Senate. It was the group’s first national endorsement, marking its transformation “from a professional association that advocates for academic freedom and other professional rights to a radical-left activist group that seems determined to play an explicitly partisan role in national politics,” Paul du Quenoy writes.

Radical is right. El-Sayed wants to abolish ICE, supports tax hikes and Medicare for all, and opposes military aid for Israel. He also campaigned with Hasan Piker, who said that the U.S. deserved the Sept. 11 attacks. And his father-in-law is associated with two groups that were named as unindicted co-conspirators in a 2007 criminal case in which the defendants were convicted of funneling millions to Hamas.

“The AAUP apparently overlooked these controversial associations on the theory that ‘El-Sayed will be an invaluable ally for academic freedom and higher education as a public good’ and praised him for having ‘vowed to stand up to the Trump administration’s ideological assault on the sector and defend the rights of students and faculty to speak out on political issues,’” du Quenoy observes.

Read more about the group’s shift.

During a conference last year, Ezra Klein called for restoring beauty in American architecture. It was a surprising perspective coming from someone on the Left—usually, it’s been commentators on the Right who call attention to the attractiveness (or lack thereof) of America’s buildings.

“Klein understands here what cultural conservatives have maintained from the margins for decades,” Paul Shakeshaft writes. “If our cities, homes, and streets are not aesthetically appealing, citizens will oppose their construction. Beauty is the key to unlocking abundance.”

Research confirms this. A recent study found that beauty was a key factor in voters’ support for pro-housing policies.

Read more.