Oregon was once known as a pioneer state. But in the past 40 years, the pioneer spirit has been replaced by a culture of regulation, dependency, and subsidization. Oregon has the nation's most punitive land-use controls, a punishing tax structure, and a political system dominated by public employee unions. More than half the state's land mass is owned by the federal government. In this session, we will discuss how Oregonians lost their freedom, and what needs to be done to re-claim it.
John A. Charles, Jr. is president and CEO of the Cascade Policy Institute, a free-market think tank in Portland.