The Most Unusual Society in History by Jacob G. Hornberger May 7, 2020 No matter what people might say about 19th-century America, one incontrovertible fact stands out: It was the most unusual society in history. We know that there were bad founding principles of the country. No doubt about that. Slavery was the worst. There were others, like violation of women’s rights, land grants to the railroads, tariffs, ...
The Great Fictitious Entity by Jacob G. Hornberger May 6, 2020 In his great little book The Law, the 19th-century French libertarian legislator Frederic Bastiat wrote one of the most profound insights on welfare-state socialism ever penned: “The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.” Bastiat was one of the first libertarian writers I came ...
A Libertarian Head of the IRS? by Jacob G. Hornberger May 5, 2020 Years ago, a segment of the libertarian movement resigned itself to simply trying to reform America’s welfare-warfare state way of life. Like conservatives did after the 1964 presidential election, when Democrat Lyndon Johnson smashed his GOP opponent Barry Goldwater, such libertarians threw in the towel on achieving freedom and just accepted the inevitability and the permanence of ...
It Ain’t Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger May 4, 2020 Imagine life in 1850 America. Even though many people support slavery, there are a some people who are deeply concerned about it and opposed to it. They know that slavery is morally wrong and that the plight of the slaves is horrible. So, a group of people get together and begin advocating for slavery reform. ...
Why Foreign Interventionism? by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2020 What is the point of U.S. foreign interventionism? Why are U.S. troops killing and dying in faraway countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Somalia? Why does the U.S. government have 165,000 troops stationed in more than 150 foreign countries? Why is the U.S. government enforcing economic sanctions and embargoes against the people ...
Killing Non-Violent Drug Offenders by Jacob G. Hornberger April 30, 2020 It is bad enough that federal and state officials have been punishing people for decades for possessing and distributing drugs. In a genuinely free society, people have the right to possess, ingest, and distribute anything they want. It’s not a coincidence that North Korea, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Cuba have criminalized the possession and distribution of ...
No One Has a Right to an Education by Jacob G. Hornberger April 29, 2020 In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times is celebrating a decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that a good education is a constitutional right and, therefore, that states have a legal duty to provide it to children. The court’s decision and the Times’ celebration of it only goes to show how America’s ...
Healthcare Soul-Searching in a Time of Coronavirus by Jacob G. Hornberger April 28, 2020 Suppose that in 1990, you purchased a perpetual motion machine for $1,000. When it arrived, it didn’t work. Ever since then, you have been trying to make it work. You have taken it to countless repair shops, spending a small fortune trying to get the thing fixed. Year after year, decade after decade, you have spent countless ...
The Evil of Drafting Women (and Men) by Jacob G. Hornberger April 27, 2020 In March, a federal agency named the Commission on Military, National, and Public Service issued an official report on whether America’s system of conscription should continue and, if so, whether women (along with men) should be subject to being drafted should circumstances warrant it. After months of study and deliberation, the commission answered yes ...
Price-Gouging Idiocy by Jacob G. Hornberger April 24, 2020 It’s an emergency and, therefore, it’s once again time for price-gouging idiocy and the further destruction of liberty in America. The New York Times reports that two brothers, Matt Colvin and Noah Colvin, who stockpiled 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer have entered into a settlement with state officials in Tennessee that enable them to ...
Making America Poor Again by Jacob G. Hornberger April 23, 2020 The New York Times points out that many of America’s largest department stores might disappear forever as a result of the massive lockdown of America’s economy during the coronavirus crisis. Recently the entire executive staff at Lord & Taylor was laid off. The venerable Neiman Marcus is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. According to the Times, ...
Debt is No Big Deal? by Jacob G. Hornberger April 22, 2020 If you want to see how leftist economic thinking has contributed to the financial and economic morass into which our nation has plunged, read an essay entitled “The Washington Post’s Debt Cult” by a man named Dean Baker, who is founder and president of a leftist think tank named the “Center for Economic and Policy ...