A Vision of a Free Society, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 If we abolish public schooling, then how will the poor be educated? If drug laws are repealed, won't everyone go on drugs? If Social Security is abolished, won't old people starve to death? If we don't have Medicare and Medicaid, how would ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 2: The Rationale of a Stable Price Level for Economic Stability by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | ...
The Evils of Economic Sanctions [long] by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1997 Americans are undoubtedly sleeping soundly in the knowledge that U.S. Customs agents in the last year tripled the number of Cuban cigars seized before they could be brought into the country. The Customs Service says that it grabbed nearly 90,000 cigars, thwarting 1,285 acts of smuggling. The cigars were valued at more than $1 million. That may sound impressive, but ...
Destroying Families for the Glory of the Drug War, Part 1 by James Bovard February 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 Few programs better symbolize the arrogance, propaganda, and political opportunism of the drug war than the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. DARE is the most popular antidrug education program in America. Labeled by the Chicago Tribune as "a darling of America's drug war," DARE is currently being taught by police officers to ...
The Individual in Society, Part 1 by Ludwig von Mises February 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 The words freedom and liberty signified for the most eminent representatives of mankind one of the most precious and desirable goods. Today it is fashionable to sneer at them. They are, trumpets the modern sage, "slippery" notions and "bourgeois" prejudices. Freedom and liberty are not to be found in nature. In nature there ...
Book Review: Austrian Economics by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1997 Austrian Economics: An Anthology edited by Bettina Bien Greaves (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: The Foundation for Economic Education 1996); 166 pages; $14.95. Just a little over one hundred years ago, in 1896, the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk published a 120-page monograph entitled "Karl Marx and the Close of His System." It offered, up to that time, the most detailed critical evaluation ...
The Relegalization of Drugs, Part 3 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I am often asked what distinguishes libertarians from nonlibertarians. I sometimes respond with a political or economic answer. But I've concluded that the best answer is a psychological one: Libertarians, unlike others, have a fierce commitment to reality, which is a commitment to truth. We have broken free of the ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 1: A Little Bit of Inflation Never Hurt Anyone. Right? by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | ...
The Welfare Trap by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1997 Welfare is much on people's minds. Last fall, the Congress passed, and the president signed, legislation that was heralded as a major overhaul of the welfare system. It wasn't, of course. It merely transferred to the states the power to run the welfare system, though the money will still come from Washington. Naturally, with money comes rules. The new ...
Clinton’s Biggest Disaster Fraud by James Bovard January 1, 1997 President Clinton proclaimed in campaign ads last fall that "my job as American president is to take care of the American people." Fewer events present more opportunities for the flaunting of compassion and buying votes than do natural disasters. As a result, under Clinton, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has become far more ...
Wards of the Government by Dean Russell January 1, 1997 The constitutions of former American slave states generally specified that the masters must provide their slaves with adequate housing, food, medical care, and old-age benefits. The Mississippi constitution contained this following additional sentence: "The legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves . . . where the slave shall ...
Book Review: Red Flag Over Hong Kong by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1997 Red Flag Over Hong Kong by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, David Newman, and Alvin Rabushka (Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1996); 196 pages; $17.95. In 1996, Amnesty International released a report entitled "China, No One is Safe: Political Repression and Abuse of Power in the 1990s." Whether it is academics desiring intellectual freedom, urban residents or peasants in the ...