Daily Articles

Indoor Vaping, Like Smoking, Now Up In Smoke

by Christine Smith August 12, 2019

Colorado, as with many other states and various municipalities nationwide, has added more regulation to prohibit vaping. This one is an update (signed by the governor May 29, 2019) to amend the Clean Indoor Air Act we've had here since 2006. The Colorado ban now makes vaping illegal in all places smoking is currently banned, essentially most indoor work or ...

Milton Friedman: The Forgotten History of the Godfather of Conservative Libertarianism

by Brian Miller August 9, 2019

“I would like to say to Milton and Anna : Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, acknowledging the central bank’s role in causing the Great Depression

We’re All Enemies of the State

by John W. Whitehead August 8, 2019

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”—H.L. Mencken We’ve been down this road many times before. If the government is consistent about any one thing, it is this: it has an unnerving tendency to exploit crises and use ...

The Case for a Coercive Green New Deal?

by Richard M. Ebeling August 7, 2019

Social and economic crises, real and imagined, often seem to bring out the most wrongheaded thinking in matters of government policy. Following the 2008 financial crisis and with the fear of “global warming,” there has been a revival in the case for “democratic” socialism. But now its proponents are “out of the closet” with a clear cut and explicit ...

Fat Chance

by Laurence M. Vance August 5, 2019

Should employers have the right to discriminate in hiring on the basis of obesity? The Washington State Supreme Court recently ruled that “it is illegal for employers in Washington to refuse to hire qualified potential employees because the employer perceives them to be obese.” That follows guidelines released by the New York City Commission on Human Rights stating that discrimination ...

The Rise of the American Gestapo

by John W. Whitehead August 2, 2019

“Adolf Hitler is alive and well in the United States, and he is fast rising to power.”—Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, on the danger posed by the FBI to our civil liberties Despite the finger-pointing and outcries of dismay from those who are watching the government discard the rule of law at ...

Adhering to Principle to Achieve Liberty, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2019

Part 1 | Part 2 In 1990, the first year of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s existence, I wrote an article entitled “Letting Go of Socialism” (www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/letting-socialism) in which I criticized the idea of school vouchers. I pointed out that vouchers were simply another socialist program in which government forcibly takes money from one group of people and gives ...

2002 Landmarks on the Road to “1984” Orwellian Hell

by James Bovard August 1, 2019

Next month will be the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Politicians and bureaucrats wasted no time after that carnage to unleash the Surveillance State on average Americans, treating every person like a terrorist suspect. Since the government failed to protect the public, Americans somehow forfeited their constitutional right to privacy. Despite heroic efforts by former NSA staffer Edward Snowden and a host of activists ...

Why Republicans Are Powerless against Socialism

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2019

If we are to believe the Republicans, they are all that is holding back the forces of socialism from taking over the United States and replacing a free and capitalist society with an authoritarian and socialist society. Nothing could be further from the truth. After suffering the humiliating loss of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm election, and having ...

Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action: Marking 70 Years of Continuing Relevance

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2019

German September 2019 marks 70 years since the appearance of Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, one of the truly great “classics” of modern economics. Too often a “classic” means a famous book considered to have made important contributions to some field of study and that is reverentially referred to but is unfortunately ...

Insane and Ill-Advised: Trump’s Future War with Iran, Part 1

by Danny Sjursen August 1, 2019

Part 1 | Part 2 It’s an inconvenient truth: the president of the United States has no coherent foreign policy. Period. At times Donald Trump talks sensibly about pulling out of quagmires in Syria and Afghanistan, while simultaneously ratcheting up threats against America’s favorite (at least since 1979) punching bag — Iran.  He’s also loaded up his administration with ...

Advancing Liberty Through Principles

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2019

A film company has just completed a short and succinct promotional video for The Future of Freedom Foundation that emphasizes our principled approach to advancing liberty. I am writing to ask you to help us employ a professional marketing firm to market the video and to bring FFF’s uncompromising perspectives on freedom to the ...