Freedom Daily Archive

The Dangers and Costs of Pax Americana

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2002

On September 17, 2002, the White House released a 31-page document entitled “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America.” It spells out the planned global agenda for the U.S. government for the foreseeable future. It is nothing less than the declared statement of the intention for the United States to consciously become the policeman and social ...

In Our Name

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2002

Are we justified in feeling a raging contempt for the people who call themselves our “leaders”? I believe so. For more than 10 years, these people have bombed Iraq and kept food, medicine, and sundry vital supplies from children and other innocent Iraqis in our name, yours and mine. If that isn’t worthy of contempt, what is? And now, if ...

Drug-War Justice for the Rich and Powerful

by James Bovard December 1, 2002

Even in these difficult times, a few simple rules can take some of the peril out of everyday life. For instance, if you’re planning to become a crackhead, make sure that you are the president’s niece. And a governor’s daughter. And that your family is rich enough to hire three lawyers to ply every legal ...

Immigration Controls Are Bad for the Economy And for Freedom

by Scott McPherson December 1, 2002

At the risk of uttering a terrible clich, America is a land of immigrants. The 13 British colonies that flourished on the Atlantic coast could not have existed were it not for brave men and women willing to start life anew in a strange land. These people came for many reasons; some wished to escape religious and political persecution; ...

Book Review: The Myth of Ownership

by George Leef December 1, 2002

The Myth of Ownership — Taxes and Justice by Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel (Oxford University Press, 2002); 190 pages; $25. During the Vietnam War, a popular protest slogan went “Fighting for peace is like drinking for sobriety.” After reading The Myth of Ownership, I feel like making a sign reading, “Taxing for justice is like fighting for peace and drinking ...

Book Review: Rethinking the Great Depression

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 2002

Rethinking the Great Depression by Gene Smiley (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002); 179 pages; $24.95. The Great Depression of the early 1930s has left a deep and lasting mark on the United States. For many in the general public the Great Depression still conjures up the image of mass unemployment caused by the failure of unregulated capitalism. For many in the ...

Economic Liberty and the Constitution, Part 6

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |  Table of Contents In the late 1800s, the state of New York ...

Corporate Inversions and the Tax State

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2002

Before I accepted my present position as a professor of economics at Hillsdale College in 1988, I negotiated my salary with the academic dean responsible for hiring new faculty. At that time I was teaching at the University of Dallas in Texas. Now, a move to Hillsdale was definitely attractive to me. They were offering me an endowed position ...

Packing Heat, Part 3

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 I confess that walking around armed for the first time felt strange. I was self-conscious, as though everyone knew I was carrying. Of course, no one knew. There are many ways to conceal a handgun on one’s person, thanks to the imaginative entrepreneurs who have deftly responded to the expanded ...

Political Plundering of Property Owners

by James Bovard November 1, 2002

For the first 175 years of the American republic, it was clearly recognized that government should not casually seize people’s property and give it to other people for their private use. The Supreme Court ruled in 1937 that “one person’s property may not be taken for the benefit of another private person ...

Some Reflections on the Right to Bear Arms, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 Many have been surprised by the lack of resistance by the European Jews who were killed by the millions in the Nazi concentration and death camps during the Second World War. For the most part, with a seemingly peculiar fatalism, they calmly went to their deaths with bullets to the back of the head ...

Can Gun Control Reduce Crime? Part 2

by Benedict D. LaRosa November 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 What about the experience of other countries? In 1997, just 12 months after a new gun law went into effect in Australia, homicides jumped 3.2 percent, armed robberies 44 percent, and assaults 8.6 percent. In the state of Victoria, homicides went up 300 percent. Before the law was passed, statistics showed a steady decrease ...