Freedom Daily Archive

Morals and the Welfare State, Part 2

by F.A. Harper October 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 THE DECALOGUE serves as a guide to moral conduct which, if violated, brings upon the violator a commensurate penalty. There may be other guides to moral conduct which one might wish to add to the Golden Rule and ...

Book Review: The Tyranny of Good Intentions

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2000

The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice by Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton (Roseville, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 2000); 240 pages; $24.95. IT OFTEN SEEMS that liberty is only really appreciated when it is either directly threatened or has been lost. In the 1930s, when liberty was challenged by ...

The Constitution: Liberties of the People and Powers of Government, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 In 1787, the Constitution of the United States called into existence the federal government. What was significant, however, was that it was a government whose powers were expressly limited by the people. Throughout history, government officials had exercised omnipotent power over their citizenry. Of course, there had been some exceptions, such as Magna Carta in ...

Imagining Freedom for the 21st Century: A Presidential Candidate’s Press Conference, Part 4

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 The Washington Times: In your 10-point vision for America (See “Imagining Freedom for the 21st Century, Part 2,” Freedom Daily, July 2000), you called for ending all political, military, and economic intervention by the U.S. government around the world. Even in ...

Bright Days Ahead for the Second Amendment?

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2000

THE SICKENING spectacle of hoodlum gangs molesting women in New York City’s Central Park in broad daylight while the police stood by has elicited volumes of criticism. But two key facts have been left out of the commentary: First, the police have no legal duty to come to any particular person’s ...

How the State Became Immaculate, Part 2

by James Bovard September 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Hegel's deified state doctrine found vigorous proponents in Britain. According to Oxford professor T.H. Green, It is not supreme coercive power, simply as such, but supreme coercive power exercised in a certain way and for certain ends, that makes a State, viz., exercised according to law, written or customary, and ...

Rooting Out the Trade in Human Misery

by Andy Falkof September 1, 2000

WHEN DEATH is the result of smuggling immigrants across borders, is the root of the problem the smugglers or the laws that make immigration and human transport crimes? British customs officers recently stumbled upon a poorly ventilated Dutch truck containing the bodies of 58 suffocated Chinese immigrants who had tried to enter England illegally. People all over the world condemned ...

Strategies from the Past: Boycott, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy September 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 The current disillusionment with politicians — which may be Clinton’s true legacy — will be positive only if it becomes disillusionment with the political means itself. Otherwise, people will continue to look primarily to the “state” for solutions instead of to “society.” State vs. society The German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer explained the difference between these two ...

Morals and the Welfare State, Part 1

by F.A. Harper September 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 TO MANY PERSONS, the welfare state has become a symbol of morality and righteousness. This makes those who favor the welfare state appear to be the true architects of a better world; those who oppose it, immoral rascals who might be expected to rob banks, or ...

Book Review: Power and Prosperity

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2000

Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships by Mancur Olson (New York: Basic Books, 2000); 233 pages; $28. MANCUR OLSON, who died in 1998 at the age of 62, was one of the most insightful economic analysts of the political process. His most original and important work was The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of ...

The Constitution: Liberties of the People and Powers of Government, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 The most radical experiment in history is the Constitution of the United States of America. Throughout history, people had accepted the commonly held notion that government’s powers over the citizenry were supreme. In 1787, however, for the first time ever, the American people announced to the world that the liberties of the people were ...

Imagining Freedom for the 21st Century: A Presidential Candidate’s Press Conference, Part 3

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 The New York Times: In a recent public opinion poll, 71 percent of the respondents said that the protection of the existing Social Security system was important in evaluating a presidential candidate. Yet you seem to be calling for the abolition of ...