Freedom Daily Archive

What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen

by Fredric Bastiat December 1, 1999

Have you ever heard anyone say: "Taxes are the best investment; they are a life-giving dew. See how many families they keep alive, and follow in imagination their indirect effects on industry; they are infinite, as extensive as life itself." The advantages that government ...

Liberty and Virtue: Invaluable and Inseparable, Part 1

by Doug Bandow December 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 There is no quicker means of raising a skeptical eye among many conservatives and libertarians alike than to endorse both liberty and virtue. Many people who consider freedom the preeminent political objective perceive support for virtue to be an implicit call for restrictive new laws. ...

The Virtue of Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1999

Christmas is the perfect time of year to reflect on such things as freedom and virtue. People give presents to their friends and loved ones, donate food and clothing to the poor, and make contributions to their churches and other worthy causes. And they do it all voluntarily. No one forces them to do so. Do you ever wonder how ...

Morality and Social Security

by Rev. Robert A. Sirico December 1, 1999

It is widely acknowledged by people of all economic and political persuasions that something will have to be to be done about Social Security in the coming years. Some want to shore up the system through higher taxes and other reforms. Others want to convert it to a private-oriented pension system. Even President Clinton has entertained the prospect of ...

Book Review: The Quest for Cosmic Justice

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1999

The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell (New York: The Free Press, 1999); 214 pages; $25. On August 18, 1919, during the Russian Civil War that resulted in the triumph of communism and the creation of the Soviet Union, there appeared the following passage in the first issue of The Red Sword, a newspaper published in Kiev by the Bolshevik ...

Should the State Punish Drug Offenders?

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1999

Republican presidential contender George W. Bush's refusal to deny cocaine use raises some fundamental, moral questions: Why should the state be punishing adults for drug offenses? Why shouldn't people be free to engage in self-destructive behavior as long as their conduct is peaceful? Why should anyone be put in jail, fined, or have his property confiscated for simply engaging ...

Waco: Lies, Deaths, and Cover-Ups

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1999

Afer the bombing of the Alfred J. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, President Clinton declared, "There's nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country." I wonder whether the president still feels the same way in light of the ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 35: Free Banking and the Economic Case against Central Banking

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1999

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 ...

Surplus Balderdash

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999

The projected budget surpluses are useful in revealing the political philosophies of Democrats and Republicans. None of the revelations is flattering. The Democrats hold that lowering taxes in light of the surpluses constitutes a form of government spending and should be judged against other ways government could spend the ...

Drug-Courier Profiles: Or, Why We Are All Guilty

by James Bovard November 1, 1999

Police using drug-courier profiles are bringing the best of Third World authoritarianism to American airports and highways - with narcs constantly waiting to leap out and shake down any passenger or driver they think looks suspicious. And the definition of "suspicious" includes almost anyone over the age of four. The next time that you make a phone call after getting ...

FDR – The Man, the Leader, the Legacy, Part 8

by Ralph Raico November 1, 1999

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 January 1932, Franklin Roosevelt announced his candidacy for ...

Book Review: Patterns in the Dark

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1999

Patterns in the Dark: Understanding Risk and Financial Crisis with Complexity Theory by Edgar E. Peters (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999); 222 pages; $39.95. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Austrian school of economics was considered one of the leading contributors to both economic theory and economic policy. The Austrian economists challenged the premises and arguments of the ...