Freedom Daily Archive

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 ...

The Relegalization of Drugs, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 What could be more destructive and dysfunctional than public schooling? Let's cut through the facade of parents' voluntarily taking their children to the school bus each morning or dropping them off at school for their wonderful, cheerful, bright day of learning. The real reason parents do this is simple: If ...

Terrorism, Anti-Terrorism, and American Foreign Policy, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 Shortly after the July 17, 1996, crash of TWA Flight 800, President Clinton called for the passage of a new anti-terrorism bill. He argued that unless federal law-enforcement agencies were given the tools needed to combat terrorism, the lives of Americans would be put into increasing danger. At the same time, he called for ...

Freedom Is the Best Insurance against Terrorism

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1996

In the wake of the possible sabotage of TWA flight 800 and the bombing at the Olympics, President Clinton did what politicians always do at times like these: he grabbed for more power. If that has a feeling of dj vu to it, it should. Shortly after the blast at the federal building at Oklahoma City, Clinton asked Congress to ...

The Hypocritical War on Terrorism

by James Bovard December 1, 1996

President Clinton is continuing to agitate for new powers to suppress terrorists. He is demanding more powers for wiretaps, more powers to prevent people from using encryption for their e-mail, more powers to classify normal crimes as terrorist offenses, and so forth. As usual, Clinton's solution to every problem is more power for himself and his cronies. Clinton has ...