Freedom Daily Archive

An Old Geezer on Learning about Liberty and Its Loss

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2021

I am now in my 70s. No longer a spring chicken but not a dead duck yet either, with, I hope, a few good years left. When I was in my mid 20s, I had the opportunity and good fortune to meet and interact for most of two summers with the noted Austrian economist and Nobel Prize winner Friedrich ...

My Case against Minimum-Wage Laws

by George Leef May 1, 2021

Minimum-wage laws are again in the news, as Joe Biden and his political allies in Congress seek to push the national minimum from its current level of $7.25 per hour up to $15 per hour. Some politicians, Sen. Bernie Sanders for one, declare that people can barely survive even on $15 per hour. If the law takes the minimum ...

The VMI Controversy

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2021

Last year, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia, came under scrutiny for alleged acts of racial discrimination against black members of the corps of cadets. The controversy began with an article in the Washington Post, which was followed by a call by the governor of Virginia for an official state investigation into racism at VMI. Under pressure, ...

Will Treason Mania Destroy America?

by James Bovard April 1, 2021

At the start of the Biden era, America is being torn apart by more allegations of treason than at any time since the Civil War. Historian Henry Adams observed a century ago that politics “has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” And few things spur hatred more effectively than tarring all political opponents as traitors. The Founding Fathers carved ...

Would the Republicans Have Saved Us?

by Laurence M. Vance April 1, 2021

If Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) had not gotten sick and resigned his Senate seat, then the title of this article would have been “Will the Republicans Save Us?” After serving in the Georgia state house and senate, Isakson served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He was re-elected in ...

Jacques Novicow, Sociologist of Peace and Freedom

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 2021

One of the most important classical liberal crusades of the nineteenth century was to at least tame, if not end, the death and destruction of war. From time immemorial, wars have been the scourge of mankind. Huge numbers of ordinary people have been uprooted from their homes and families to be the human sacrifices in battle to serve the ...

The Continuing Disaster of the U.S. Drug War in Latin America

by Ted Galen Carpenter April 1, 2021

The following is a statement to the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission: Charting a New Path Forward, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, December 3, 2020: I wish to express my appreciation to the chairman and members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for the opportunity to submit this statement. The Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission is ...

The Lies of the National-Security State

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2021

I recently came across a plaque with the heading “Died in Service to the Nation — Vietnam 1961-1975.” The plaque then listed several members of the U.S. Armed Forces who were killed in the Vietnam War. The plaque demonstrates a central ill afflicting many Americans — an ill that can be described as living the “life of the lie.” Until ...

Congress Is Still Unfit to Govern

by James Bovard March 1, 2021

“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap,” Napoleon is reputed to have said more than two centuries ago. Boundless ignorance is also not a handicap, as Congress demonstrated last December by approving a 5593-page bill without reading it. Plenty of activists and editorial pages howled over the sloppy procedures propelling $2.3 trillion in new federal spending. James Madison warned in ...

The Conflict of the Ages

by Laurence M. Vance March 1, 2021

The year 2020 was a dreadful year as it relates to individual liberty, free association, commercial freedom, and private property, and 2021 isn’t looking much better. The main reason, of course, is not the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but the government response to it. Volumes could be written about the government-mandated restrictions on peaceful activity  that have been instituted during this ...

Frank Knight and the Place of Principles in Economics and Politics

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2021

It is sometimes necessary to recall the old adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same. That never seems truer than when turning to the character and content of economic and social policy issues in modern America. Every time it seems that one of the collectivist confusions and fallacies has been once more shown to ...

Liberty in Peril

by George Leef March 1, 2021

Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History by Randall G. Holcombe, Independent Institute, 2019, 245 pages. I finished reading Prof. Randall Holcombe’s book Liberty in Peril during the 2020 election. I have yet to hear any candidate say the word “liberty” and would be shocked if I did. We are bombarded with messages for candidates and messages ...