Freedom Daily Archive

The American Spirit of Liberty versus Modern Tribal Racism

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2021

In a number of recent speeches, President Joe Biden has been repeating that America is founded not on an ethnicity or a religion or a language but on an “idea.” He has emphasized that the nature of this idea is that human beings do not derive their rights from the government but instead cede some of those rights for ...

There’s No Such Thing as “Market Fundamentalism,” Part 2

by George Leef September 1, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 If “market fundamentalism” were a serious phenomenon, you would think the authors could give some clear examples of it — as they do for fundamentalist opponents of economic freedom. (There are a great many people who automatically dismiss arguments in favor of economic liberty, calling them “right-wing” propaganda motivated by sheer greed; ...

Raising a Standard to Achieve Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2021

One of the things that distinguish libertarians from non-libertarians is that we libertarians know that we are not free. Non-libertarians are still convinced that they are free. That’s one reason why non-libertarians are befuddled by libertarians. When they ask us what we are all about, we sometimes respond that we are about bringing liberty to America. That ...

Red Light Robberies Across America

by James Bovard August 1, 2021

Crime is surging in American cities, but the official data leave out the most frequent source of highway robberies. More than 400 cities have set up red light cameras that are institutionalized racketeering that subverts public safety. Tens of thousands of American drivers have been injured and many people killed as a result of reckless revenue pursuit ...

Is There a VAT in Our Future?

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2021

President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan is expensive, really expensive. According to a White House “Fact Sheet,” this $1.8 trillion plan to “grow the middle class, expand the benefits of economic growth to all Americans, and leave the United States more competitive” includes “an additional four years of free, public education for our nation’s children” in the form of “free ...

Identity Politics and Systemic Racism Theory as the New Marxo-Nazism

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2021

It is very easy to say that we have been and are living in unprecedented times in 2020 and 2021. We have experienced a global pandemic, with government-imposed and mandated lockdowns and shutdowns of much of America’s and the world’s economic activities and social interactions, as well as with governmental debts that cumulatively are almost equal to the global ...

There’s No Such Thing as “Market Fundamentalism,” Part 1

by George Leef August 1, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 Zealots who want to force others to conform to their beliefs often exhibit a fundamentalist mindset. That is to say, they are utterly certain of the rectitude of their beliefs on the basis of some unchallengeable text, either sacred or secular. They assert what they believe to be true rather than engage in rational ...

Healthcare Whack-a-Mole

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2021

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of libertarians and conservatives have played an extensive game of Whack-a-Mole. That’s the Japanese game in which plastic moles pop up at random on a board and a person whacks each mole as it appears. In Healthcare Whack-a-Mole, governmental assaults on liberty have continuously popped up during the course of the pandemic. As ...

Ambrose Bierce’s Pro-Freedom Cynicism

by James Bovard July 1, 2021

The friends of freedom must recognize the verbal charades that sway people to surrender their rights and liberties. The political establishment and its media allies are continually abusing the English language to lull people into submission. From pupils being required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each school day to adults being endlessly hectored to vote, ...

Should There Be Equal Pay for Equal Work?

by Laurence M. Vance July 1, 2021

Although I rarely watch cable television, I happened to tune in to an episode of Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel the other day. The segment I saw was about Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Murphy (1894–1964), the first female professional baseball player. The diminutive first baseman from Warren, Rhode Island, who was known professionally as Spike Murphy, billed ...

Modern Collectivist Trends and How to Resist Them

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2021

The First World War and the Great Depression were, I would suggest, the major events that have shaped most of the political, social, and economic trends for more than a century. The Great War, as it used to be called, undermined the generally “classical” liberal world that prevailed, at least in much of Western and Central Europe and North ...

Frank Chodorov’s Peaceful, Persistent Revolution, Part 2

by Wendy McElroy July 1, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 Chodorov’s rejection of war was motivated largely by the growth of the state that accompanied it and that savaged individual freedom. Chapter 11 of his autobiography, entitled “Isolationism,” summarized his position: When the enemy is at the city gates, or the illusion that he is coming... the tendency is to turn over to the captain ...