Freedom Daily Archive

Order without Design

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1997

Perhaps the toughest thing that libertarians have to persuade nonlibertarians of is the existence of order that is undesigned. It is certainly a counterintuitive idea. So much of our everyday experience seems to teach us that where there is order, there is a designer working from a plan. That fact ...

Destroying Families for the Glory of the Drug War, Part 2

by James Bovard March 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 In Clyo, Georgia, 11-year-old Tony Johnson met police Sergeant Sam O'Dwyer during Tony's DARE training. After completing his training, Tony met with O'Dwyer three times and eventually informed the cop of a few marijuana plants on a corner of his parents' land near their trailer home. O'Dwyer busted Tony's mother on April 9, 1992. ...

The Individual in Society, Part 2

by Ludwig von Mises March 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 Liberty and freedom are terms employed for the description of the social conditions of the individual members of a market society in which the power of the indispensable hegemonic bond, the state, is curbed lest the operation of the market be endangered. In a totalitarian system there is nothing to which the attribute "free" ...

Book Review: Libertarianism

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1997

Libertarianism: A Primer by David Boaz (New York: The Free Press 1997); 312 pages; $23.00. The greatest triumph of socialism during the last one hundred years has been the extent to which collectivist ideas dominate the vocabulary and the concepts of public policy. Socialism, ...

A Vision of a Free Society, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 If we abolish public schooling, then how will the poor be educated? If drug laws are repealed, won't everyone go on drugs? If Social Security is abolished, won't old people starve to death? If we don't have Medicare and Medicaid, how would ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 2: The Rationale of a Stable Price Level for Economic Stability

by Richard M. Ebeling February 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 Evils of Economic Sanctions [long]

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1997

Americans are undoubtedly sleeping soundly in the knowledge that U.S. Customs agents in the last year tripled the number of Cuban cigars seized before they could be brought into the country. The Customs Service says that it grabbed nearly 90,000 cigars, thwarting 1,285 acts of smuggling. The cigars were valued at more than $1 million. That may sound impressive, but ...

Destroying Families for the Glory of the Drug War, Part 1

by James Bovard February 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 Few programs better symbolize the arrogance, propaganda, and political opportunism of the drug war than the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. DARE is the most popular antidrug education program in America. Labeled by the Chicago Tribune as "a darling of America's drug war," DARE is currently being taught by police officers to ...

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 | ...