Freedom Daily Archive

War Psychology: A Tool for Shaping Public Policy

by Catherine M. Farmer August 1, 1996

"War has shaped our constitutional order, the course of our national development, and the very mentality of our people," argued Professor Ralph Raico in the February 1995 issue of Freedom Daily . He may be right. However, laying aside the issues of global, national, and regional clashes, it's important to understand the psychology of war, as well, and recognize its ...

For Starters, What Is Government?

by Stu Pritchard August 1, 1996

Soon! Soon! Welcome contemplation of the voting booth will silence political shouting. Most of us will have had a bellyful of charge and countercharge, of shrill bombast, of candidates almost questioning each other's parentage. How refreshing it would be to hear one reply as did the Virginian in the novel of that name: "When ...

Book Review: The Road from Serfdom

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1996

The Road from Serfdom: The Economics and Political Consequences of the End of Communism by Robert Skidelsky (New York: Viking Penguin, 1996); 214 pages; $24.95. It has been five years since the collapse and formal demise of the Soviet Union. The "evil empire" has passed into the dustbin of history. Democracy and the market economy have been hailed as triumphant in ...

The Failure of the Republican “Revolution,” Part 6

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 The Roosevelt Revolution in the 1930s was not a revolution of arms. It was not a revolution of armies. Nevertheless, it counts as one of the ...

If Liberty Mattered — Once More, a Presidential Candidate’s Press Conference, Part 5

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 The Candidate: Ladies and gentlemen of the press, now that it has become clear who my two leading opponents will be in this presidential race, I feel that my decision ...

What’s So Great about Democracy?

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1996

In this election season, it might be good to ask, What's so great about democracy? There is almost a religious fervor in some people when they talk about the democratic process. I don't get it. I do see an advantage in voting over violence in the selection of officeholders. When succession is determined violently, innocent people get caught in the crossfire. ...

Minimum-Wage Law as Political Racketeering

by James Bovard July 1, 1996

President Clinton and many congressmen are hankering to raise the federal minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour. The minimum wage epitomizes government pseudo-paternalism, and Clinton's proposal should receive harsh condemnations from anyone who has looked at the history of minimum-wage policies. The minimum wage symbolizes the dishonest paternalism of today's welfare state. The state of Oregon, in a ...

Lessons from Your Fax Machine

by Karen Selick July 1, 1996

Have you ever heard someone ask: "How did we ever get along in the days before we had fax machines?" Think back. Ten years ago, most people had never heard of fax machines. They had just been invented. They were enormous clunky things, costing thousands of dollars, producing fading copies on that awful, curling thermal paper. Their usefulness was ...

Whose Bread I Eat — His Song I Sing

by J.G. McDaniel M.D. July 1, 1996

I remember, as a small boy in knee britches, going with my father to hear an address given by the Honorable Stephen Pace, then congressman from the old Georgia 12th District. It was on the banks of the Ocmulgee River. There was a barbecue, and citizens, especially farmers, from all the counties gathered. This was before the first World ...

Book Review: Making Economic Sense

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1996

Making Economic Sense by Murray N. Rothbard (Auburn, Ala.: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1995); 435 pages. Murray Rothbard was an exceptional interdisciplinary scholar. He was a master of economic theory (and, himself, one of the major 20th-century contributors to Austrian economics), an original political theorist defending human liberty, and a wide-ranging multisubject historian. His death last year, in 1995, was ...

The Failure of the Republican “Revolution,” Part 5

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 It would be difficult to find a better example of socialist central planning than public schooling. The system is run by a board of government officials, ...

Free Trade, Peace, and Goodwill Among Nations: The Sesquicentennial of the Triumph of Free Trade

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1996

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is justly considered one of the intellectual fountainheads of economic liberty. With a brilliant combination of logic and historical example, Smith demonstrated, like few others had up to his day, that governmental controls, regulations, and restrictions on economic freedom were the fundamental causes of ...