Freedom Daily Archive

Private Ownership and the Environment

by Lawrence W. Reed November 1, 1994

When it comes to "environmentalism," it is presumed by many that government is the only game in town. At least that is the message of radical environmentalists, who see private enterprise as the villain and the public sector as the white knight. That perspective is being challenged by a growing number of scientists and public scholars advancing what is known ...

Individualism and the Free Society, Part 1

by Nathaniel Branden November 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 A political system is the expression of a code of ethics. Just as some form of statism or collectivism is the expression of the ethics of altruism, so individualism — as represented by laissez-faire capitalism — is the expression of the ethics of rational self-interest. In this chapter I propose to show why this is ...

Book Review: Lost Rights

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1994

Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberties by James Bovard (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994); 408 pages; $24.95. Several years ago, Chicago School economist George Stigler argued: Even with the vast expansion of public controls over earning and spending in the United States since the Civil War, there has been an enormous expansion in the average individual's liberty. He has ...

Clinton, Castro, and Cuba

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1994

August 19, 1994, will go down as a black day in the history of the United States. On that day, President William Jefferson Clinton began jailing Cuban refugees in an American concentration center on the American side of Cuba. It was the first time since the Cuban revolution in 1959 that ...

The Greying of the Conservative Idea: Freedom and the Social Order

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1994

Ours is a time without a consistent ideological or philosophical direction. The utopian dreams that dominated more than three-quarters of our century have lost their attractiveness for most people, after the attempt to implement them produced nothing but death camps, slave labor, and mass terror. Fascism, National Socialism, and ...

The Forgotten Argument for Free Trade

by Samuel Bostaph October 1, 1994

Like most public policy debates in the United States of the Bush-Clinton era, the debates preceding congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) consisted mostly of extensive public wrangling over who might gain and who might lose if NAFTA passed. Self-proclaimed champions for various special-interest groups debated the job-creating versus job-destroying potential of the agreement, the implications ...

The United States: A Protectionist Nation

by James Bovard October 1, 1994

In talking about trade, many politicians rely on the Big Lie — the simple assertion that America is the most open market in the world, and, therefore, that any criticisms of our existing trade policies for being protectionist are absurd. But sifting through the details of trade policy can provide insight — and entertainment. One of the best ways ...

Separating Money and the State, Part 1: Eighty Years of Destruction

by Douglas E. French October 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 On December 23, 1993, the Federal Reserve System marked its 80th birthday. But few were celebrating. The Federal Reserve Act, which was signed into law in 1913 by President Woodrow Wilson, is described by economist Hans Sennholz as "probably the most tragic blunder ever committed by ...

Book Review: Death by Government

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1994

Death by Government by R. J. Rummel (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1994) 496 pages, $49.95. In 1900, when the 20th century was about to begin, practically all political commentators, social analysts, and newspaper editorialists were sure that the new century would bring greater economic prosperity, more personal liberty and human freedom, and fewer wars and conflicts around the world. Democratic ...

The Nazi Mind-Set in America, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 Political killings of innocent people could never happen in America, our fellow citizens tell us. America is a democracy. But so was Nazi Germany. Hitler was popularly elected, and his economic policies were widely favored and acclaimed (by Germans and Americans!). But there is another basic problem with that assertion: it is happening ...

Social Conflict, Self-Determination, and the Boundaries of the State

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1994

For the advocate of classical or market liberalism, the depoliticization of economic life is considered the primary avenue for the diminishment of social and cultural tensions in society. The removal of the state from all involvement in market activities, other than as protector of life and property and legal ...

The Immorality of Protectionism

by James Bovard September 1, 1994

The tariff is the protection the wolf gave the lamb. —Rep. James Beck, 1882 Protectionism produces political corruption, economic stagnation, and international conflict. Yet, many people will insist that even though protectionism hinders a nation's ability to feed, clothe, and house itself, the moral gains from protectionism are greater than the economic losses. But what is the moral core ...