Freedom Daily Archive

The Disaster of Government Disaster Relief

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1994

January's tragic earthquake around Los Angeles, like last year's Midwestern floods and Southern Californian wildfires, once again highlights the government's pernicious role both before and after the occurrence of natural disasters. As the government has become more involved in such matters, the losses from natural disasters have increased. That is no mere coincidence. The government's role has been responsible for ...

The Criminalization of Drug Use Is Criminal

by David A. Nichols May 1, 1994

Thank you, America. You have charged, tried, convicted and incarcerated me. You have sentenced me to 27 years in prison for non-violent, non-larcenous, consensual adult behavior — for a first-time offense. You are willing to spend up to $35,000 per year to keep me locked up; yet, the average American makes only $20,000 or so ...

Book Review: Reinventing Civil Society

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1994

Reinventing Civil Society: The Rediscovery of Welfare Without Politics by David G. Green (London: Institute for Economic Affairs, 1993); 166 pages; £7.95. When President Clinton delivered his address to a joint session of Congress to outline his proposal for national health insurance, he compared his health plan with Franklin Roosevelt's introduction ...

Freedom, Virtue, and Responsibility, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 When the surgeon general of the United States, Joycelyn Elders, announced that drug legalization was an idea worth studying, the reaction among politicians, bureaucrats, conservatives, and even those on the political left was immediate. "Immoral!" "You favor drug abuse?" "Have you ever held a crack baby?" "You should resign!" Why do ...

The Ghost of Protectionism Past: The Return of Friedrich List

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 1994

The cover of the December 1993 issue of The Atlantic Monthly had a caricature of Adam Smith running away while being chased by a rain of rotten apples, stones and copies of a book with the name Friedrich List on their covers. The caption under the drawing said, "Move over Adam Smith. Some of the world's strongest economies ...

Cooperation Between Capital-Rich and Labor-Rich Countries, Part 1

by Milton Friedman April 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 Thank you very much, Mr. Ambassador, for that kind introduction. Ed Crane, Luis Pazos, all of the people who have made this event possible, it is a pleasure to be here. The atmosphere and the climate in which I am here are very different than they were the only other time I was in Mexico ...

U.S. Misfortunes “Made in America”

by Lawrence W. Reed April 1, 1994

Two crucial points need to be made about international trade: 1) The U.S. is far more interventionist than is commonly believed, and 2) our competitiveness problems are primarily made in America, not overseas. When former president Bush visited Australia a few years ago, Australian farmers staged a very visible protest. ...

New Element Discovered

by Anonymous April 1, 1994

The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by university physicists. The element, tentatively named "Bureaucrastratium," has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic weight of zero. However, it does have one neutron, 70 assistant neutrons, and 161 sub-assistant neutrons. This gives it an atomic mass of 232. These 232 particles are held together in a ...

Book Review: Reclaiming the American Right

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 1994

Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement by Justin Raimondo (Burlingame, CA: Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993); 287 pages. In the first issue of the conservative quarterly Modern Age — Summer 1957 — there was an essay by Felix Morley entitled, "American Republic or American Empire?" His argument was that in taking on the role ...

The Real Free-Market Approach to Health Care, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The only solution to America's health-care crisis is to end, not reform, governmental intervention into economic activity. What would this entail? A way of life in which people would be free: to do whatever they want, so long as their conduct is peaceful and does not intrude, in some direct way, ...

National Health Insurance and the Welfare State, Part 3

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In his recent book The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe (1993), historian Gale Stokes suggests, "Students who graduate from college after the turn of the millennium will almost certainly look back on the two great movements of the twentieth century, fascism and communism, ...

“Smart Card” Is a Scary Proposal

by Williamson M. Evers March 1, 1994

When Bill Clinton proposed his national health-care plan on September 22, 1993, he held up to the television audience a proposed new Health Security card. Your name and your ID number (probably your Social Security number) would appear on the front. Though it looks like a credit card with a magnetic strip, it may ...