Libertarianism

The Libertarian Angle: The Torture Scandal (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 15, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the recent release of the Senate Torture Report. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

TGIF: “And the Pursuit of Happiness”: Nathaniel Branden, RIP

by Sheldon Richman December 12, 2014

Libertarians and others have wondered why Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence concludes its explicitly incomplete list of unalienable rights with the pursuit of happiness rather than property. The website Monticello.org states, Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson himself never explained his use of the phrase “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. However, he was almost certainly influenced by George ...

The Purism vs. Gradualism Libertarian Debate Is Over

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 12, 2014

When I founded The Future of Freedom Foundation twenty-five years ago, the debate that was raging within the libertarian movement was between the purists and the gradualists. The debate centered on whether libertarians should stand for the immediate repeal of socialist and interventionist programs or whether they should endorse reform measures that would supposedly get us to the free ...

No Compromise Is the ONLY Way to Achieve Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 8, 2014

There is one way — and only one way — to achieve the free society: by strictly hewing to libertarian principles. While compromising libertarian principles might seem to be a more palatable and more practical way to achieve freedom, nothing could be further from the truth. In response to our end-of-year letter seeking people’s financial support for The Future of Freedom ...

The Libertarian Angle: Foreign Policy Blowback and Police Tyranny

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 8, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: foreign blowback and police tyranny . The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.  

TGIF: Tackling Straw Men Is Easier than Critiquing Libertarianism

by Sheldon Richman December 5, 2014

Maybe I’m being unreasonable, but I think it behooves a critic to understand what he’s criticizing. I realize that tackling straw men is much easier than dealing with challenging arguments, but that’s no excuse for the shoddy work we find in John Edward Terrell’s New York Times post, “Evolution and the American Myth of the Individual.” In his ...

The Libertarian Angle: Obama’s Immigration Decree

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 2, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: immigration policy. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: The Uber Insurgency

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 25, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: Uber's undermining the taxi monopoly. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: Uncompromising Libertarian Principles (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 17, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the case for an uncompromising, pure vision of libertarianism. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

The Libertarian Angle: Republican Electoral Victory

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 10, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the Republican landslide. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.  

Benjamin Constant: A Principled Voice of Liberty Worth Recalling

by Richard M. Ebeling November 3, 2014

October 25th marked the 247th birthday of one of the greatest voices of liberty, the French political philosopher of freedom, Benjamin Constant. He may not be a household name to friends of freedom today, but he should be. He wrote one of the most principled and consistent defenses of individual liberty and freedom of enterprise to appear in the ...

Jane Cobden: Carrying On Her Father’s Good Work

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2014

Among libertarians and classical liberals, the name Richard Cobden (1804–1865) evokes admiration and applause. His activities — and successes — on behalf of freedom, free markets, and government retrenchment are legendary. Most famously, he co-founded — with John Bright — the Anti–Corn Law League, which successfully campaigned for repeal of the import tariffs on grain. Those trade restrictions had ...