Regulation Policy & Welfare

Needed: The Separation of Cable and State

by James Bovard May 1, 1998

There is growing political manipulation of the information that the average American is allowed to receive. Americans long ridiculed the Soviet-bloc media for presenting absurdly self-serving images of their government. Yet, in this country, thanks to government controls over cable television, most American cable subscribers are forced to bankroll multiple television stations that ...

Punishing Success

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1998

Let's cut to the chase: It's Microsoft's property. The company should be free to offer it on any terms it wishes. If people don't want to buy Microsoft products, they don't have to. As long as no law keeps other people from offering competing products, no one need ...

Hair Today, Fairness Tomorrow

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1998

It is a mystery to me why egalitarians have failed to decry the unequal and unfair distribution of one of the most important assets in all of society. It is all the more perplexing because the unfairness of the distribution is plain for all to see. Walk down any street, and there it is. Toleration of this egregious violation ...

What They Don’t Know

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1998

Vice President Al Gore says that if the tax on cigarettes is raised $1.10 a pack in the next five years, teenage smoking will drop 42 percent on average nationwide. Not 41 or 43 percent. Forty-two percent. Further, he says that 991,000 deaths from smoking would be avoided. ...

Recall the Government Meat Inspectors

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1998

The record recall of hamburger meat from the Hudson Foods plant in Nebraska last year should prompt us to ask whether the government should be certifying the safety of America's food supply. Let's face it, food is too important to be left to government. For many people, that may come as a shock. Doesn't the E. coli-contaminated beef show that ...

Killing and Lying for Safety: Airbags and the Salvation State

by James Bovard December 1, 1997

Airbags symbolize the bogus paternalism that increasingly blights Americans' lives. In order to save lives, federal regulators seem to have granted themselves a license to kill. While airbags are sometimes seen as an arcane consumer issue, they are actually a great lesson of the danger of the combination of ...

Service to Whom? Part 2

by Doug Bandow October 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 A more subtle problem is the long-term effect of federal funding on the volunteer groups and those who normally support volunteer groups. To some it might seem hard to criticize grants to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity (which until recently refused to accept government funding), Big Brothers-Big Sisters, and the Red Cross. These ...

Sovietizing American Virtue

by James Bovard September 1, 1997

"The higher interest involved in the life of the whole must set the limits and lay down the duties of the individual," according to Adolf Hitler. Hitler's views are generally unpopular in the United States. However, some of his moral dogmas may be staging a comeback. At the Volunteer Summit in ...

Do We Need the Government’s Permission for Everything?

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1997

The other day I caught the television news report about America Online's plan to buy out its largest rival, CompuServe. At the end of the report the broadcaster said that "the government will have to approve the deal." It got me thinking: does the government have to approve everything we do? President Clinton says we've left the era of big ...

Service to Whom? Part 1

by Doug Bandow September 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 Service has a long and venerable history in the United States. It has perhaps become a cliché, but Americans' generosity and penchant to organize to meet community needs were both noted by Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic, Democracy in America. And so it continues today. Three-quarters of American households give to charity. Some ...

Heaven’s Gate and the Cult of the Socialistic Welfare State, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 One of the primary characteristics of cults is the denial of reality. The ultimate example of this occurred in the Heaven's Gate cult: those cult members did not commit suicide; instead, they embarked on an exciting, intergalactic space adventure. In principle, denial of reality is no different for members in the cult of the socialistic ...

Recall the Government Meat Inspectors

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1997

The record recall of hamburger meat from the Hudson Foods plant in Nebraska should prompt us to ask whether the government should be certifying the safety of America's food supply. That may come as a shock. Doesn't the E. coli-contaminated beef show that we badly need government inspection? ...