Regulation Policy & Welfare

Freedom in Transactions

by Fredric Bastiat August 1, 1997

On entering Paris, which I had come to visit, I said to myself — Here are a million of human beings who would all die in a short time if provisions of every kind ceased to flow towards this great metropolis. Imagination is baffled when it tries to appreciate the vast ...

Heaven’s Gate and the Cult of the Socialistic Welfare State, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 Several months ago, police discovered the bodies of members of a cult known as Heaven's Gate. The cult members had taken their own lives, apparently under the belief that they would be transported to a space ship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet that would take them on an intergalactic space trip. The Heaven's Gate episode ...

Capitalism, Socialism, or a Third Way?

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1997

Political economy has been debated for many years and yet so little progress has been made. The debate is littered with false alternatives and other fallacies that keep us locked into thinking that guarantees eventual stagnation and then decline. The recent summit of industrial countries in Denver is a case ...

Should We Be Thankful for the FDA?

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997

The television anchorman presented the news in an excited tone: "The Food and Drug today approved use of a new laser technology that will replace the drill at the dentist's office." According to the story, most patients tested with the new laser device needed no pain killer. The announcement ...

Smoke If You Want, and Pay for It

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997

Tobacco has become a four-letter word. The cigarette companies are getting it from all sides. The federal Food and Drug Administration wants to regulate tobacco as a drug. State governments are suing to recover Medicare money spent on elderly people with tobacco-related illnesses. Heirs of long-time ...

The Nature of the Welfare State

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997

Welfare-state programs have three central characteristics: plunder, deception, and obfuscation. Because those programs always effect a forcible transfer of wealth from one group of individuals to another, they involve what the great 19th-century economist Frederic Bastiat called "legalized plunder." The law sanctions stealing in these cases and is thereby changed from its original purpose, which was to protect people's ...

Stop the Flood of Taxpayer Money

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1997

Once again spring is heralded by swollen rivers in the Midwest. The overflowing Ohio River and its tributaries have caused heartbreak and millions of dollars of damage in several states in the region. And once again a colossal public-policy blunder is being committed: the handing out of millions of taxpayer dollars in ...

The FTC Strikes Again

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1997

The Federal Trade Commission has once again dealt a blow to our allegedly free enterprise economy. The FTC plans to move against a proposed merger between Staples and Office Depot, two office supply chains. The commission claims the merger would violate the antitrust laws. Displaying its standard confusion over ...

The Welfare Trap

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1997

Welfare is much on people's minds. Last fall, the Congress passed, and the president signed, legislation that was heralded as a major overhaul of the welfare system. It wasn't, of course. It merely transferred to the states the power to run the welfare system, though the money will still come from Washington. Naturally, with money comes rules. The new ...

Wards of the Government

by Dean Russell January 1, 1997

The constitutions of former American slave states generally specified that the masters must provide their slaves with adequate housing, food, medical care, and old-age benefits. The Mississippi constitution contained this following additional sentence: "The legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves . . . where the slave shall ...

The Guilding of the American Workforce

by James Bovard December 1, 1996

The American economy is degenerating into a guild system, as government doles out privileges to one group of self-proclaimed professionals after another. State licensing prohibits millions of Americans from practicing the occupation of their choice. Over eight hundred professions now require a government license to practice-from barbers to ...

The Cartelization of the American Workforce

by James Bovard October 1, 1996

Freedom to work is increasingly being taken hostage by government licensing boards. The American economy is degenerating into a guild system, as government doles out privileges to one group of self-proclaimed professionals after another. Government licensing restrictions prohibit millions of Americans from practicing the occupation of their choice. Over eight hundred professions now require a government license to practice — ...