Regulation Policy & Welfare

The Case for Legalized Prostitution

by Paul Armentano December 1, 1993

Prostitution may be the world's oldest profession, and laws prohibiting prostitution may well be the oldest example of government regulation and government (sex) discrimination. In a free society, however, all such laws are inappropriate because they violate the basic rights and liberties of the individuals involved. Recent research indicates that over one million women in the United States earn their ...

Licensed to Steal

by Jim Russell June 1, 1993

Question: What do architects, attorneys, dentists, dietitians, embalmers, funeral directors, innkeepers, nurses, optometrists, pharmacists, physicians, surveyors, and veterinarians have in common? Answer: They are all employed in occupations that are licensed or similarly regulated by the state. Question: What else do these occupations have in common? Answer: They are all under-represented by minority practitioners. Is there a relationship? You bet your state-board ...

Freedom, Private Property, and the Environment

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1993

Unfortunately, most Americans believe that the only way to preserve our environment is through public ownership of the means of production. "If there were no environmental threat," the refrain goes, "we would favor a capitalist system for America. But since our environment is at stake, we have no choice but ...

The Failure of Socialism and Lessons for America, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1993

Part 1 | Part 2 The world is watching the spectacle of Russia and the other captive nations of the former Soviet Union trying to free themselves from their seventy-five-year experiment in socialism. The bankruptcy of the system is accepted by practically everyone. The economies of the former Soviet republics are in shambles. Civil wars and ethnic violence have ...

Speculation, Law, and the Market Process

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1993

After Hurricane Andrew devastated the southern part of Florida, the state's attorney general threatened to prosecute "price-gougers" and speculators for charging exorbitant prices for food, ice, plywood, and other essential items. The Power of government officials to regulate prices and to punish speculators is not new. It stretches back centuries. ...

America’s Wars and the Los Angeles Riots, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 1993

Part 1 | Part 2 Whether the jury's verdict in the Rodney King case was a miscarriage of justice is beside the point. The real point is the shocking reaction to the verdict by many in the black and Hispanic communities. No mereacquittal can engender the response that was manifested in Los Angeles. The anger and outrage of the ...

Historical Capitalism vs. The Free Market

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1993

During the dark days of Nazi collectivism in Europe, the German economist Wilhelm Röpke used the haven of neutral Switzerland for continuing to write and lecture on the moral and economic principles of the free society. "Collectivism," he warned, was "the fundamental and moral danger of the West." The triumph ...

Wanted: A Real Deregulatory Revolution

by Doug Bandow January 1, 1993

Jennifer Crafts exemplifies the best of American entrepreneurship. She wanted both to work and to spend more time with A.J., her infant son. So she opened a restaurant-A.J.'s Place- and put A.J. in a playpen next to the kitchen. The customers were almost as happy as Jennifer to have him around. Explained regular Richard Reynolds, ...

America’s Wars and the Los Angeles Riots, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1992

Part 1 | Part 2 For much of the 20th century, the United States government has waged its Wars on Poverty, Drugs, and Illiteracy. And there is no better evidence of the failure of these wars than the riots that occurred in Los Angeles. The principles that undergird America's economic system in our time are radically different from those under ...

Electing Our Daddy

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1992

For 125 years, the American people elected a president. During that time, the powers of the president were extremely limited. The American people did not permit the passage, for example, of income taxation, drug laws, and welfare laws. They also refused to permit a large standing military force. And they did not allow their government to engage in foreign ...

The Dead End of Head Start

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. November 1, 1992

Head Start is the only one of Lyndon Baines Johnson's welfare programs that works, or so we're told. The New York Times calls it "the Great Society jewel." And our Republican president, George Bush, asked for "record spending" on Head Start in his new budget. He even crawled around on the floor at a Head Start center, talking ...

Forward to the Past: From Central Planning to the Redistributive State

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1992

At the dawn of the 20th century, in 1899, the French social psychologist Gustave Le Bon looked into the future and described "the immediate fate of the nation which shall first see the triumph of Socialism....The people will of course commence by despoiling and then shooting a few thousands of employers, ...