Socialism

American Progressivism in Its Epoch

by Joseph R. Stromberg March 1, 2017

After 1865, rapid industrial consolidation and concentration of wealth, aggravated by the Panics of 1873 and 1893, provoked the Populist farmers’ movement, the labor strife characteristic of the mid-to-late 19th century, and the anti-trust movement. As historian Nancy Cohen has shown, the Liberal Republican reformers of the 1870s, disgusted by corruption under President Ulysses Grant, wanted to address the ...

Prohibition and the Socialist Ideal

by Ludwig von Mises March 1, 2017

Under the capitalistic system, the ultimate bosses are the consumers. The sovereign is not the state, it is the people. And the proof that they are the sovereign is borne out by the fact that they have the right to be foolish. This is the privilege of the sovereign. He has the right to make mistakes, no one can ...

How Food Stamps Subverted Democracy, Part 3

by James Bovard February 1, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Barack Obama took office in 2009 amidst the worst recession since the early 1980s. He had more faith in government spending than any White House occupant since Franklin Roosevelt. He speedily pushed through a stimulus bill through Congress that helped increase the number of food-stamp recipients from ...

How Food Stamps Subverted Democracy, Part 2

by James Bovard January 1, 2017

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Last month we saw how political demagoguery helped make hunger a major issue in American politics beginning in the late 1960s. After Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, liberals and their media allies largely declared victory over hunger. Carter was a humane progressive and there was no ...

How Food Stamps Subverted Democracy, Part 1

by James Bovard December 1, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The federal government is now feeding more than 100 million Americans. The vast increase in dependency fundamentally changes the relationship of Washington to the citizenry. The more Americans rely on handouts, the more difficult it becomes to roll back politicians’ power over those who do not. There was no ...

The Libertarian Angle: The Principles of Socialism

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 3, 2016

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discuss the moral and practical failings of socialism. Go to the podcast.

The Great Goober Train Wreck of 2016

by James Bovard November 1, 2016

The history of federal peanut policy is the perfect antidote to anyone who still believes that Congress could competently manage a lemonade stand. Federal spending for peanut subsidies will have risen eightfold between last year and next year — reaching almost a billion dollars and approaching the total value of the peanut harvest. This debacle is only the latest ...

The New Deal, Part 1: Domestic Policy

by Joseph R. Stromberg November 1, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 Today, few Americans are left from the Greatest Generation (a phrase which my father, born in 1912, would have seen as obvious propaganda). There are more, perhaps, who experienced the New Deal directly as very small children. Most of us know it only from history, family lore, popular culture, film, and (yes) ...

Debunking Utopia

by Nima Sanandaji July 1, 2016

My new book Debunking Utopia - Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism will shortly be released. The Nordic countries are used by Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and many others as the shining examples of the benefits of democratic socialism. As I consistently show in the new book however, it is Nordic culture rather than Nordic politics that undergirds the success ...

The Libertarian Angle: The Socialism of Public Housing

by Future of Freedom Foundation April 26, 2016

In this segment, Richard Ebeling and Jacob Hornberger discuss the immorality of public housing. Go to the podcast.

There Is No Social Security Santa Claus

by Richard M. Ebeling December 21, 2015

At this annual time of good cheer it might seem Grinch-like to challenge the spirit of Santa Claus, but the reality is that there is no jolly, bearded, rotund man in a red suit who brings us goodies for free. And the Congressional Budget Office has ...

Time to Retire the NIH

by Laurence M. Vance December 4, 2015

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with more well-known agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is one of the eleven agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Located on a 300-acre campus in Bethesda, Maryland, the NIH is ...