Daily Articles

Bill Gates, Climate Change and the Capitalist System

by Richard M. Ebeling November 9, 2015

Bill Gates of Microsoft is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, so when he speaks it is not surprising that the world tends to listen. In a recent interview, Gates has said that capitalism is inherently unable to solve the problem of global warming, and instead there have to be world-encompassing government-business “partnerships” to save Planet Earth. In ...

The Real Issues You Won’t Hear from the 2016 Presidential Candidates This Election Year

by John W. Whitehead November 6, 2015

“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.”—Gore Vidal The countdown has begun. We now have less than one year until the 2016 presidential election, and you can expect to be treated to an earful of carefully crafted, expensive sound bites and political spin about

Beards and a Free Society

by Laurence M. Vance November 5, 2015

Although baseball season is over, one thing still remains: the New York Yankees’ ban on players wearing beards. The beard ban was instituted by the Yankees’ principal owner. George Steinbrenner, in 1973. Long hair is not allowed either, but mustaches are permitted. Although Steinbrenner died in 2010, the policy remains in effect. The Yankees’ manager, Joe Girardi, said ...

War, Big Government, and Lost Freedom

by Richard M. Ebeling November 4, 2015

We are currently marking the hundredth anniversary of the fighting of the First World War. For four years between the summer of 1914 and November 11, 1918, the major world powers were in mortal combat with each other. The conflict radically changed the world. It overthrew the pre-1914 era of relatively limited government and free market economics, and ushered ...

The Libertarian Angle: The Debt Ceiling Charade (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 3, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard M. Ebeling discuss the hot topics of the day. This week, Jacob and Richard discuss how Congress repeatedly raises the debt ceiling, destroying the notion that any such ceiling actually exists. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Opposing America’s Participation in World War II

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2015

Even in the face of ongoing catastrophes arising out of U.S. interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, proponents of empire and intervention still trot out America’s entry into World War II to justify their imperialist, militarist, and interventionist philosophy. World War II was the “good” war, they say — a necessary intervention, one that saved ...

The Great Sugar Robbery Continues

by James Bovard November 1, 2015

Seventeen years ago, The Future of Freedom Foundation published my piece “The Great Sugar Shaft.” That article hammered federal sugar policy as one of the most brazen interventionist failures in American history. Unfortunately, the political looting of sugar consumers and food producers continues unabated. Federal price supports and import quotas combine to drive U.S. sugar prices far above the ...

Free the Gas Pumps!

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2015

Aside from both being coastal states, New Jersey and Oregon have little in common except for one infamous thing. Drivers vacationing or passing through either state for the first time who have to stop to gas up their cars are in for a rude awakening if they try to pump their own gas. They will quickly find out from ...

Americans Toss Lady Liberty Overboard during Crises

by Ted Galen Carpenter November 1, 2015

Americans take great pride in their country’s commitment to the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. At the top of that list are the rights enumerated in the first ten amendments to the Constitution — the Bill of Rights. Americans are fond of contrasting the protections that freedom of speech, due process of law, equal ...

Inhumanity of the Minimum Wage

by Paul L. Poirot November 1, 2015

A dictator, it is true, can arbitrarily declare human labor to be the only thing of value in the world; and he can set a minimum or a maximum wage, or just fix prices. But he cannot enforce his dictates, because they run contrary to the rules of human behavior. As long as men harbor their own distinctive sense ...

Fear of the Walking Dead: The American Police State Takes Aim

by John W. Whitehead October 29, 2015

“Fear is a primitive impulse, brainless as hunger, and because the aim of horror fiction is the production of the deepest kinds of fears, the genre tends to reinforce some remarkably uncivilized ideas about self-protection. In the current crop of zombie stories, the prevailing value for the beleaguered survivors is a sort of siege mentality, a vigilance so ...

The Fiscal and Ethical Stranglehold of the Welfare State

by Richard M. Ebeling October 28, 2015

The welfare state threatens to fiscally weaken and morally undermine the United States. In the Federal government’s fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2015, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid expenditures, alone, made up over 48 percent of all of Uncle Sam’s spending. And it will only get worse. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in fiscal year 2015, Social ...