Daily Articles

The Union Devil Is in the Details

by Wendy McElroy May 9, 2014

Great attention has been focused on the exorbitant cost of the tax-funded pensions and other employee benefits of public-service unions. But the public costs of granting state-backed privileges to other, non-public-service unions are less visible, because they often occur on a local rather than a state or national level. One source of these costs is called a “Project ...

Bill Clinton and the Bogus Iranian Threat

by Sheldon Richman May 8, 2014

Tragically, President George H.W. Bush passed up a chance for a rapprochement with Iran because, after the Soviet Union imploded, the national-security apparatus needed a new threat to stave off budget cutters in Congress. Iran became the “manufactured crisis,” according to author Gareth Porter’s new book by that title. Doubly tragic, Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, compounded ...

The Implications of Revenue-Neutral Tax Reform

by Laurence M. Vance May 8, 2014

Tax season is over, but tax-reform proposals are perennial. America’s current income-tax system was inaugurated in 1913 with the adoption of the Sixteenth Amendment. It began quite modestly, with a 1 percent tax on income above $3,000 ($4,000 for married couples). A series of surcharges up to 6 percent were applied to higher incomes, with the maximum rate being 7 ...

Exit Over Voice

by Alexander William Salter May 7, 2014

By what standard should we judge collective decision-making? In the liberal-democratic tradition, the overwhelming consensus affirms the supremacy of process. On this view, the justness and efficacy of collective decision-making depend on the inclusiveness of the process. That concern, what philosophers and social scientists call “voice,” has manifested itself in many familiar and important ways, chiefly through an expansion ...

The Libertarian Angle: Washington Post Editorial on Foreign Policy

by Future of Freedom Foundation May 5, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss U.S. foreign policy. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

TGIF: Libertarianism Rightly Conceived

by Sheldon Richman May 2, 2014

The debate on thick and thin libertarianism continues, and that’s a good thing. Libertarians can only gain by the discussion. Often one comes to appreciate one’s own philosophy more fully in the crucible of intellectual argument. So I, for one, welcome the debate — so long as it is a real debate and not merely a series of unsupported denials ...

The Inextricable Link between Economic Freedom and Individual Liberty

by Walter Block May 2, 2014

NOTE: THIS TALK WAS DONE BY SKYPE. UNFORTUNATELY, WE ENCOUNTERED AUDIO RECORDING DIFFICULTIES DURING THE TALK THAT COULD NOT BE RESOLVED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. On April 28, 2014 Walter Block presented the above speech, entitled "The Inextricable Link between Economic Freedom and Individual Liberty: Government Reduces Liberty through Economic Assault" as part of the ...

Why the U.S. Blew a Chance to Reconcile with Iran

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2014

In the late 1980s the U.S. government had an opportunity to change its relationship with Iran from hostile to nonadversarial. It had been hostile since 1979, when the Islamic revolution overthrew the brutal U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Iranians held 52 Americans hostage for more than a year. The relationship deteriorated further when the Reagan administration helped Iraq after ...

The U.S. Embrace of Monetary Tyranny, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The rise of Bitcoin as an alternative currency raises some important questions about America’s monetary system. Why does the United States have a fiat-money system — that is, a system of irredeemable paper currency? Why aren’t Americans free to use any money they want? What is the role ...

Libertarianism: The Moral and the Practical

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2014

If I say that a government activity — “public” schooling, perhaps, or the war on selected drug merchants and users — helps turn the inner cities into hellholes and otherwise makes people’s lives miserable, is that a moral objection or a practical (utilitarian or generally consequentialist) objection? Some libertarians are inclined to say it’s a utilitarian objection, but I’ve long ...

FDR Farm-Folly Lessons for Obamacare

by James Bovard May 1, 2014

As the Obama administration wreaks further havoc on health care, many people expect the politicians to recognize their follies and relent. However, history indicates that rulers will continue seizing new power regardless of how much wreckage results. The farm policy of Franklin Roosevelt exemplifies how politicians “double down” on their most brazen follies. Roosevelt’s Brain Trust agricultural planners had unlimited ...

Class Theory, Part 1: Modern Conservative Class Analysis

by Anthony Gregory May 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the 2008 financial collapse, class rhetoric has arisen on both prevalent sides of the U.S. political spectrum. The grassroots “base” in both the Republican and Democratic party has become animated by a new or invigorated perception of class struggle. The politicians in each party have echoed these ...