Daily Articles

Libertarian Themes in the Seven Deadly Sins of Dante’s Divine Comedy

by Lawrence M. Ludlow July 11, 2014

In May 2013, I wrote an essay entitled Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Divine Origins of the Free Market. In the blog comments that followed, I suggested that Dante’s ranking of the seven deadly sins—in particular, the sequence by which he distinguished less serious from more serious sins—reflected insights that we share as libertarians, regardless of our ...

Let the Immigrants Stay

by Sheldon Richman July 9, 2014

Virtually all commentary about the influx of unaccompanied Central American children into the United States, which some say could rise to 90,000 this year, misses the point: no government has the moral authority to capture these kids and send them back to the miserable situations they have escaped. This claim will strike many people as outrageous. So I ask, ...

Rights: Their Source and Nature

by Jim Boehm July 8, 2014

I find it amazing that so many Americans, including those on the Supreme Court, can be lost in the fog of the unknown when it comes to the source and nature of rights. We often hear that our rights come from the Constitution, but the Constitution is only a confirmation of our pre-existing rights. One gentleman wrote in the readers’ ...

The Libertarian Angle: Obamacare, Contraceptives, and Immigrant Children

by Future of Freedom Foundation July 7, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the Hobby Lobby ruling and the influx of immigrant children on the southern border. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Misguided Beliefs in Political Leaders

by Richard M. Ebeling July 7, 2014

This is an election year and as in all past election years we are inundated with promises and proposals from candidates, each hoping to attract our votes. For the most part what they are promising is “leadership” and political solutions to our personal, social and economic problems. They almost always fail to remind us, however, that in the political ...

A Message from Jacob G. Hornberger

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 3, 2014

Dear Friend of Freedom, If you’re a radical for liberty like me then you’ll want to read this letter and help. We here at The Future of Freedom Foundation don’t compromise — and sometimes we have to pay a price for our uncompromising moral defense of freedom. Sometimes we walk away from donations because the money or the idea would sacrifice ...

The Transportation “Fiscal Cliff”

by Laurence M. Vance July 3, 2014

Every few months in Washington, D.C., there is some perceived crisis that headlines newspapers for a few weeks before fading away or being overcome by the next crisis. They are generally crises of the government’s own making and are due to its reckless spending and continued operation of unconstitutional agencies and programs. This time it is the transportation “fiscal cliff.” The ...

Hobby Lobby Ruling Falls Short

by Sheldon Richman July 2, 2014

As far as it went, the Supreme Court generally got it right in the Hobby Lobby-Obamacare-contraception case. Unfortunately it didn’t go nearly far enough. The court ruled that “closely held corporations” whose owners have religious convictions against contraceptives cannot be forced to pay for employee coverage for those products. I wish the court could have said this instead: (1) No one ...

The U.S. Embrace of Monetary Tyranny, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In 1933, in one of the most shocking events in the history of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt issued a series of executive orders, backed by Congress, that required the American people, on pain of fine and imprisonment, to surrender their gold coins to the federal government, for ...

What Social Animals Owe Each Other

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2014

If I were compelled to summarize the libertarian philosophy’s distinguishing feature while standing on one foot, I’d say the following: Every person owes it to all other persons not to aggress against them. This is known as the nonaggression principle, or NAP. What is the nature of this obligation? The first thing to notice is that it is unchosen. I never ...

How Early U.S. Trade Policy Spurred Wars and Injustice, Part 2

by James Bovard July 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 In 1845 the Democrats took over the White House and began working for tariff reduction. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Walker issued a report in 1845 on the nature and effects of the tariff, observing, “At least two-thirds of the taxes imposed by the present tariff are paid, not into the treasury ...

Class Theory, Part 3: Libertarian Class Analysis Revisited

by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The Left has long dominated the basic idea of two classes in society — the common people and the power elite — each with its own, usually conflicting, interests. When the Left speaks that way, the Right tends to accuse it of “class warfare,” even though conservatives have ...