Daily Articles

TGIF: Don’t Get Out the Vote

by Sheldon Richman February 14, 2014

A seminar student once became upset with me for suggesting that instead of running get-out-the-vote campaigns, the government should keep the dates of elections and the locations of polling places secret so that only people with enough initiative and interest to ferret out the information could vote. It was not a serious suggestion, but the college-aged young woman didn’t catch ...

Children Sue in Order to Learn

by Wendy McElroy February 13, 2014

Schoolchildren in Los Angeles are currently pleading in court for the opportunity to learn. They claim bad teachers prevent them from doing so. California’s teachers’ unions are among the most powerful in the nation. California statutes are so skewed in favor of teachers’ job security that even grossly incompetent educators are almost impossible to dismiss. For instance, it can cost ...

The Lethal Legacy of U.S. Foreign Intervention

by Sheldon Richman February 12, 2014

Americans seem to believe that once the U.S. military exits a foreign country, its moral accountability ends. But the deadly consequences — and culpability — continue long after the last soldier leaves. Take Iraq, which the U.S. military left at the end of 2011 (though not before President Obama pleaded with the Iraqi government to let some American forces remain). ...

“Civil Liberties & the National Security State” at the 2014 ISFLC

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 11, 2014

  "Civil Liberties and the National Security State" February 15, 2014 Grand Hyatt, Washington D.C.   FFF's "Conference within a Conference" at the 2014 International Students for Liberty Conference   10:00 am - 10:45 am: “America at the Crossroads of Civil Liberties in the 21st ...

The Libertarian Angle: Conference: Civil Liberties and the National Security State

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 10, 2014

Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman discuss FFF's upcoming "conference within a conference" at the 2014 International Students for Liberty Conference. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.  

TGIF: The Cruel Joke of Sacralizing Voting

by Sheldon Richman February 7, 2014

By now we’re used to MSNBC’s state adoration, expressed not only on its programs but also through in-house promotions. These are often heavy-handed, such as Rachel Maddow’s spots asserting that only governments can accomplish “great things.” Sometimes the promos are more subtle, such as one currently running. Voiced by prime-time “All In” host Chris Hayes, the spot shows ...

Give America a Raise?

by Sheldon Richman February 5, 2014

President Obama said something especially perplexing when he implored Congress during his State of the Union address to “Give America a raise.” Since when does Congress have the power to do that? We live in a nominally private-enterprise economy, so it should strike the ear as odd to hear Obama acknowledge that it’s not a private-enterprise economy at all, ...

The Libertarian Angle: Public Schooling vs. Education

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 3, 2014

Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman discuss the public education system. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.

What Does It Mean to Be Free?

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2014

Johann von Goethe once wrote, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Goethe’s statement perfectly captures the plight of the American people in our time. That’s one of the principal challenges that we libertarians face, for if people are convinced they’re free, they have no incentive to break free of their servitude. Even ...

One Moral Standard for All

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2014

Libertarians make a self-defeating mistake in assuming that their fundamental principles differ radically from most other people’s principles. Think how much easier it would be to bring others to the libertarian position if we realized that they already agree with us in substantial ways. What am I talking about? It’s quite simple. Libertarians believe that the initiation of force is ...

How I Learned Not to Shovel

by James Bovard February 1, 2014

The Obama administration has touted government jobs and training programs as one of the solutions to America’s high unemployment rate. Such programs can teach young people invaluable lessons — especially about the unreliability of political promises to provide kids with valuable skills. I learned a lot about the nature of government work during the summer I spent on the ...

Corporatism as Theory and Practice

by Joseph R. Stromberg February 1, 2014

When I first discovered corporatism, about 1966, it was not exactly a household word. The term was known only to specialists, who mostly looked for it in the recent (pre–1945) past. Between about 1960 and the early 1970s, a few New Left and libertarian scholars stirred up greater (but still quite small) interest in this arcane term. My original ...