Daily Articles

A Libertarian View of the Estate Tax

by Laurence M. Vance December 6, 2010

The year 2010 is a good year to die. If you plan on dying anytime soon, then try to do so by the end of the year. Just ask the families of George Steinbrenner, Dan Duncan, Mary Janet Cargill, John Kluge, and Walter Shorenstein — all billionaires who died this year. Steinbrenner was the owner of the New York Yankees. Duncan ...

We All Have a Stake in the Outcome of this Battle

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 4, 2010

We All Have a Stake in the Outcome of this Battle from The Future of Freedom Foundation on Vimeo. //

Drug-Warrior Hypocrisy

by Laurence M. Vance December 3, 2010

Statists of every variety — left/right, liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican, progressive/moderate — disagree vocally and often. Although these groups may argue among themselves and with each other about any number of issues — health care, education, Social Security, the environment, tax cuts, business regulations — they all have one thing in common. The statists are all paternalistic and believe in some ...

A Message from Jacob Hornberger

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 2, 2010

Ever since I discovered libertarianism some 30 years ago, I have dreamed of a “great awakening” in which the American people discover our nation’s libertarian heritage and restore individual liberty, free markets, and a limited-government constitutional republic to our land. Every day more and more Americans are waking up and discovering that something is wrong in this country. They’re asking ...

Natural Rights, the Declaration, and the Constitution, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The Bill of Rights should actually have been called the Bill of Prohibitions because it actually doesn’t give any rights to anyone. Instead, it expressly prohibits the federal government from infringing the fundamental rights of the people. Our American ancestors understood that people’s rights don’t come from the government or from ...

The Neoconservative Obama Administration

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2010

President Barack Obama was far from candid when he announced the end of combat operations in Iraq in August — 50,000 troops and a large number of mercenaries remain — but in his speech he did nothing to hide his neoconservative outlook on the American empire. This was not lost on leading neoconservatives, who tend to prefer Republicans. William Kristol, ...

Defining Coercion Down

by James Bovard December 1, 2010

Coercion is the essence of government in the same way that profit is the essence of private businesses. The state can impose new prohibitions and restrictions, create new penalties, or impose taxes in order to finance benefits. It is misleading to conceive of politicians as offering both carrots and sticks: Government must first use a stick to commandeer the ...

The Physiocrats

by Wendy McElroy December 1, 2010

The Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French economists, are often credited with founding Western political economy — the study of “laws” governing the production and distribution of wealth. The word “law” is not used in a legal sense. Rather it refers to a principle or governing rule, much as one might speak of the laws of physics. The Greek word ...

TSA Intrusion Is One Price of Empire

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2010

How gratifying to see Americans increasingly angry at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for using offensive full-body scans and frisks in its latest production of what security expert Bruce Schneier calls “security theater.” The government would have us believe these measures are safe and effective, but its record for veracity is, to put it mildly, disgraceful. Meanwhile Schneier, an independent ...

Property Rights and the Ground Zero Mosque Debate

by Eric Garris December 1, 2010

Amidst all the controversy over the “Ground Zero Mosque,” the most neglected issue is the key question of property rights. The proprietors of the land where the Islamic cultural center is to be built are its rightful owners. In a free society, in a capitalistic country, people are allowed to do with their property as they see fit. When ...

The Falling American Empire

by Anthony Gregory December 1, 2010

American Empire before the Fall by Bruce Fein (Campaign for Liberty, 2010); 219 pages. The very notion that America has an empire is most taboo. No matter the party in power, pointing out the reality of U.S. imperialism rarely wins political points. Our country, land of the free, won independence from the British Empire, defeated the Nazi empire, and ...

The Irrelevance of Wikileaks’ Guantánamo Revelations

by Andy Worthington November 30, 2010

Following Wikileaks’ release of 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables, which has, if nothing else, revealed that secrecy and the Internet appear to be mutually incompatible, a handful of media outlets have picked up on references to Guantánamo — and the Obama administration’s negotiations with other countries — in the cables. Britain’s Daily Mail led the way, claiming ...