The Soviet Union Is Gone, but the Young Yearn for Socialism by Richard M. Ebeling August 17, 2021 This August marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the end to the Soviet Union. During August 19-21, 1991, hardline members of the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB attempted a coup d’état in Moscow to prevent the political and economic reforms introduced over the prior five years from going any further. The coup failed, and on Christmas ...
Happy Hour May Be Getting a Little Happier by Laurence M. Vance August 13, 2021 “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” so the song and the story go. This phrase is used by those wishing to justify drinking alcohol at some point during the day instead of waiting until the usual evening hours. But a happy hour is not always just an hour. In 39 of the 50 states, some restaurants, bars, and nightclubs have happy hour from ...
A Deficit of Clear Thinking About Loss of Freedom by Richard M. Ebeling August 11, 2021 Rightly, much is being made about the size of federal government spending and the annual budget deficits, along with the projected resulting growth in the national debt over the next ten years. But a real and more serious deficit is to be found in the lack of sound and serious thinking and debate about the growing size and scope ...
A Senseless Test by Laurence M. Vance August 6, 2021 Most Americans received stimulus payments three times from the federal government during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Americans receive a similar payment in the Spring every year after they file their taxes and claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Some of these “many” Americans, starting last month, began receiving advance payments of their EITC every ...
Infrastructure Bill as Political Plunder and Social Engineering by Richard M. Ebeling August 4, 2021 Nothing says you really “care” in politics as much as a willingness and, indeed, a demand to spend at least $1 trillion of other people’s money on some supposedly essential public “need.” So, not surprisingly, a bipartisan infrastructure bill is working its way through Congress with just such a $1 trillion price tag. Also, nothing says you are desperate for ...
A New State of Segregation by John W. Whitehead August 3, 2021 The things we were worried would happen are happening. — Angus Johnston, professor at the City University of New York Imagine it: a national classification system that not only categorizes you according to your health status but also allows the government to sort you in a hundred other ways: by gender, orientation, wealth, medical condition, religious beliefs, ...
Raising a Standard to Achieve Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2021 One of the things that distinguish libertarians from non-libertarians is that we libertarians know that we are not free. Non-libertarians are still convinced that they are free. That’s one reason why non-libertarians are befuddled by libertarians. When they ask us what we are all about, we sometimes respond that we are about bringing liberty to America. That ...
Red Light Robberies Across America by James Bovard August 1, 2021 Crime is surging in American cities, but the official data leave out the most frequent source of highway robberies. More than 400 cities have set up red light cameras that are institutionalized racketeering that subverts public safety. Tens of thousands of American drivers have been injured and many people killed as a result of reckless revenue pursuit ...
Is There a VAT in Our Future? by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2021 President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan is expensive, really expensive. According to a White House “Fact Sheet,” this $1.8 trillion plan to “grow the middle class, expand the benefits of economic growth to all Americans, and leave the United States more competitive” includes “an additional four years of free, public education for our nation’s children” in the form of “free ...
Identity Politics and Systemic Racism Theory as the New Marxo-Nazism by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2021 It is very easy to say that we have been and are living in unprecedented times in 2020 and 2021. We have experienced a global pandemic, with government-imposed and mandated lockdowns and shutdowns of much of America’s and the world’s economic activities and social interactions, as well as with governmental debts that cumulatively are almost equal to the global ...
There’s No Such Thing as “Market Fundamentalism,” Part 1 by George Leef August 1, 2021 Part 1 | Part 2 Zealots who want to force others to conform to their beliefs often exhibit a fundamentalist mindset. That is to say, they are utterly certain of the rectitude of their beliefs on the basis of some unchallengeable text, either sacred or secular. They assert what they believe to be true rather than engage in rational ...
More Government Debt as Far as the Fiscal Eye Can See by Richard M. Ebeling July 30, 2021 For the last two years, the federal government has been legally at liberty to borrow any amount of money necessary to cover its deficit spending under the Bipartisan Budget Act of August 2019. Unless Congress extends this Act or raises the official debt limit, starting on August 1, 2021 Uncle Sam will only be able ...