Daily Articles

The Danger of Science

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2004

Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ludwig Lachmann, among other members of the Austrian school of economics, often lamented that the discipline of economics alienated itself from flesh-and-blood existence to the extent it imitated the natural sciences, such as physics. With that in mind, I received the news that Cambridge University economist Partha Sarathi Dasgupta, ...

Sudan: Don’t Forget the Past Follies

by James Bovard October 1, 2004

Many politicians and much of the media are hollering for a U.S. military intervention into Sudan to stop the growing carnage in that nation’s civil war. However, few Americans clearly recall the debacle from the last time the United States attacked Sudan. Operation Infinite Reach was a farce of the first ...

West Africa and Colonialism, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy October 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Until recently, Western scholarship ignored West Africa. The blind spot reflects Europes historical view of Africa as a continent to be exploited, not examined. To Europe, Africa was a market for products and a source of raw goods. In short, it was an object of mercantilism the economic system ...

In Defense of Open Immigration

by Anthony Gregory October 1, 2004

Immigration is one of the most difficult and divisive issues for freedom lovers. Many principled libertarians and champions of a free society believe in government restrictions on immigration, either for their own sake or as an interim measure so long as the United States has welfare programs that are presumed to attract immigrants, who then become net recipients of ...

A Modest Proposal – Let’s Allow Negative Voting

by George Leef October 1, 2004

Election years are filled to overflowing with political pitches beseeching voters to cast ballots for a particular candidate. And many people do, although often with scant enthusiasm. Choosing between the lesser of two evils is a commonly heard complaint among voters. During election campaigns, one also is apt to receive political ...

Book Review: How Capitalism Saved America

by George Leef October 1, 2004

How Capitalism Saved America by Thomas J. DiLorenzo (Crown Forum, 2004); 285 pages; $25.95. Back in my days as a college professor, I used to give my students a quiz on the first day of class. It didn’t count in their grades, and the purpose was simply to find out the extent to which they had absorbed the ...

The Hijacking of the Republican Party

by James Muhm September 27, 2004

The traditional principles of the Republican Party have in the past several years been subordinated to a more intrusive domestic policy and an imperialistic foreign policy. Whereas a policy of less federal government intrusion into domestic personal affairs once held together most party adherents, now the party ...

The Election Isn’t about Vietnam

by Sheldon Richman September 24, 2004

What a topsy-turvy election! One candidate chose to fight in Vietnam. One candidate avoided it. So which candidate is supported by opponents of the Vietnam war? As I said, topsy-turvy. We hear lots of people say that the election should be about terrorism, Iraq, Medicare, Social Security, the budget not about a war that ended 30 years ago and what ...

Revisiting the Wal-Mart Battlefield: A Reply to Critics

by George Leef September 22, 2004

In a previous posting on the FFF site, I argued that the campaign of demonization against Wal-Mart was silly. As expected, a number of people emailed me to tell me off. I think it’s worth another posting to examine the anti–Wal-Mart arguments made by those writers.

In Support of Voting

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 22, 2004

As one who refused to vote for some 20 years, I wield a credential in the debate currently taking place in libertarian circles as to whether people should vote or not vote. (See a sampling of the vote vs. no-vote articles below.) I vote in favor of voting. The reasons I didnt vote for all those years were the ...

Big-Government Republicans

by Sheldon Richman September 22, 2004

If that was the small-government party we saw in action at the Republican National Convention in New York City, who needs a big-government party? In fact the Republicans have been a big-government party for many years, but at least they used to try to sound like they favored small government. Now they dont even try. The convention throng went wild ...

Freedom, Hope, and Fear: The Paradox of Vietnam, Part 3

by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan September 20, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 A frightened 10-year old schoolgirl stared shyly at me. We stood outside the War Remnants Museum in front of children’s crayon drawings of bombs dropping from U.S. aircraft on burning villages and palm trees. “Hi, yes, I’m an American,” I said, speaking softly to her in English she didn’t completely understand. Then ...