Daily Articles

A Time for Calm Reflection and Adherence to Law

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 15, 2001

The Founders of our nation understood two principles: first, that the greatest threat to the freedom and well-being of the citizenry lies not with some foreign enemy but rather with one’s own government, and, second, that this threat is greatest during times of crisis. That is why our ancestors refused to institute a government of ...

The Hypocritical Ban on Travel to Cuba

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 2, 2001

A conflict between the Bush administration and Congress over travel to Cuba once again brings to light the hypocritical policies of the U.S. government. President Bush has called for stricter enforcement of the 39-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, and the U.S. Treasury Department is willingly complying by stepping up efforts to punish Americans who ...

What Are We Fighting For?

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 2, 2001

Long before the attacks on New York and Washington, The Future of Freedom Foundation repeatedly warned that the U.S. government's interventionist foreign policy resented significant risks to the American people. See, for example, "Terrorism or War"(June 2000) by Jacob G. Hornberger, "Breeding Terrorism" (December 1999) by Sheldon Richman, and "Terrorism, Anti-Terrorism, and American Foreign ...

Becker, Competition, and Education

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2001

How frustrating to read an economist’s paean to competition — only to have it followed by a policy proposal that misses the point he set out to make. In 1999, Nobel-prize-winning economist Gary Becker gave a talk at the Heritage Foundation simply titled “Competition.” It started off promising. Becker begins by saying he relishes talking about this topic “because I ...

Vouchers and Visions of Freedom: A Fictional History

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2001

One hundred and fifty years ago, in 2009, shortly after the inauguration of Hillary Clinton as the first woman president of the United States, the Democrats and Republicans in Congress reached a consensus concerning the moral decay of American society. Corruption and unethical behavior in both private and public ...

The Social Security Fraud

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2001

Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill upset some people recently simply by telling the truth. He had the temerity to say that the Social Security Trust Fund has no tangible assets. It’s empty. Such candor is not rewarded in Washington, D.C., the balderdash capital of the world. One of those who got ...

Some Reflections on the Right to Bear Arms

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2001

For millions of Americans the Second Amendment and its right for the individual to bear arms appears irrelevant and practically anachronistic. It seems a throwback to those earlier days of the Wild West, when many men, far from the law and order provided by the town sheriff and circuit judge, ...

Should Tipping Be Voluntary?

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2001

IF NEW DEAL LEGISLATION had been enacted in the 1930s requiring people to tip waiters 15 percent of the total amount of their restaurant bill, we might have been subjected to the following debate today: Repeal Advocate: Don’t you think we ought to repeal the tipping law and let each person decide for himself how much to tip a waiter ...

Preserving Property through Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2001

THE WASHINGTON TIMES recently reported on a controversy in Winchester, Virginia, that holds important lessons on freedom, property, and the role of government in the lives of the citizenry. The issue involves the use of 70 acres of property on which occurred the single largest cavalry charge of the Civil War. The owner of the property, a Virginia corporation, has ...

Is This the Wrong Time to Question Foreign Policy?

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2001

Although it is considered by many to be beyond the pale of proper discourse to discuss whether U.S. foreign policy may have contributed to the current crisis, the American people ignore this possibility at their peril. After all, if U.S. foreign policy is giving rise to terrorism against the American ...

Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: War and Peace

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2001

THE HISTORY OF MANKIND is a history of war, conquest, and oppression. From ancient times to the modern era, peace and freedom have been rare occurrences in the sweep of human events. When peace has prevailed for extended periods of time, it has invariably occurred under the yoke of despotic ...

The Sham of Political Compromise

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2001

WRITING IN THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED PAGE RECENTLY, new Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called for “a spirit of principled compromise.” If the top Democrat means compromise with the Republicans, he’s in luck. Compromise with the Senate Republicans is entirely possible, even easy — because they hold the same reactionary statist principles as the Democrats. Daschle is widely praised ...