Back to the Government’s Clutches by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1997 Summer's over and throughout the nation, parents are once again surrendering custody of their children to the government. In what nation is that happening? The United States of America. Why are they surrendering custody of their children to the government? Because the government runs most of the schools. Most people ...
Throw the State Out of School by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 1997 In the latest attempt to reform the public schools, President Clinton is calling for national educational standards and national testing of public school students. But Joseph A. Califano, president National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, said that national standars won't do any good because of all the drugs in public schools. A survey recently conducted ...
Recall the Government Meat Inspectors by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1997 The record recall of hamburger meat from the Hudson Foods plant in Nebraska should prompt us to ask whether the government should be certifying the safety of America's food supply. That may come as a shock. Doesn't the E. coli-contaminated beef show that we badly need government inspection? ...
Freedom in Transactions by Fredric Bastiat August 1, 1997 On entering Paris, which I had come to visit, I said to myself — Here are a million of human beings who would all die in a short time if provisions of every kind ceased to flow towards this great metropolis. Imagination is baffled when it tries to appreciate the vast ...
Power Corrupts by Ben Moreel August 1, 1997 When a person gains power over other persons the political power to force other persons to do his bidding when they do not believe it right to do so it seems inevitable that a moral weakness develops in the person who exercises that power. It may take time ...
Book Review: The Capitalist Revolution in Latin America by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1997 The Capitalist Revolution in Latin America by Paul Craig Roberts and Karen Lafollette Araujo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); 214 pages; $25. The mass media has focused public attention on the dramatic attempts to implement market-oriented reforms in Eastern Europe, Russia, and other countries in the former Soviet Union. Less attention has been given to another part of the ...
The Creeping Takeover of Medical Care by Sheldon Richman July 31, 1997 President Clinton favors barring health-insurance companies from using genetic testing to determine whom they will insure. If that position is enacted into law, it will be one more step toward what he has been aiming at since he came into office: a government takeover of medical care. Why shouldn't health underwriters use the results of ...
You Can’t Vote for Us in Virginia by Jacob G. Hornberger July 2, 1997 Once again, Virginia's quadrennial political races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are approaching, and as always, Republicans and Democrats will be on the ballot. But once again, Virginia voters will be denied the right to vote for a Libertarian candidate for any of these three statewide offices. The Libertarian Party is the ...
School Candy in Virginia by Jacob G. Hornberger July 2, 1997 It's election time in Virginia and voters are being offered a host of goodies. Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. and former state Attorney General James S. Gilmore III, the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor of Virginia, are involved in an educational bidding war in their attempt to win election this fall. Both candidates ...
Heaven’s Gate and the Cult of the Socialistic Welfare State, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 Several months ago, police discovered the bodies of members of a cult known as Heaven's Gate. The cult members had taken their own lives, apparently under the belief that they would be transported to a space ship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet that would take them on an intergalactic space trip. The Heaven's Gate episode ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 7: Friedrich A. Hayek and the Destabilizing Influence of a Stable Price Level by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | ...
Stop the Flood of Taxpayer Money by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1997 Again this year, spring was heralded by swollen rivers in the Midwest. The overflowing Ohio River and Red River have caused heartbreak and millions of dollars of damage in several states in the region. And once again a colossal public policy blunder was committed: the handing out of millions of taxpayer dollars in relief assistance. It would be too much ...