Taxes in the Electronic Global Market by Sheldon Richman June 1, 1997 A recent issue of The Economist proclaimed "the disappearing taxpayer." It acknowledged the difficulty governments are beginning to experience in taxing their citizens owing to two phenomena: the mobility of capital in the global marketplace and the shift of commerce to the Internet. The difficulty can only become ...
Vice President Chutzpah by Sheldon Richman May 2, 1997 You'd think a little humility would have been in order. Asked to speak to a gathering of CEOs of some of the nation's most successful companies, Vice President Al Gore, who makes his living spending money people have no choice but to give him, lectured them about the need to make their employees happy. ...
A Vision of a Free Society, Part 4 by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 In a primitive, economically poor society, a person has to do a lot of basic jobs just to survive. He has to be a master of many trades. But as a society becomes wealthier and more complex, people begin to specialize at ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 5: The Austrian Economists on the Origin and Purchasing Power of Money by Richard M. Ebeling May 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 | ...
The Campaign Finance Red Herring by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997 That campaign-finance nonsense is again on the public agenda. The recent episodes involving the Democratic National Committee, the White House, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich have renewed for the umpteenth time the calls for a drastic overhaul of how politics is funded in America. The DNC unilaterally announced it would ...
Should We Be Thankful for the FDA? by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997 The television anchorman presented the news in an excited tone: "The Food and Drug today approved use of a new laser technology that will replace the drill at the dentist's office." According to the story, most patients tested with the new laser device needed no pain killer. The announcement must have been well-received by ...
Smoke If You Want, and Pay for It by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997 Tobacco has become a four-letter word. The cigarette companies are getting it from all sides. The federal Food and Drug Administration wants to regulate tobacco as a drug. State governments are suing to recover Medicare money spent on elderly people with tobacco-related illnesses. Heirs of long-time smokers are suing for wrongful death. It's not ...
The Campaign Finance Red Herring [long] by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997 Campaign-finance reform is again on the public agenda. The scandals involving the Democratic National Committee and the taint surrounding House Speaker Newt Gingrich have renewed for the umpteenth time the calls for a drastic overhaul of how politics is funded in America. The DNC unilaterally announced it would no longer take money from noncitizens or foreign corporations. It also ...
The Latest Gun Control Fiasco by James Bovard May 1, 1997 The nation's police forces are up in arms over a new federal gun control law that could strip thousands of them of their guns and jobs. Most police organizations have enthusiastically supported every gun control scheme President Clinton has put forward. Few Americans realized that such legislation almost always contained an exemption for the policemen themselves regarding their official ...
Should We Be Thankful for the FDA? by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1997 The television anchorman presented the news in an excited tone: "The Food and Drug today approved use of a new laser technology that will replace the drill at the dentist's office." According to the story, most patients tested with the new laser device needed no pain killer. The announcement ...
The Penalty of Surrender: Part II by Leonard Read May 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 To me, "Thou shalt not steal" is a principle not because some sage of antiquity said so but because, in my own experience, it has been revealed as a principle which must be adhered to if we are not to perish from the face of the earth. To the ones who have not been graced ...
Book Review: The End of Welfare by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1997 The End of Welfare: Fighting Poverty in the Civil Society by Michael Tanner (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1996); 226 pages; $10.95. Thirty years ago, when the welfare-state programs of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty were first being implemented, the general consensus among the political elite and the intellectual community was that wise government, with sufficient funding, could lift the poor ...