Daily Articles

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 ...

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 ...

Washington: Scandalized and Loving It

by Sheldon Richman April 2, 1997

Here's the key to understanding Washington: it loves scandal. That's not the official line, of course. Scandal is portrayed as tragedy. Everyone wrings his hands, lamenting the time wasted investigating wrongdoing and the lost opportunities for reform. On cue, someone will always say that scandal mongering is politically motivated and that "the voters did ...

A Vision of a Free Society, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Karl Marx wrote that the value of an item is determined by how much labor goes into producing it. A diamond is valuable because of all the work that goes into mining it. Therefore, Marx argued, since value is created by the ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 4: Benjamin Anderson and the False Goal of Price-Level Stabilization

by Richard M. Ebeling April 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 Nature of the Welfare State

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997

Welfare-state programs have three central characteristics: plunder, deception, and obfuscation. Because those programs always effect a forcible transfer of wealth from one group of individuals to another, they involve what the great 19th-century economist Frederic Bastiat called "legalized plunder." The law sanctions stealing in these cases and is thereby changed from its original purpose, which was to protect people's ...

Mandatory Volunteerism: If Orwell Were Alive, He’d Die of Laughter

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997

President Clinton has endorsed one of most ridiculous ideas to come down the pike in some time: community service as part of the school curriculum. Is there a single idea packed with so many fallacies? I don't think so. Where to begin? In getting ready for a national service ...

Police Brutality: A License to Maul

by James Bovard April 1, 1997

The Founding Fathers sought to create a "government of laws, not of men." A key principle of this doctrine is that no person is above the law — that every government employee must obey the same laws that government imposes on private citizens. Unfortunately, when it comes to police brutality, ...

April 15: Day of Infamy

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997

April 15 is here again. For many people the day heralds a tax refund. But what are they celebrating? That they loaned the government money interest-free in 1996? Why is it that if the government doesn't withhold enough tax, you may owe interest, but if the government ...

FDR: A Fitting Memorial?

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997

With a new memorial about to be dedicated to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, perhaps no one wants to step back and take an objective look at the man. But when even President Clinton declares the era of big government over, maybe the time is right. All children hear the words "FDR ...