Daily Articles

Book Review: The Road from Serfdom

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1996

The Road from Serfdom: The Economics and Political Consequences of the End of Communism by Robert Skidelsky (New York: Viking Penguin, 1996); 214 pages; $24.95. It has been five years since the collapse and formal demise of the Soviet Union. The "evil empire" has passed into the dustbin of history. Democracy and the market economy have been hailed as triumphant in ...

The Failure of the Republican “Revolution,” Part 6

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 The Roosevelt Revolution in the 1930s was not a revolution of arms. It was not a revolution of armies. Nevertheless, it counts as one of the ...

If Liberty Mattered — Once More, a Presidential Candidate’s Press Conference, Part 5

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1996

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 The Candidate: Ladies and gentlemen of the press, now that it has become clear who my two leading opponents will be in this presidential race, I feel that my decision ...

Corporate Chiefs Should Refuse Clinton

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1996

President Clinton has invited corporate chief executives to the White House in April to talk about "corporate citizenship." The meeting is intended to honor companies that treat their employees well in hopes of inspiring others to do the same. Any self-respecting corporate chief who believes in the free-enterprise system ...

Minimum-Wage Law as Political Racketeering

by James Bovard July 1, 1996

President Clinton and many congressmen are hankering to raise the federal minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour. The minimum wage epitomizes government pseudo-paternalism, and Clinton's proposal should receive harsh condemnations from anyone who has looked at the history of minimum-wage policies. Early in the century, after a ...

Bob Dole Should Rediscover a Better Republican Tradition

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1996

Bob Dole is playing the defense card. He has undoubtedly calculated that President Clinton is vulnerable on defense and that Dole, a badly wounded World War II veteran, thus has the advantage. Well, maybe. But if Dole really wants to demonstrate his bona fides as an advocate of small, unintrusive government, he would be advised to examine ...

What’s Wrong With History Standards?

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1996

The latest fight on the nation's bloody educational battlefield is over the newly released national standards for teaching history to America's schoolchildren. The standards were drawn up by the federally funded National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. They are part of Goals 2000, ...

What’s So Great about Democracy?

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1996

In this election season, it might be good to ask, What's so great about democracy? There is almost a religious fervor in some people when they talk about the democratic process. I don't get it. I do see an advantage in voting over violence in the selection of officeholders. When succession is determined violently, innocent people get caught in the crossfire. ...

Minimum-Wage Law as Political Racketeering

by James Bovard July 1, 1996

President Clinton and many congressmen are hankering to raise the federal minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour. The minimum wage epitomizes government pseudo-paternalism, and Clinton's proposal should receive harsh condemnations from anyone who has looked at the history of minimum-wage policies. The minimum wage symbolizes the dishonest paternalism of today's welfare state. The state of Oregon, in a ...

Lessons from Your Fax Machine

by Karen Selick July 1, 1996

Have you ever heard someone ask: "How did we ever get along in the days before we had fax machines?" Think back. Ten years ago, most people had never heard of fax machines. They had just been invented. They were enormous clunky things, costing thousands of dollars, producing fading copies on that awful, curling thermal paper. Their usefulness was ...

Whose Bread I Eat — His Song I Sing

by J.G. McDaniel M.D. July 1, 1996

I remember, as a small boy in knee britches, going with my father to hear an address given by the Honorable Stephen Pace, then congressman from the old Georgia 12th District. It was on the banks of the Ocmulgee River. There was a barbecue, and citizens, especially farmers, from all the counties gathered. This was before the first World ...

Book Review: Making Economic Sense

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1996

Making Economic Sense by Murray N. Rothbard (Auburn, Ala.: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1995); 435 pages. Murray Rothbard was an exceptional interdisciplinary scholar. He was a master of economic theory (and, himself, one of the major 20th-century contributors to Austrian economics), an original political theorist defending human liberty, and a wide-ranging multisubject historian. His death last year, in 1995, was ...