Daily Articles

Health Care Reform vs. the Founders

by David B. Rivkind Jr. February 1, 1994

The president has announced his health-care plan, and congressional Republicans have announced theirs. Although the details are still murky, the plans seem to share one fundamental assumption — that every man, woman and child in the U.S. must participate in the system. The healthy must subsidize the sick; the young must subsidize the old; the ...

A Freedom Daily Classic Reprint: The Right to Health

by Thomas Szasz February 1, 1994

The State can protect and promote the interests of its sick, or potentially sick, citizens in one of two ways only: either by coercing physicians, and other medical and paramedical personnel, to serve patients — as State-owned slaves in the last analysis, or be creating economic, moral, and political circumstances favorable to a plentiful supply of competent physicians and ...

Book Review: Failure and Progress

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1994

Failure and Progress: The Bright Side of the Dismal Science by Dwight R. Lee and Richard B. McKenzie (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1993); 163 pages; $10.95. In An Economist's Protest (1927), English economist Edwin Cannan remarked, "Modern civilization, nearly all civilization, is based on the principle of making things pleasant for those who please the market and unpleasant for ...

The Real Free-Market Approach to Health Care, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In his book A Critique of Interventionism , Ludwig von Mises wrote, "Authors of economics books, essays, articles, and political platforms demand interventionist measures before they are taken, but once they have been imposed no one likes them. Then everyone-usually even the authorities responsible for them-call them insufficient and ...

National Health Insurance and the Welfare State, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 After the experiences of the totalitarian states in the 20th century, logic suggests that the world would have learned the lesson that every growth in state power-every extension of government control in social and economic affairs-threatens the liberty of the people. The alternative is always and ultimately a choice between ...

Clinton’s Health-Care Plan for You: Cradle-to-Grave Slavery, Part 1

by Jarret B. Wollstein January 1, 1994

Part 1 | Part 2 President Clinton says health care in America costs too much-that it's a national disgrace that 37 million Americans have no health insurance and that tens of millions of others have inadequate coverage. Clinton's "solution": a total government takeover of all medical care in the U.S.--1/7 of the entire U.S. economy. As you will ...

The Case against Medical Licensing

by Lawrence D. Wilson January 1, 1994

For the first 120 years of our history, America had, essentially, a free-market health-care system. There were few licensing laws or other barriers to entry into the healing arts. A variety of practitioners offered services, including herbalists, nature-care therapists, hydrotherapists, osteopaths, allopaths and homeopaths. There was a variety of healing schools and clinics. During this time, America was among ...

A Freedom Daily Classic Reprint: Medical Licensure

by Milton Friedman January 1, 1994

The medical profession is one in which practice of the profession has for a long time been restricted to people with licenses. Offhand, the question, "Ought we to let incompetent physicians practice?" seems to admit of only a negative answer. But I want to urge that second thought may give pause. In the first place, licensure is the key to ...

Book Review: Grassroots Tyranny

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1994

Grassroots Tyranny: The Limits of Federalism by Clint Bolick (Washington, D.C.: The Cato Institute, 1993); 195 pages; $21.95 (cloth); $12.95 (paper). In his book The Vanishing Rights of the States (1926), former Solicitor General of the United States, James M. Beck, pointed out that "unhappily a written form of government is not a Gibraltar that can resist the waves, ...

What President Clinton Should Have Said to the Japanese, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1993

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 At the end of World War II, the United States was the economic leader of the world. Since our geographic territory had not suffered the ravages of war, we led the world in the production of goods and services. A devastated Europe and Japan eagerly accepted American products, not so ...

Free Trade, Managed Trade and the State, Part 5

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1993

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 In the 1870s, English classical economist Henry Faucett warned, "I think it cannot be doubted that protection must exert an inevitable tendency to foster . . . socialistic demands for State assistance. If a people are accustomed as they must be under ...

Counterfeit Charity

by Ridgway K. Foley Jr. December 1, 1993

In Frederic Bastiat's words, "Man is a sentient being." He expresses traits of concern and sympathy for his fellow sojourners on this earth. He cares for the less fortunate among his neighbors. In a world pockmarked by violence, tales of sacrifice overwhelm tales of terror, although the latter tend to be recounted more fully in history books. Americans have taken ...