John Stuart Mill on Slavery and the American Civil War by Richard M. Ebeling January 21, 2020 One of the most heated and controversial issues today concerns the place of slavery in the history of the United States, and attitudes toward the institution of human bondage in the Western world in general. Another theme in modern political debate is the nature and role of classical liberalism as a force for human freedom and dignity or as a ...
Anti-Gun Laws, Sanctuary Cities and the Second Amendment by John W. Whitehead January 16, 2020 “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” – The Second Amendment to the US Constitution We never learn. In the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes. Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can ...
Joseph A. Schumpeter, Outsider Looking In by Richard M. Ebeling January 14, 2020 Read this article in Chinese Seventy years ago, on January 8, 1950, one of the most famous economists of the 20th century passed away at the age of 66, Joseph A. Schumpeter. During and after his lifetime, he has been identified with two related ideas, the notion of the innovative entrepreneur and the imagery ...
Why Don’t Conservatives Tell the Truth about Food Stamps? by Laurence M. Vance January 13, 2020 About two years ago, the Trump administration, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced new guidelines that allowed states to impose work requirements for able-bodied persons to receive Medicaid. Now it has strengthened work requirements for the food-stamp program. Predictably, just as two years ago, Democrats and liberals are outraged. The federal food-stamp program (officially called SNAP, the Supplemental ...
Not Losing Sight of the Classical Liberal Ideal by Richard M. Ebeling January 8, 2020 In the midst of the Second World War, the famous Austrian-born economist Joseph A. Schumpeter (1883-1950), published his famous book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942). He asked the question, “Can Capitalism Survive?” He answered, “No.” He expected some form of socialism, dictatorial or “democratic,” to supersede the private market economy in postwar America. He was proven wrong. Postwar American ...
Australia and New Zealand Show the True Nature of Social Security by Laurence M. Vance January 7, 2020 Writing at the Christian Post in “Will Social Security Go Broke?” Christian financial advisor Chuck Bentley recently answered a question about Social Security from a “Worried Millennial”: I’m a recent college graduate with my first “real” job. With that comes paying into the Social Security System. My concern is whether or not there will be funds ...
Nullify Government Tyranny by John W. Whitehead January 6, 2020 “The people have the power, all we have to do is awaken that power in the people. The people are unaware. They’re not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government.”—John Lennon Twenty years into the 21st century, and what ...
Socialism in America by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2020 Lost in the ongoing debate in America as to whether the United States should embrace socialism is a discomforting fact: America embraced socialism a long time ago. The problem is that many Americans have simply not wanted to accept that fact and instead have preferred living a life of denial. A complete socialist system would be one in which the ...
U.S. Foreign-Policy Perpetual Perfidy by James Bovard January 1, 2020 The Washington establishment was aghast in October when Donald Trump appeared to approve a Turkish invasion of northern Syria. The United States was seen as abandoning the Kurds, some of whom had assisted the United States in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups. But the indignation over the latest U.S. policy shift in the Middle East is ...
Ice and Fire by Laurence M. Vance January 1, 2020 The relationship between conservatism and libertarianism is a tenuous one. However, such was not always the case. Fellow travelers of both groups were united in opposing Roosevelt’s New Deal. The work of the late economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on the “Old Right” is indispensable here. After World War II, the political right was generally opposed, not only to ...
Defending the Foundations of Freedom for 30 Years by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2020 This January 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s monthly publication, Future of Freedom, which at its beginning was called Freedom Daily. Three decades means a total of 360 issues, containing even more hundreds of articles. Virtually every important policy issue, foreign and domestic, was written about as those months and years went by. The world ...
In Defense of the Quid Pro Quo by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2020 For a good part of the second half of 2019, the news has been filled with Donald Trump’s perceived quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government over U.S. military aid in return for investigating Joe Biden, a potential campaign opponent, and his son, Hunter, to give the incumbent president an edge in the coming presidential election. It culminated in ...