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The Best Introduction to Libertarianism

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Libertarianism Today by Jacob H. Huebert (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010), 254 pages. Major books on libertarianism seem to come in pairs. First, in 1973, there was Murray N. Rothbard’s For a New Liberty (Macmillan, with a revised edition in 1978) and John Hospers’s Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (Nash Publishing). The year 1997 saw the publication of David Boaz’s Libertarianism: A Primer (The Free Press) and Charles Murray’s What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation (Broadway Books). Then, just last year, Jeffrey A. Miron’s Libertarianism, from A to Z (Basic Books) and the book under review here, Jacob H. Huebert’s Libertarianism Today (Praeger), came out. Scattered among all of these books are other works, such as David Bergland’s Libertarianism in One Lesson: Why Libertarianism Is the Best Hope for America’s Future (Orpheus Publications, 1984, now in its ninth edition), Mary J. Ruwart’s Short Answers to the Tough Questions (SunStar Press, 1999), Harry Browne’s Great Libertarian Offer ...

Loving Sweatshops

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“I love sweatshops.” That was how economics professor Benjamin Powell, our Economic Liberty Lecture Series speaker last night, wrapped up his excellent talk on the benefits of sweatshops. An overflow crowd, mostly composed of George Mason University students, was treated to an eloquent exposition of why and how sweatshops help the poor. This is one of the things that liberals, who are generally steadfast opponents of sweatshops, just don’t get. Their hearts are in the right place. They’re concerned about the plight of those at the bottom of the economic ladder (although their support of immigration controls belies that concern). But as I have repeatedly pointed out, when it comes to economics, liberals just have a blind spot. They do not understand that the policies that they advocate to help the poor actually do the opposite — they hurt the poor. One of the best examples of this phenomenon relates to sweatshops. As Powell pointed out, liberals point to the horrific working conditions ...

The Perpetual Crises of the Welfare-Warfare State

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It’s fascinating to see people get all bent out of shape over the latest immigration crisis. I mean, what planet have they been living on? It’s as though they’re shocked — just shocked — that another immigration crisis would befall our nation. And then they go into extreme fits of anger, anxiety, angst, and depression over the crisis. I don’t get it. We libertarians have been pointing out that crises are an inherent part of the welfare-warfare state apparatuses ever since such apparatuses were made a part of America’s governmental system in the 1930s and 1940s. Haven’t people been listening? When something is an inherent part of a system, that means that it’s going to happen, just as surely as thunder follows lightning. Do you ever see these same people going into their hissy fits when thunder follows lightning? Nope. Then why do they do it when crises come with welfare-warfare state policies? I’ve been watching immigration crises ever since I was ...

Donald Trump Visits My Hometown!

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Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump just visited my hometown of Laredo, Texas! Not surprisingly, Trump entered Laredo filled with fear. I say “not surprisingly” because Republicans live their lives filled with fear. Communists! Terrorists! Muslims! Illegal aliens! Drug dealers! Bin Laden! Saddam! Ho Chi Minh! Republicans are convinced that they’re all coming to get us. Knees are always a’knockin’ ...

Why Do Anti-Immigrants Favor Protectionism?

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Okay, I get it: President Trump and his acolytes favor immigration controls because they don’t want people from s***hole countries coming into the United States. What doesn’t makes any sense is why they also favor tariffs, sanctions, embargoes, and other trade restrictions against those s***h countries. After all, by increasing economic misery in those countries, such measures only encourage ...

Adhering to Principle to Achieve Liberty, Part 2

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Part 1 | Part 2 In 1990, the first year of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s existence, I wrote an article entitled “Letting Go of Socialism” (www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/letting-socialism) in which I criticized the idea of school vouchers. I pointed out that vouchers were simply another socialist program in which government forcibly takes money from one group of people and gives ...