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The Disaster of Libertarian Reform of Socialism

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Prior to my discovery of libertarianism back in the late 1970s, when I was in my late 20s, I had no doubts that I lived in a free society. After all, I had attended 12 years of public (i.e., government) schools, four years of a state-supported college, and then three years of a state-supported law school. Given that indoctrination is the aim of every governmental educational system, I was, in the words of the songwriter Lee Greenwood, proud to be an American because at least I knew I was free. And then I discovered libertarianism. It was a Road to Damascus experience for me. Immediately, the inches-thick layer of indoctrination that had encased my mind for more than 25 years began cracking apart. I was recognizing that it had all been a lie. I wasn’t free at all. I was living in a society in which people’s lives, fortunes, and activities were controlled and managed by government. It was at that ...

School Choice and American Taxpayers

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Conservative and libertarian proponents of “school choice,” that is, government-provided educational vouchers that allow low-income parents to send their children to the school of their choice — which usually means private schools that they would otherwise not be able to afford — now generally make only two arguments in defense of government-provided educational vouchers. They used to maintain that a voucher system was a necessary gradual and intermediate step toward the goal of ending public education. In John Merrifield’s School Choices: True and False (2002), in which he endorses the voucher scheme of Milton Friedman (1912–2006), he remarks: “Libertarians should note that Friedman-type proposals are the best and probably the only political feasible way to achieve complete separation of school and state.” Yet, separating school and state is the last thing on the mind of current voucher proponents, and such arguments are never made. Now, it is argued that school choice is a great idea because it results in improvements ...

Jury Nullification in Memphis!

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As I indicated in my blog post last week, “Freedom Fun at FreedomFest,” I was headed down to Memphis this past week for Mark Skousen’s annual FreedomFest, where I would be criminally prosecuted for the offense of supporting open borders.  I had two co-defendants, Bryan Caplan, one of the most brilliant economics professors in the country and the author of the great graphics novel Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration (which I highly recommend buying and reading) and — get this — also our criminal-defense lawyer, Catherine Bernard, who is head of a major law firm in Atlanta named Bernard and Johnson. Yes, you read that right — our criminal-defense lawyer was also in the dock with Bryan and me as a criminal defendant — and representing herself as well as Bryan and me. It was a fascinating trial.  The ...

School Vouchers Are Anti-Libertarian

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It stands to reason that conservatives would support school vouchers. That’s because conservatives, even while using pro-freedom lingo, support reforming, not dismantling, the welfare-warfare state way of life.  But what’s with libertarians who support school vouchers? Why do they support what is clearly an anti-libertarian program? The core principle of libertarianism is what is called the non-aggression ...