Socialism in America, 31 Years Ago by Jacob G. Hornberger February 13, 2020 In my article “A Life of the Lie on Socialism,” I pointed out that one of the big challenges we libertarians face is the fact that so many Americans are still suffering from the indoctrination that has led them to falsely believe that the welfare-warfare state serfdom under which we live is “freedom” and “free enterprise.” I cited an ...
A Life of the Lie on Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger February 12, 2020 A contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, Timothy Egan, reflects one of the major problems we libertarians face in America: a life of the lie, a life that embraces a false reality. This life of self-deception is not intentional. It is entirely unwitting. Nonetheless, it is a root cause of much of the dysfunctional nature of American ...
Brain Injuries from Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger February 11, 2020 The number of U.S. soldiers who have suffered traumatic brain injuries from the Iranian missile attack last month in Iraq has now risen to more than 100. The injuries demonstrate the sheer inanity of foreign interventionism. The Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises pointed out that when a government intervenes in economic affairs, the intervention inevitably produces a bad result, which ...
U. S. Lies and Deaths in Afghanistan by Jacob G. Hornberger February 10, 2020 Last December the Washington Post published secret Pentagon documents showing the official lies that have undergirded the U.S. war on Afghanistan for the past 18 years. The opening paragraph of the article puts the matter bluntly: “A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the ...
Social Security Insults the Young by Jacob G. Hornberger February 6, 2020 Contrary to popular opinion, especially among seniors, Social Security is not a retirement program. There is no fund into which people have been contributing their money. Instead, from the very beginning Social Security has been nothing more than a welfare program, one in which the federal government taxes younger people and gives the money to seniors. The question, of course, ...
Should the State Mandate Tipping? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 5, 2020 When I was in law school, I waited tables in a restaurant in Texas for a couple of months. The tips were good, but every once in while a customer would stiff me. The customer would be nice and friendly and never complain about the service but then just walk out of the restaurant without leaving a tip. It ...
Ignoring the Constitution by Jacob G. Hornberger February 4, 2020 Constitutional violations have become so commonplace in American life that when they occur, the reaction among many Americans is ho-hum. There are two classic examples of this phenomenon: the declaration of war requirement and gold and silver as legal tender. Article 1, Section 8, enumerates the powers of Congress. It states in ...
Do We Need the First Amendment? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 3, 2020 Many years ago, I was giving a lecture on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to a class at a public high school here in Virginia. During the course of my talk, I made the following statement: “The First Amendment does not give people the right of free speech.” I asked the students whether my statement was correct or ...
School Vouchers versus Educational Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2020 It shouldn’t surprise anyone that America’s public school systems are in perpetual crisis. That’s what socialism does. It produces crises or what the economist Ludwig von Mises called “planned chaos.” It would be difficult to find a better model for socialism than public schooling. We call it “public schooling” but the more accurate name would be government schooling. This ...
The Folly of Healthcare Reform by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2020 One of the popular healthcare reforms advanced by conservatives is healthcare savings accounts. Conservatives maintain that this reform is the solution to the decades-long healthcare crisis. By having everyone deposit money into a healthcare savings account, much like people put their money into IRAs, the healthcare crisis, they say, will finally be brought to an end. These conservative reformers are ...
Gun Control Folly in D.C. by Jacob G. Hornberger January 29, 2020 Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the homicide rate in Washington, D.C., in 2019 was higher than it was in 2018. There were 166 people killed in 2019, compared to 160 in 2018. In fact, the 2019 D.C. homicide rate is the highest number since 2008. But isn’t that impossible? After all, our nation’s capital has one of ...
An Unusual Lawsuit against Iran by Jacob G. Hornberger January 28, 2020 The Washington Post recently published an article about a lawsuit that American citizens have brought against Iran. The plaintiffs are Iraq veterans and families of veterans who suffered horrendous injuries or deaths while serving in the U.S. armed forces in Iraq. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs are claiming that Iran sent roadside bombs into Iraq that wreaked massive injuries ...
