Only One Way Out of the Coronavirus Crisis by Jacob G. Hornberger April 6, 2020 The first book that The Future of Freedom Foundation published was entitled The Dangers of Socialized Medicine. Published in 1994, it was a little book consisting of various essays that FFF had published since our inception in January 1990. It was coedited by Richard Ebeling and me. At the time, Richard was the ...
Fear of Healthcare Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger April 3, 2020 Imagine that the United States had had a system of public churching for 230 years, a system in which the federal government owned and operated public churches alongside private churches. This state-run system of public churches would be run by government employees, including ministers, and be financed through taxation. Prayers and prayer books would be devised by ...
Will 401(k)s Be Nationalized? by Jacob G. Hornberger April 2, 2020 Amidst all the glee over Congress’s $2 trillion “stimulus” package, an important and relevant question naturally arises: Will the federal government end up nationalizing and confiscating people’s retirement accounts to pay for the ever-burgeoning expenses of the welfare-warfare state way of life? Prior to the coronavirus crisis, the federal government was spending $1 trillion more ...
Regime Change through the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2020 The Justice Department’s securing of a criminal indictment of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro reminds us that when it comes to the U.S. government’s regime-change operations, coups, invasions, sanctions, embargoes, and state-sponsored assassinations are not the only ways to achieve regime change. Another way is through a criminal indictment issued by a federal grand jury that deferentially accedes ...
Muhammad Ali’s Fight Against the Pentagon by Jacob G. Hornberger March 31, 2020 Like many home-bounders during this coronavirus crisis, I’m watching movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I just finished watching a biography of Muhammad Ali, who was one of the greatest boxers of all time, if not the greatest. Perhaps the biggest demarcation point in Ali’s life occurred when he refused to comply with a draft ...
We Were Soldiers by Jacob G. Hornberger March 30, 2020 Amidst all the death taking place by the coronavirus, last night I decided to rewatch We Were Soldiers, a great movie about the Vietnam War, during which the U.S. national-security establishment sent 58,000 American men to their deaths for nothing. The movie focuses on the very first battle of the Vietnam War — the battle ...
Revisiting Governmental Powers by Jacob G. Hornberger March 27, 2020 During this time of extraordinary powers being exercised by federal, state, and local officials, it’s good to refresh ourselves on founding principles. We sometimes hear about a concept called “the inherent powers of government.” These refer to what are commonly called “police powers.” Such inherent police powers refer to the power of a government to enact ...
Why Foreign Interventionism, Especially Now? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 26, 2020 This would be a good time for some introspection. Questions that deserve pondering are: Why must the U.S. government be engaged in foreign meddling? What good does it do? Are there harmful consequences? Are they worth it? Notice, first of all, an important phenomenon: No nation-state is invading and trying to conquer the United States. There ...
Trading Liberty for Security by Jacob G. Hornberger March 25, 2020 There was a good reason why our American ancestors failed to include an emergency exception in the Bill of Rights. It was because they knew that throughout history emergencies have been the time-honored way by which people lose their liberty. Thus, the First Amendment does not say:
Liberty Is Killed During Emergencies: Just Ask Germans by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2020 On January 30, 1933, German President von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany. On March 30, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office as the 32nd president of the United States. Both men were taking office with the aim of leading their respective nations out of the grave worldwide economic crisis known as the Great ...
The 1929 Emergency Revolutionized America by Jacob G. Hornberger March 23, 2020 The stock market crash in 1929 provides an excellent example of how an emergency or crisis can be used to revolutionize a society permanently and destroy liberty and well-being in the process. Contrary to popular myth, especially among public (i.e., government) schoolteachers and professors in state-supported colleges and universities, the 1929 stock market crash did ...
Libertarianism Is the Only Solution for Healthcare and the Coronavirus by Jacob G. Hornberger March 20, 2020 For 30 years here at FFF, we have been saying that there is one — and only one — solution to America’s decades-long, ongoing, never-ending healthcare crisis. That solution is: a total separation of healthcare and the state. No more Medicare or Medicaid. No more medical licensure. No more government regulation and management of healthcare. A total ...
