Daily Articles

The Real Problem with Social Security Privatization

by Laurence M. Vance March 17, 2025

Although Social Security is an unconstitutional relic of the New Deal, some libertarians never tire of proposing ways to reform the system. Social Security is properly labeled the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, which provides monthly benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death. Although it was established in 1935, employers and employees did not begin paying Social ...

The DOGE Wars versus a Real Campaign for Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling March 14, 2025

Washington, D.C., and the nation as a whole are in the midst of a combative chaos. On the one side is President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. On the other side is a large array of politicians, bureaucrats and special-interest groups opposing them. With the establishment of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) and Trump’s appointment of Musk as ...

Minimum-Wage Laws Cost Jobs and Threaten Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling March 12, 2025

One of the great persistent political myths is the illusion that governments have it in their power to manipulate and control the marketplace. One particularly common myth is the widely held belief that government legislation can make things and people worth whatever value those in political authority think they should be worth. The minimum wage is one perverse example of ...

Norway’s Nonviolent Resistance in WWII: The Power of a Paperclip, Part 3

by Wendy McElroy March 10, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Vidkum Quisling had good reason to be angry, but cracking down could backfire badly, as an earlier encounter should have taught him. On May 22, 1942, Quisling arrived at the Stabekk gymnasium (high school) in the company of the Minister of Education and the head of the national police. Twenty ...

Nullifying the Constitution Won’t Make America Great Again

by John W. Whitehead March 7, 2025

“You want to defend the United States of America, then defend it with the tools it supplies you with—its Constitution.”— Seven Days in May (1964) Anyone who wants to put America first needs to start by putting the Constitution first. This should be non-negotiable. Winning an election does not give President Trump—or any politician—the authority to sidestep the Constitution and remake the ...

No School Should Receive Federal Funds

by Laurence M. Vance March 5, 2025

President Donald Trump, who once called himself the “father of the vaccine” for COVID-19, is on the warpath against any organization mandating that anyone receive it. Executive Order 14184 (Jan. 27), “Reinstating Service Members Discharged Under the Military’s COVID–19 Vaccination Mandate,” makes reinstatement with rank and back pay available for those who “the military unjustly discharged” for refusing the vaccine. The ...

Regime Change: JFK and Allende, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 28, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 The following is a nonverbatim transcript of a talk that I delivered at the November 2024 Lancer conference in Dallas on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. One of the fascinating aspects of James Douglass’s remarkable book about the Kennedy assassination is its title: JFK and the Unspeakable. What could he possibly ...

All the Ways ‘We the People’ Keep Losing Our Freedoms

by John W. Whitehead February 26, 2025

“We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore. Mr. President, it’s too much.’”—Donald Trump Almost one month into the Trump presidency, and the Constitution and the entire section on the various branches of government and how they work together ...

Bidenflation Torpedoed Biden-Harris

by James Bovard February 24, 2025

High inflation spurred Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris last November. The economy was the top issue for most voters, and inflation was the top economic issue. As Biden’s partner in economic crime, Harris could not escape the blame for the torpedoing of the dollar’s value in recent years. Inflation occurs when the government prints excessive currency, resulting in more ...

Libertarianism and Value Judgments

by Laurence M. Vance February 21, 2025

Most people on the Left and the Right misunderstand the essence of libertarianism. This should come as no surprise since even some libertarians misunderstand the essence of libertarianism. The nonaggression principle The guiding principle undergirding the libertarian philosophy is what is known as the nonaggression principle. As explained by the great libertarian economist and theorist Murray Rothbard (1926–1995): The fundamental axiom of ...

Political Paternalism, Not Capitalism, Brings Poverty and Privilege

by Richard M. Ebeling February 18, 2025

George Orwell (1903–1950), the author of the anti-Utopian novels Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), has often been quoted as saying, “Some ideas are so absurd that only an intellectual can believe them.” Whether he, in fact, said it or not, it rings inescapably true. Even if logic and reason could not dislodge some of those on “the left” from ...

Sleepwalking into Tyranny

by John W. Whitehead February 14, 2025

“This is what militaries do during coups: you capture the major targets, with government buildings high on the list, and you take over communications and other systems.”—Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian on fascism and authoritarian leaders How something is done is just as important as why something is done. To suggest that the ends justify the means is to launch ...