Freedom Daily Archive

In Defense of Free Migration

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1991

Not long after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote of "the natural right which 0 men have of relinquishing the country in which birth or other accident may have thrown them, and seeking subsistence and happiness wheresoever they may be able, and hope to find them. For most of America's history, our country's door was ...

A Capitalist Looks at Free Trade

by William L. Law June 1, 1991

Protectionists seeking relief from the rigors of foreign competition bring to mind Milton Friedman's dictum, "The great enemies of face enterprise are businessmen and intellectuals — businessmen because they want socialism for themselves and free enterprise for everyone else; intellectuals, because they want free enterprise for themselves and socialism for everyone else." I speak from personal experience. Baseball-glove leather was ...

Man’s Mobility

by Leonard Read June 1, 1991

Mobility of goods and services is an elaboration or extension of man's own mobility. It cannot be said that man has mobility except as the manifestations of his labors are free to move.... That the general welfare is served by the free mobility of man's goods and services domestically is generally ...

Book Review: Soviet Civilization

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1991

Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History by Andrei Sinyavsky (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1990); 291 pages; $24.95. At the height of the great purges in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, Stalin personally sent instructions to the Soviet secret police which stated that in obtaining confessions from the accused, "the NKVD was given permission by the Central Committee ...

Gun Control, Patriotism, and Civil Disobedience

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1991

The State of California recently enacted a law which requires owners of semiautomatic weapons to register their guns with the state. But when the law went into effect thousands of California gun owners, although risking a felony conviction, refused to comply with its requirements. The gun owners were immediately showered with harsh criticism, not only from their public officials but ...

Something Must Be Done!

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1991

During hard times there are few phrases as frequently heard as, "Something must be done!" And what is usually meant by the phrase is that governmental action is needed to cure the economic woes of society. In other words, government spending should be increased to raise the demand for goods and ...

Are Compulsory School Attendance Laws Necessary? Part 3

by Samuel L. Blumenfeld May 1, 1991

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Today the law is not being used to force delinquents and truants into the schools, but to harass and regulate home schoolers and fundamentalist Christian schools. In the 1800s it was assumed that if you attended a public school you learned to read and write. Today, no such assumption can ...

Book Review: The Hemisphere of Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1991

This Hemisphere of Liberty: A Philosophy of the Americas by Michael Novak (Washington, D.C.: The American Enterprise Institute Press, 1990) 152 pages; $18.95. Michael Novak is one of the most eloquent Christian advocates of capitalism in the United States. His 1982 volume The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism demonstrated that rather than suffering ...

Are Compulsory School Attendance Laws Necessary? Part 2

by Samuel L. Blumenfeld April 1, 1991

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Both the Unitarians and the liberal Protestants began to view the public schools and compulsory attendance as the most effective means of maintaining the Protestant character of American culture in the face of massive Catholic immigration. The fact that the Irish were poor and unschooled did not endear them to the ...

Politically Correct Thinking and State Education

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 1991

You may recall seeing the December 24, 1990, issue of Newsweek on the newsstands. The cover had a granite wall with raised lettering, spelling out the words, "Thought Police." If you read the article, you learned about something called "politically correct thinking." A growing number of institutions of higher learning ...

Reflections on National Service

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1991

National service looms as one of the most dangerous threats to the American people in our 200-year history. Previously advocated only by liberals, national service is now also embraced by many on the conservative side of the political spectrum, as evidenced by the recent book, Gratitude, by America's foremost conservative, ...

Book Reviews: Economics on Trial

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 1991

Economics on Trial: Lies, Myths, and Realities by Mark Skousen (Homewood, Illinois: Business One Irwin, 1990) 314 pp.; $21.95 (h). For 150 years after Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, most economists started from a ...