The War on Pain Sufferers by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2005 A good deal of air is exhaled over the state of medical care in America. Extreme state worshipers want a complete government takeover, while a more subtle band of state worshipers, the kind who like to call themselves advocates of limited government, proposes instead to use “market incentives” to accomplish its aims. What neither ...
Afghan Absurdities by James Bovard June 1, 2005 Americans have heard many news reports about Bush administration falsehoods on Iraq. However, the scams of Afghanistan have not gotten as much attention as they deserve. Following are some examples of how the Bush administration has misled the American people regarding Afghanistan. In the wake of the U.S. military victory ...
The Courts and the New Deal, Part 1 by William L. Anderson June 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 In the next few years of the George W. Bush administration, it is almost certain that there will be a number of contentious battles between Democrats and Republicans and between the White House and the U.S. Senate over certain federal court nominees. While the issues will ...
A Week in a (Sort of) Libertarian Country, Part 1 by Scott McPherson June 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 “Are you a libertarian?” I wasn’t expecting the question, but under the circumstances it made sense. We were in Costa Rica, in a taxi heading southeast into the heart of San Jose. My wife, Charlotte, and I were on a long-overdue week’s holiday. The kids were staying with some friends in Texas. It ...
Economics for the Citizen, Part 4 by Walter E. Williams June 1, 2005 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 In the last lecture, we discussed three of four kinds of behavior that can be called economic behavior: production, consumption, and exchange. ...
Productivity and the Wealth of Nations by George Leef June 1, 2005 The Power of Productivity by William W. Lewis (University of Chicago Press 2004); 323 pages; $28.00. “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves,” Benjamin Franklin said. We might, in a similar vein, explain the key message of William Lewis’s book The Power of Productivity by saying, “Watch the ...
Close the Bases and Cut the Spending by Sheldon Richman May 30, 2005 The frantic reaction to the Pentagons plans to close 33 major military facilities demonstrates how heavily government dominates modern life. Most of the reaction had nothing to do with national security. After all, it is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld floating the proposal. Who is going to believe that he and his boss, President Bush, are weak on the military? ...
Foreign Policy Threatens Our Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger May 25, 2005 There are four important pending U.S. terrorism legal cases, which separately and together present ominous and dangerous threats to the freedom of the American people. The Jose Padilla case Padilla is an American civilian who was initially arrested at the international airport in Chicago and held as a “material witness” in ...
Socialism and Empire, Not Immigration, Are Destroying America by Jacob G. Hornberger May 20, 2005 A friend recently sent me an article written a couple of years ago entitled “How to Destroy America,” which provided an account of a Washington, D.C., “immigration-overpopulation conference filled to capacity by many of America’s finest minds and leaders.” According to the article, Richard D. Lamm, former governor ...
The Consumer Is Boss by Sheldon Richman May 18, 2005 The morning paper brings two pieces of news about Wal-Mart. The first tells of an effort by politicians and so-called community groups to pressure the retail chain to raise its wages. The second describes Wal-Mart’s plans to meet competition from Target and other stores by including products that ...
Social Security Demeans Workers by Sheldon Richman May 13, 2005 We can thank President Bush for reminding us that Social Security is not a pension or insurance plan but a welfare program. He did that recently when he proposed changing the benefit structure to favor (even more) low-income retirees at the expense of the “better off.” Whether this ...
The Bill of Rights: Reserved Powers by Jacob G. Hornberger May 11, 2005 The Constitution brought into existence the most unusual government in history. It was a government whose powers were limited to those enumerated in the document itself. If the power wasn’t enumerated, the government could not exercise it. Fearful that the newly formed government might try to break free of that ...