Daily Articles

Socialism in America

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2020

Lost in the ongoing debate in America as to whether the United States should embrace socialism is a discomforting fact: America embraced socialism a long time ago. The problem is that many Americans have simply not wanted to accept that fact and instead have preferred living a life of denial. A complete socialist system would be one in which the ...

U.S. Foreign-Policy Perpetual Perfidy

by James Bovard January 1, 2020

The Washington establishment was aghast in October when Donald Trump appeared to approve a Turkish invasion of northern Syria. The United States was seen as abandoning the Kurds, some of whom had assisted the United States in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups. But the indignation over the latest U.S. policy shift in the Middle East is ...

Ice and Fire

by Laurence M. Vance January 1, 2020

The relationship between conservatism and libertarianism is a tenuous one. However, such was not always the case. Fellow travelers of both groups were united in opposing Roosevelt’s New Deal. The work of the late economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on the “Old Right” is indispensable here. After World War II, the political right was generally opposed, not only to ...

Defending the Foundations of Freedom for 30 Years

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2020

This January 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s monthly publication, Future of Freedom, which at its beginning was called Freedom Daily. Three decades means a total of 360 issues, containing even more hundreds of articles. Virtually every important policy issue, foreign and domestic, was written about as those months and years went by. The world ...

In Defense of the Quid Pro Quo

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2020

For a good part of the second half of 2019, the news has been filled with Donald Trump’s perceived quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government over U.S. military aid in return for investigating Joe Biden, a potential campaign opponent, and his son, Hunter, to give the incumbent president an edge in the coming presidential election. It culminated in ...

The Long Shadow of World War I and America’s War on Dissent, Part 2

by Danny Sjursen January 1, 2020

Part 1 Upon U.S. entry into the war, in 1917 the Wilson administration proposed and a compliant Congress almost immediately passed the Espionage Act, a direct attack on American press freedom. The law criminalized newspaper journalists who dared to oppose the war, question the official narrative, or encourage dissent. Massive fines and stiff prison sentences were dealt out with ...

Caution: Government May Be Hazardous to Your Liberty

by Laurence M. Vance December 30, 2019

The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 required a health warning to be placed on packs of cigarettes sold in the United States. The original warning, which appeared on cigarette packs from January 1, 1966, through October 31, 1970, was Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous To Your Health There are more dangerous things that Americans should be on ...

Help Us Spread Pure Principles of Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2019

Everywhere you look, there are crises. Healthcare. Immigration. Social Security. Drugs. Violence. The Middle East. Afghanistan. Federal spending and debt. There is a common denominator to all this mayhem, to this socialism, interventionism, and imperialism. It is, in a word, statism, the philosophy that views the government as a daddy or, even ...

The Perils and Pitfalls of Political Paternalism

by Richard M. Ebeling December 23, 2019

Across the spectrum of differing political views, whether “progressive,” “nationalist,” “populist,” or “conservative,” there is a common presumption in all of their policy positions and programs. That common dominator is the premise that government is to be the guiding hand in directing and remaking society in some chosen form, to which and within which all in that society are ...

How Would Jesus Fare in the American Police State?

by John W. Whitehead December 20, 2019

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts… We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, ...

The Miracle of the Free Market

by Richard M. Ebeling December 17, 2019

One of the great fallacies arrogantly believed in by those in political power is the notion that they can know enough to manage and command the lives of everyone in society with better results than if people are left to live their own lives as they freely choose. The fact is, there is far more in the world that successfully ...

Wasserman’s Twisted Tale About the Austrian School of Economics

by Richard M. Ebeling December 12, 2019

The Austrian School of Economics has been one of the most original and insightful approaches to economic understanding over the last century and a half. The Austrian School is also widely identified with the classical liberal ideal of individual liberty and free markets. Indeed, several of the Austrian economists have been considered to be among the most consistent and ...