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Libertarianism Can’t Make Socialism Work

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One of the fascinating phenomena of advancing libertarianism here at The Future of Freedom Foundation for the past 30 years has been seeing how frustrated statists become with the failure of libertarians to come up with solutions on how to make socialism work. Statists, of course, are people who look to government — and the force of government — to run and control important parts of our lives. In the mind of a statist, the purpose of government is to serve as a surrogate parent, one charged with taking care of us and keeping us safe. Statism governs our lives in such areas as healthcare, education, money, immigration, and diet. That’s why we have a socialized healthcare system, a socialized education system, a socialized monetary system, a socialized immigration system, and a drug war that punishes people for ingesting substances that the government hasn’t approved.

Liberty versus “Security” from the Coronavirus

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Crises and emergencies are the time-honored way that people end up losing their liberty at the hands of their own governments. That’s because people become so afraid that they are willing, even eager, to fall victim to the siren song that is always sung by government officials: “Just surrender your liberty to us and we will keep you safe, and as soon as the crisis or emergency is over, we will restore your freedom to you. We promise!” Of course, we are witnessing this phenomenon first hand in the coronavirus outbreak. The crisis is a tyranny-lover’s dream, and a liberty-lover’s nightmare. Officials at all levels of government are adopting and exercising “emergency” powers that any totalitarian dictator would relish. Lockdowns. Travel controls. Quarantine zones. Containment areas. Shutdowns. Why, even controls over the sale of guns and ammunitions! Is life so dear that it ...

Bionic Mosquito Is Back on Immigration

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The Bionic Mosquito, a libertarian who favors America’s system of immigration controls, is back on the subject of immigration. In a new article, he refers to an article of his back in 2015 entitled “Compared to What?” in which he references a point that I have often made about America’s system of immigration controls. As I have long pointed out, America’s system of immigration controls is a socialist system, in that it is based on the concept of central planning, which is a core feature of the socialist paradigm. Federal immigration planners, who possess what Friedrich Hayek called a “fatal conceit,” plan the movements of millions of people in a highly complex labor market. They set the total number of immigrants that are permitted to enter the United States, the qualifications for such immigrants, and the quotas assigned to each country. It cannot be done. Central planning is an inherently defective system. It cannot be made to work. It produces ...

Immigration Interventionism

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Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention into economic activity inevitably leads to another intervention, which then leads to more and more interventions. That’s because the first intervention inevitably produces problems, which then require another intervention to fix those problems. That new intervention then produces a set of new problems, which then necessitates new interventions. The process ...

Not Losing Sight of the Classical Liberal Ideal

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In the midst of the Second World War, the famous Austrian-born economist Joseph A. Schumpeter (1883-1950), published his famous book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942). He asked the question, “Can Capitalism Survive?” He answered, “No.” He expected some form of socialism, dictatorial or “democratic,” to supersede the private market economy in postwar America. He was proven wrong. Postwar American ...