A Free Market for Health Care by Sheldon Richman June 1, 1992 Concerned about rising costs the number of Americans without medical insurance, nearly everyone is these days about a day goes by without a presidential or a magazine calling for something drastic to be done. Each advocate maintains that his plan will bring skyrocketing costs under control, make health care accessible to low-income people, and bring health insurance within the reach of the 34 million Americans who currently do without it. But the American people are being handed a Hobson's choice between a government takeover of the medical insurance industry and mandatory provision of insurance by the nation's employers, with the government as insurer of last resort. There is a real alternative solution that relies on competition in the open marketplace. That solution recognizes that the undesirable aspects of the current system are not the result of the free market, but rather are the outcome of decades of governmental intervention in the health-care industry. Elimination of that intervention would shift power and ...
Seeking Security in a Government-Guaranteed World by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1992 Throughout history, people have surrendered their liberties to government in the hope of attaining a sense of security. The American people in this century proved to be no different. Our ancestors had established a way of life in which there was no income taxation, welfare, or economic regulation — a free way of life. Their descendants, however, have abandoned those principles — rejecting freedom for the siren song of the welfare-state, regulated-economy way of life. Having surrendered their freedom in the pursuit of governmental security, did the American people of our time actually achieve their end? Let us examine a few examples. First, Social Security: a governmental program which our ancestors rejected but which Americans of our time have wholeheartedly embraced. For the first 150 years of our nation's history, the American people believed that it ...
The Vietnam War by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1990 Being on the debate team at Virginia Military Institute during the 1970-71 school year was not easy. It was during this period of time that the collegiate protests against the Vietnam War were at their height. I will never forget the angry stares and outbursts when we participated, in our VMI uniforms, in debate tournaments on various college campuses on the East Coast. I never responded to any of these verbal assaults because by that time — my junior year at VMI — I myself had turned against the war. The Vietnam War tore this nation apart like few wars in American history. Those who supported the war claimed that it was being fought to prevent communist aggression. Those who resisted the war contended that it constituted an illegitimate interference with the affairs of foreign nations. Those who supported the war were accused of being warmongers. Those who resisted ...
How Bad Do You Want to Be Free? by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1990 Ever since I was a small child, I have been intrigued by the Battle of the Alamo. For a time, the defenders of the Alamo were expecting reinforcements to arrive. But once word came that Fannin and his troops had been massacred, it was clear that help would not ...
