 The Feudal and Socialist Nature of Taxation
by Tibor R. Machan
"Neither the rationale Comte gave, nor the original one that established taxation as a fixture on the political landscape - namely, the feudal practice whereby everything was the property of the monarch so we had to pay rent - provides even a scintilla of support for this repeated, vicious extortion perpetrated upon all those who earn a living and conduct trade." (Read more...)
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Failure not Bush's but of the Welfare State
by Tibor R. Machan
Examining the memo President Bush had received as part of his daily intelligence briefing in August 2001, shortly before the terrorist attacks in September, suggests that none could have known what was about to be done by Bin Laden operatives on US soil. The Bush folks are confident that this exonerates the government... (Read more...)
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Were the Founders Libertarian?
by Tibor R. Machan
In the fall 2001 issue of The National Interest Francis Fukuyama writes in response to my brief statement of the meaning of the term "natural rights," namely, that "properly understood, [they] are liberties, spheres of personal authority within which one does as one judges fit-even if it may be unwise, imprudent or cow... (Read more...)
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Replacing Arguments with Name Calling
by Tibor R. Machan
Rush Limbaugh has claimed that the modern liberalism of Ted Kennedy & Co. is dead in the water as far as arguments are concerned. I am not sure this isn't true also of modern conservatism, a la George W. Bush-are there really any arguments in support of Bush's bloated big government "compassionate" conservatism?
... (Read more...)
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"Government" versus "State"
by Tibor R. Machan
Concepts such as "government," like "democracy," "law," "justice," "freedom" and "love," to cite just a few, are what W. B. Gallie, called "essentially contestable" (see his "Essentially Contested Concepts", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 56 [1955-56]). I heard the characterization from Alasdair McIntyr... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 18, 2004 |
Self and Inconsistency
by Tibor R. Machan
Many more years ago than I like to admit I read a wonderful little book, Prescott Lecky's Self-Consistency: A Theory of Personality (New York: Island Press, 1945). (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 11, 2004 |
 Explanations and Lies About North Korea
by Tibor R. Machan
The BBC World News reported recently on North Korea's devastating food shortage problem. Some 6 million human beings are at the brink of starvation there! (Read more...)
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The Myth of Market Failures
by Tibor R. Machan
Although the idea is widely taught in undergraduate and graduate economics courses, there is very little to it, when you look closely. Market failures are either trivial conditions no one can be justly upset about or they simply do not exist at all. (Read more...)
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Rights and the US Constitution
by Tibor R. Machan
It is a well known refrain of some conservative legal scholars - the most famous of them being Robert Bork - that there is no constitutional right to privacy in our country. (Read more...)
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Unjust Blaming in Focus
by Tibor R. Machan
Recently I reflected how so many people hate corporations. (Read more...)
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Some Views About Americans
by Tibor R. Machan
When one has contrarian views, it is not always easy to enjoy oneself. I often sit through movies with much to offer, only to find that characters unhesitatingly denounce something I value, such as capitalism, business, or some great feature of American culture. The same fate faces me when I pick up a best selling novel, even of the genres that are something of a steady diet for me, crime, court room and spy novels. (Read more...)
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Let's Say No to Fatalism
by Tibor R. Machan
Jim Pinkerton, who if memory serves me right, used to be a speechwriter in the Reagan White House, now writes columns and one of his recent missives tells us that American conservatism is in almost total shambles. (Read more...)
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Eternal Vigilance
by Tibor R. Machan
Champions of individual liberty can never rest because there are simply too many people who would much rather conscript others for their own purposes than do what they believe needs to be done themselves - or at least recruit volunteers to help them. No, instead the bulk of humanity is bent on coercing others to work for them, regardless what the goal happens to be, good or bad. (Read more...)
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 Meanings of Christmas Revisited
by Tibor R. Machan
Sometimes one ought to repeat a point, even over and over again, since it is important enough to call attention to it often. Given that many people, celebrities with lots of exposure in the media, manage to repeat idiotic points, I have resolved to refute them repeatedly. (Read more...)
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Thursday
November 20, 2003 |
Why Capitalism is Always Suspect
by Tibor R. Machan
Few people who criticize corporate crime make mention of the fact that we hardly have a genuine free market in place anywhere on earth. So, business corporations operate, as does the rest of commerce, in a mixed economy, with substantial government intervention - taxation, regulation, protection and so forth - thoroughly diluting the free market process. (Read more...)
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Thursday
November 13, 2003 |
Thoughts on Religious Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
Over the years the idea of state sanctioned religious expression has been challenged all over America. Many have also found that challenge quite objectionable. (Read more...)
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CEO Pay -- Normal or Unfair?
by Tibor R. Machan
In my many years of trying to understand the free market economy I have been hampered by the simple fact that no such thing exists. Like ideal marriages, genuine free markets are mostly something we can conceive of and understand in theory but rarely encounter in the actual world. (Read more...)
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"If you don't like it, Leave!"
by Tibor R. Machan
This is an exclamation I've heard on innumerable occasions when I have debated the merits of a fully free society. "So, you consider taxation a form of confiscation, even extortion? You think regulations are petty tyrannies? Well, you can go live somewhere else. You can't really complain, then. We have decided to collect taxes and that's the end of the story, or to impose zoning laws or affirmative action or bans on smoking or drug abuse. So, love it or leave it." (Read more...)
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Revisiting the Loss of Jobs
by Tibor R. Machan
Recently I argued that it is customers who cause the loss of jobs; companies merely deliver the message to employees and investors that customers have decided to go elsewhere to buy goods and services. In a more than less free market that is exactly how things would go. (Read more...)
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 Plato and Hollywood
by Tibor R. Machan
In his most famous dialogue the ancient Greek philosopher Plato has his main character, Socrates - his own teacher who never wrote down his thoughts but whose ideas infused all of Plato's writings - construct the ideal community. It serves many purposes, among them to understand human psychology and morality. The ideal city is to be structured like the human soul and it can be used to see in large form how that human soul is best harmonized. (Read more...)
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Problems with Egalitarianism
by Tibor R. Machan
A reason some opponents of liberty give for their position is that there isn't supposed to be any significant difference between any of us, so those who do well and those who do worse both really just deserve the same. Indeed, desert is not even in the picture for these folks because everything just happens to us, we do not do anything well or badly, better or worse than anyone else. It is just que sera, sera. (Read more...)
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A bit of good news on 60 Minutes
by Tibor R. Machan
Often I am told that my observations are negative, and that's true. I protest the loss of liberty. But behind that lies my most positive idea, namely, that free men and women are better at solving problems than those in chains - even in chains that are quite long. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
September 24, 2003 |
Criminal and Political Minds
by Tibor R. Machan
If anything unites most criminals it is their belief that instant forceful action is best. Robbing, raping, murdering or assaulting others to get what one wants from them seems to them more effective than peaceful means to their ends. This is their form of immaturity and, as adults, their moral failing. (I am talking here about real criminals, not those made criminal by government via, for example, the blatantly unjust drug laws.) (Read more...)
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Wednesday
September 17, 2003 |
The Bad Habit of Statism
by Tibor R. Machan
Americans live with some pretty unusual ideas and policies and even take these for granted, actually. (Read more...)
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Espresso Tax and the Hidden Costs
by Tibor R. Machan
News reports had it the other day that Seattle's politicians and bureaucrats have cooked up yet another extortion scheme. They are now planning to put a 10 cent tax on every shot of espresso coffee. (Read more...)
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