Wednesday
September 17, 2008 |
 Welfare State Follies
by Tibor R. Machan
By all historical accounts the fully free society has never been tried, so arguing about it will always be to a large extent theoretical. But than nearly all of contemporary astrophysics is theoretical, as it much of psychology and other social sciences in which controlled experiments are not possible or permissible. Based, however, on much thinking and research, some of it historical enough, there is no reasonable doubt about the benefit of human liberty in all realms of human endeavor. Unfortunately the sole trial has been conducted in the realm covered by the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, effecting religion and the arts and humanities (including journalism). And few other than out and out Fascists and theocrats deny that in these areas freedom has been all to the good! It may, therefore, be reasonably inferred that liberty would mostly likely serve us well in all areas of human concern, including the financial markets and even emergency services, two in which recent upheavals haven’t been dealt with swimmingly by the welfare state. That’s despite the fact that welfare state measures--namely vast government interference in various professions and ordinary human activities--are most often defended on the grounds that they are needed to prevent or cope with disasters, financial or natural! (Read more...)
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The Unseen Violation
by Joseph Rowlands
In Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson, he focuses on the different effects that are caused by particular economic policies. Specifically, he shows that some actions are very visible and people tend to look only at those. There's a second class of effects that are unseen. (Read more...)
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Another Problem with Welfare Rights
by Tibor R. Machan
A welfare or positive right, so called, is something that can only be protected by coercing others to provide it. Consider the right to health care. This supposed right can only be honored by making health care professionals provide services for those who have need for it. (Read more...)
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Crime and Poverty, Part I
by William Scott Dwyer
Welfare state liberals have been claiming for decades that poverty causes crime. It is an assertion that very few people ever question. But is it true? The current article views the relationship between poverty and crime in a wholly different light, and arrives at some startling and unconventional conclusions. (Read more...)
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Crime and Poverty, Part II
by William Scott Dwyer
Welfare state liberals have been claiming for decades that poverty causes crime. It is an assertion that very few people ever question. But is it true? The current article views the relationship between poverty and crime in a wholly different light, and arrives at some startling and unconventional conclusions. The second part of the article looks at the real causes of crime. (Read more...)
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How to Privatize the Roads: The Mechanisms and Benefits of Road Privatization
by G. Stolyarov II
Mr. Stolyarov demonstrates that the transfer of all roads to private ownership is feasible and desirable. He discusses how it might work and presents real-world instances in which it has worked. (Read more...)
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Is Religious Politics Libertarian?
by Tibor R. Machan
In many ways the principles of a fully free society are the most hospitable to the great variety of faithful in a large society. The main reason for this is that in such a free society the right to private property is strictly protected. Even more, the strict protection of the right to private property serves religion well because it establishes a culture of tolerance and non-interference among the different faithful. (Read more...)
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How Big Government Breeds Vice: Perverse Incentives of the Welfare State
by G. Stolyarov II
Expanding the scope and power of government cannot make people more virtuous than they otherwise would be. But it certainly can make them less moral than they would have been in a free society. Vast government controls, social programs, and handouts, by encouraging permanent dependence on entitlements, lead to a steady decline in the moral characters of large numbers of people. (Read more...)
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NATO, Georgia and Russia
by Tibor R. Machan
Thomas Friedman of The New York Times writes that he is against expanding NATO. While he condemns the Russian government for its muscle flexing vis-à-vis the Republic of Georgia, he considers Georgia’s desire to join NATO unwise. As he recounts his and some of his allies reasoning at the time when the USSR collapsed, "It seemed to us that since we had finally brought down Soviet communism and seen the birth of democracy in Russia the most important thing to do was to help Russian democracy take root and integrate Russia into Europe. Wasn’t that why we fought the cold war — to give young Russians the same chance at freedom and integration with the West as young Czechs, Georgians and Poles? Wasn’t consolidating a democratic Russia more important than bringing the Czech Navy into NATO?" (Read more...)
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Why Foreign Interventionism is Moral
by John Armaos
Why Foreign Interventionism is moral. When we trade with one another, when we do business with our fellow citizens, or when we enter into a common defense by establishing a police force and an army to protect us, we are in essence entering into an alliance with each other man qua man. And just as this conver... (Read more...)
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The Scope of Public Choice Theory
by Tibor R. Machan
Prague, Czech Republic. In October 1985 (I think it was) Professor James Buchanan, now at George Mason University's Department of Economics, received the Nobel Prize in his discipline for his pioneering work—in collaboration with Professor Gordon Tullock—in what came to be called public choice theory. The gist of this theory is that those who work in government, often referred to in the honorific terms as doing "public service," are, contrary to widespread impression, just as much motivated by personal or self-interest as are people in the market place. In other words, politicians and bureaucrats pursue their own agendas, not those of "the public," just as people in business do. And from this a number of interesting insights follow about the nature of government policy. (Read more...)
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What's Wrong with Self-Interest?
by Andrew Ferguson
A Weekly Standard author stumbles across the root of the problem but doesn't quite know what diagnosis to prescribe... (Read more...)
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Human Rights Were Not Invented
by Tibor R. Machan
Professor Lynn Hunt's recently published book is titled Inventing Human Rights and though it is full of very useful information about the emergence of the idea of basic human, individual rights, it also perpetuates, perhaps entirely unconsciously, a very serious error. (Read more...)
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I Would Love to See This Happen (Said With Schadenfreude)
by Warren Meyer
San Francisco has a ballot initiative this November to seize all PG&E transmission lines and assets in the city such that all city power comes from a new government owned utility. Further, the initiative would require that this new entity get 100% of its power from renewables, particularly wind and solar, by 2040. (Read more...)
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Leader of the Free World Torpedoes Freedom
by Tibor R. Machan
Cologne, Germany. As The New York Times reported the other day-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/business/worldbusiness/30trade.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin --the United States was among three of the most powerful economies of the world, China and India being the others, to ground to a halt the effort at the World Trade Organization (which recently met met in Geneva, Switzerland), to eliminate or at least lower farm subsidies so as to open markets that could then admit as serious participants citizens of poor countries the economies of which are only going to improve of their farm products can be sold globally. It is truly disgusting and embarrassing that America is among the countries where protectionism is a major political force. (Read more...)
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Companies begin quest for oil, gas off Fla. coast
by Jack Zhang
Companies begin quest for oil, gas off Fla. coast
As petroleum prices soar, 4 companies begin costly quest for oil and gas off Florida's coast
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.
(Read more...)
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The Follies of Gun Control
by G. Stolyarov II
When it comes to restricting private individuals’ Second Amendment rights, it seems that the world must turn upside down to justify gun control. Criminals need to obey the law, limited human beings need to be present everywhere and respond to anything, inanimate objects need to assume a volition of their own, and parents all of a sudden need to become totally oblivious to what their children are doing. (Read more...)
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A Chance for Freedom?
by Tibor R. Machan
Lugano, Switzerland: Over the last two and a half decades or so I have been attending conferences organized by the Business & Economics Society International that has its home at Assumption College in New Hampshire.
This summer I believe I have attended for the fifth or sixth time, often presenting papers and taking part in discussions about business ethics and political economy.
(Read more...)
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The Skinny on Fat Rationalization
by Samantha Steven
When I enter a grocery store I walk through aisles of labels that beckon: "All Natural", "Low Carb", "Organic", "100 Calories", and "Low Fat". Throughout the supermarket, I see several overweight people loading their carts with Splenda, diet coke, cookie-dough nutrition bars, and Atkins diet books. When I... (Read more...)
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WALL-E, Economic Ignorance, and the War on Modernity
by G. Stolyarov II
The Disney/Pixar film WALL-E has been adoringly received by the majority of the theater-going public. This adoration is unjustified. The film's creators show an egregious ignorance of basic economics and of commonsense insights regarding the nature of human behaviors and the incentives facing individual economic actors. (Read more...)
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Fourth of July and the Public Interest
by Tibor R. Machan
Throughout history political thinkers have been doing a lot of fretting about the public good (or public interest, common good, general welfare, etc.). Usually they came up with massive plans or enchanting visions. Plato's teacher, Socrates, was the great grand daddy contributing to this tradition, what wi... (Read more...)
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Public TV bash
by Tibor R. Machan
A colleague asked me to come and sit with him and his pals at the table to celebrate KOCE-TV’s 35th anniversary celebration. I went, though with some trepidation, given that KOCE-TV is a "public" television station in Orange County, CA. It is mostly funded from contributions but does receive about 10% of its operating expenses from the government, via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I was informed by one official at the organization. Compared to many other subsidized undertakings, the amount isn’t huge but, still, it does involve robbing Peter a bit so as to support Paul with the latter’s preferred projects. (Read more...)
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Politicizing Science
by Tibor R. Machan
As many who read my columns would know, I am an avid reader of Science News, the magazine of the Society for Science and the Public located in Washington, D. C. It's now been a few decades that I have been kept abreast of developments in a great variety of sciences, natural and social, by reading this publication. (Read more...)
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Liberty and Hard Cases
by Tibor R. Machan
One book I edited has the same title as this column and focuses mainly on how a free society would cope with disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. When the nature of a just society is discussed, those who defend big government solutions to problems tend to start with orphaned children and catastrophes, claiming that only by means of massive government intervention can a society cope. But then, of course, it becomes evident that big government advocates—actually, advocates of governments with extensive scope, way beyond the task of securing the rights of the citizenry—don’t stop with the dire cases. Instead they move on to advocate government intervention into every nook and cranny of people’s lives. The tendency is toward totalitarianism, with just a few exceptions such as freedom for the press and for people religious choices. Everything else, however, seems to require government meddling, just as was believed in the thousands of years when monarchies ruled virtually everywhere because the king was thought to be God’s representative on earth. (Read more...)
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Spring Awakening & Jersey Boys
by Samantha Steven
Reviews of two Broadway shows in the lens of Ayn Rand's view of art. (Read more...)
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