 The Liberty We Must Have
by Tibor R. Machan
It is becoming more and more fashionable among political thinkers and even politicians to disparage the kind of individual liberty championed in the American political tradition. Several scholars—e. g., Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago—have argued that what really matters most is something called positive liberty. This is the notion that people have liberty only when others provide them with the resources that enable them to do what they would like to or should do. And there is a use of the idea "liberty" or "freedom" along these lines—you are free to fly to Paris only if you get funds to pay for the trip. But it used to be understood, maybe still is normally, that to get this kind of freedom or liberty one needs to earn the funds to pay instead of take it from other people by way, of say, taxation. But that is now challenged by the idea that what we lack but need or want is something we are entitled to from others and governments exist to serve us by obtaining it all from these others and they have no say in the matter. (Read more...)
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Rough Draft: Functions of morality
by Joseph Rowlands
The following is a very rough draft of an essay I started on morality. It's in very rough shape, as I wrote it for my own clarity and not a general audience. I submit it here for those who might be interested. (Read more...)
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Harry Reid’s "Voluntary" Taxation
by Tibor R. Machan
On the Web Site, FreeLiberal.com, to which someone guided me, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada defended the idea that taxation in America, especially the federal income tax, is voluntary. His basic argument was, believe it or not, that elsewhere in the world people lack the many loopholes we enjoy here. (These, by the way, are the loopholes Senator Reid and his fellows in the Senate are constantly promising to close!) So while the Senator’s case that taxation is voluntary rests on there being loopholes in the system, he is vehemently opposed to those loopholes. (Read more...)
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Affirmative Action and Blood Guilt
by G. Stolyarov II
The heinous idea of blood guilt is alive and well today in the United States. Yes, the same kind of fundamental mindset that characterized the policies of the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union is today advocated by proponents of affirmative action. (Read more...)
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Pursuing your Happiness
by Tibor R. Machan
When the Founders made happiness part of America’s political fabric they made clear that what each of us has a right to is the pursuit of it. As with all individual rights in this political tradition, the right to the pursuit of happiness is a right to take actions of certain sorts, ones that are aimed at achieving our happiness. Even the most basic right, to one’s life, is a right to take a great many actions. Life, after all, consists of being active! The right to private property, too, is a right to take actions that result in the acquisition of valued items. (Read more...)
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A Corrupt Profession
by Tibor R. Machan
There are those who believe that business is inherently corrupt--communists would be among those, and socialists. The very idea of striving to make a profit is treated by these people as morally objectionable. Of course, some even think medicine fits the bill, or military service. And there are animal rights advocates who believe the entire meat industry is morally base. (Read more...)
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Soros' Follies Again
by Tibor R. Machan
In the late 60s I was invited to listen to a fellow Hungarian refugee in Los Angeles discuss communism. I nearly walked out when he began with the refrain about how communism is such a wonderful ideal but, sadly, unattainable in practice. What wonderful ideal? The prospect of a worldwide intelligent ant colony, bound together completely with no individual initiative in play anywhere, all automatically serving humanity--is that some wonderful ideal? It is hell, so (Read more...)
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Should We Elect a Problem Solver?
by Tibor R. Machan
In his long interview with Chris Wallace on Fox TV on Sunday April 27, Senator Obama asserted that "The American people, what they are looking for is somebody who can solve their problems." (Read more...)
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Randula, the Altruist Slayer
by Dennis C. Hardin
George H. Smith taunts Objectivists for seeing altruistic ‘Reds’ under every ideological bed (Read more...)
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Wandering About the East Village
by Tibor R. Machan
It was a very mild, pleasant Sunday afternoon and my older daughter and I were spending a couple of hours walking about in her New York City East Village neighborhood. After a bite of lunch we took in some of the shops, not so much to spend the required $20 I heard everyone is likely to part with once leaving home in this part of the world but to do what I like to call museum cruising. Yes, even when I have no interest in shopping, I do enjoy checking out all the goodies offered for sale in the hundreds of places that feature thousands of items that come from the commercial motives of people. Not just commercial motives, of course. A goodly portion of what's for sale is probably born out of a sense of creativity, with the idea of selling following as more of an afterthought. Like all those paintings and sculptures in Soho. Or the jewelry on display in the umpteen boutiques. (Read more...)
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What Are Taxes?
by Tibor R. Machan
In the April 15th edition of The New York Times Richard Conniff suggests that what the government collects from us each year on or about this date be called "dues" instead of "taxes" ("Abolish All 'Taxes'"). As he puts it, "we need language to remind us that this is our government, and that we thrive because of the schools and transit systems and 10,000 other services that exist only because we have joined together."
(Read more...)
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Welfare Corrupts
by Tibor R. Machan
Before anything else it needs to be noted that most of the welfare recipients are not unwed mothers but people doing business as major corporations. They receive subsidies, bailouts, protection from competition and so forth, all undeserved, all unjust, all lacking any legitimacy in a genuine free country. American firms, as thousands of others around the globe, have managed to persuade politicians to provide them with benefits at the expense of people who haven’t consented to any of the takings that provide the funds that make all this possible. (Read more...)
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Intellectual Products and the Right to Private Property
by Tibor R. Machan
Over the years there has been a debate among supporters of the free market concerning whether so called intellectual property is something to which one may have a private property right. One central element of the case, as advanced by some, is that because intellectual property is intangible, and tangibility makes wha... (Read more...)
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The Audacity of Profit
by Merlin Jetton
I recently read an article from the American Medical Association, which is here. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/368/compstudy_52006.pdf. It is an assessment of competition in health insurance. Pages 1 and 2 are a relentless finger-pointing at large market shares and mergers and acquisitions in health insur... (Read more...)
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Taxation Again
by Tibor R. Machan
Instead of all the mud slinging between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, wouldn’t it be refreshing to have them engage in some serious political discussion? Since April 15 is nearly upon us, many American citizens might appreciate some in-depth exploration of the nature of taxation. The federal income tax, in particular, would deserve thoughtful examination. Senator John McCain could also enter the fray, me thinks. (Read more...)
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Too Much Love for Royalty
by Tibor R. Machan
Every time I encounter admiring references to royalty in America I cringe. (Read more...)
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Religious Faith Fails Its Followers
by Roger Smith
Each of the three Abrahamic God-based religious faiths -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- at the most basic level acts as a rallying point, a power grouping. Historically, it was all about rallying tribes and whole regions of the Middle East around a book and having them declare faith in the teachings found therein; strength from unity. A whole population being all of one mind, united, results in a powerful force -- and those who direct and control this power benefit by becoming powerful, too. (Read more...)
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Why don’t they get it?
by Tibor R. Machan
No matter how many politicians proceed to act self-destructively, engage in corruption, violate elementary principles of civilized conduct as New York governor Eliot Spitzer had done, the idea that they can be elected to office to take care of us, to handle the bulk of our problems, may be trusted with our income to spend it wisely and virtuously remains nearly immune to criticism. They keep promising to handle everything we find troubling in our lives and the majority of Americans--not to mention others around the globe--continue with their governmental habit, as if they still lived in an absolute monarchy where the king or queen are taken to be God’s agents and are expected to be "keepers of the realm." That famous legal doctrine of the police power is still part of our system, according to which government may impose its will on us for our own good, just as if the myth of its benevolence had not be disproved a thousand times over and over again. (Read more...)
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Prudence: The Stolen Virtue
by Paul Hibbert
Due to the proliferation of laws and regulations designed to protect people from themselves it is becoming almost impossible to be truly prudent — because to be prudent one must choose one's actions. (Read more...)
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Time to Get Real About Elections
by Walter Donway
Observing our selection of Presidential candidates this year, it becomes evident that ANYONE can run for President of the United States. Soon, this will be recognized by Americans at large, and shortly after, by politicians. The result, I predict, will be a radical reform of the election process. Because we don't bothe... (Read more...)
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Bill Buckley, RIP
by Tibor R. Machan
William F. Buckley, Jr., has died, at age 82. I want to reflect a bit on him because he was the persons whose writing awoke in me my political passions. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 27, 2008 |
Unabashed Prejudice at The Times
by Tibor R. Machan
These matters tend to show up without much fanfare but that’s exactly what makes them interesting and significant. When Eleanor Randolph of The New York Times wrote these lines [Sunday, 2/24/08], I am sure she was being quite unselfconscious. It was simple common sense to her to say, as she wrote about the program "Law & Order"--which she and I both seem to have watched from its inception--that these shows "elevate Sam Waterston to his ethical pedestal, even though he appears elsewhere pitching investments." (Read more...)
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Thursday
February 21, 2008 |
Employment Blues Revisited
by Tibor R. Machan
Even though making lots of money is often derided by politicians, they do routinely champion employment security. Exactly why it is fine to want the latter but not the former is quite unclear to me. There are some theories about this, though. (Read more...)
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Freud and the "Social Utility" of Objectivism
by Dennis C. Hardin
Freud’s views on the social role of religion may offer some insights on how to spread Objectivism (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 13, 2008 |
It Isn’t Throwing it Away
by Tibor R. Machan
Over the years, since when I voted for Barry Goldwater back in 1964, I have supported libertarian candidates and ballot measures, few of whom or which had any chance of winning. Often my more pragmatic, realistic friends tell me that I am throwing away my vote and I should stop this if I want to be serious about giving concrete support to my political convictions. They sometimes even suggest that it is irresponsible to keep up this practice of voting for hopeless candidates and measures. (Read more...)
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