Archive for George C. Leef

George Leef is book review editor of The Freeman.

Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything

In the gigantic theater that is American politics, one of the favorite roles for politicians to play is that of the tough guy who is determined to “crack down” on something or other. Such actions are predictably cheered by whatever voting groups the politician wants to curry favor with. An often-heard campaign line is, “Vote [...]

13Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

How Corporations, Government, and Trial Lawyers Abuse the Judicial Process

If you want money, one way of getting it is to produce and trade with others who desire what you have to sell. Sociologist Franz Oppenheimer famously called that the “economic means” of obtaining what one wants. Alas, many people prefer another way of getting money, namely, the use of force and/or threats to compel [...]

13Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty

Does government have too much power? Certainly—just think of all the freedom Americans have lost on account of the income tax, Social Security, Department of Labor regulations, the threat of antitrust prosecution, and so on. Note that in my short list of examples, each one is due to action by the federal government. In Leviathan, [...]

12Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Abuse of Power: How Government Misuses Eminent Domain

The essential difference between a market economy and a socialist one is that in the former, individuals decide how to use the resources they own, while in the latter, government officials make the decisions. The market system is consistent with individual liberty and works well without the use of coercion. The socialist system is not [...]

10Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier

I remember very well the images of the American West I received as a child. Movies, TV shows, and books convinced me that the West was excitingly wild and violent, with wars and gunfights as staples of everyday life. No doubt millions of others have grown up with the same idea, and a corollary—that the [...]

9Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition

In perhaps no other public-policy question is the United States more hopelessly in the grip of a conventional wisdom that is utterly and egregiously wrong than drugs. Most Americans, no matter their political affiliation, are adamant supporters of the “war on drugs.” Try suggesting that the war might be stupendous folly and you’ll most likely [...]

9Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Trembling in the Ivory Tower: Excesses in the Pursuit of Truth and Tenure

If you listen to spokesmen for the higher-education establishment, America’s colleges and universities are the envy of the world, propelling our economy forward with brilliantly educated young minds. Look only at the bright spots in American higher education and you might well conclude that such praise is merited. But to assume that something is true [...]

8Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

You Can’t Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Anti-Discrimination Laws

The chiseling away of constitutional limits on government power is a topic familiar to readers of these pages. For a long time the First Amendment’s prohibition against laws that infringe freedom of speech remained relatively untouched by people who would like to use state power to silence their opponents. But as David Bernstein, a George [...]

7Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law

Know any good lawyer jokes? They’re quite abundant and often tasteless, reflecting the widespread opinion that the legal profession is composed mostly of unethical rogues who say anything and do anything to squeeze money out of people. It certainly is not true that the entire legal profession consists of scoundrels practicing what amounts to legalized [...]

7Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

The Worm in the Apple

Just as a government monopoly in postal service would be a bad idea even in the absence of postal-worker unions, so would “public education” be a bad idea even in the absence of teacher unions. There can be no doubt, however, that the major teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of [...]

5Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 5 comments | Continued

World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability

The list of complaints against laissez-faire capitalism is long, including such contradictory notions as its guilt in impoverishing the masses and its role in enabling the poor to escape their “proper” station in life. In World on Fire, Amy Chua adds to the list, arguing that capitalism, when combined with democratization in economically developing nations, [...]

2Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 2 comments | Continued

Federalism Means Carte Blanche for States?

Federalism is an important concept in the political structure of the United States—or at least it is supposed to be. Under the Constitution the national (or as it is now almost invariably called, federal) government was given certain responsibilities. Beyond those limited functions the federal government was not to go. The Tenth Amendment makes the [...]

1Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey

Growing up in a fairly poor family in rural Manitoba, David Henderson would have seemed an unlikely candidate for the authorship of one of the most resounding libertarian books to come along in years. But an innate sense that there was something valuable in having the freedom to live one’s life according to one’s own [...]

30Jun2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation

Karl Marx was right—sort of. He was right in saying that society is riven by class warfare, but he got the classes wrong. It’s not the case that capitalists exploit workers, but rather that tax consumers exploit taxpayers. That truth has long been kept hidden from the average American by deceptive propaganda about the workings [...]

29Jun2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

Subsidizing More College Students Won’t Help the Economy

Governments in the United States subsidize college education heavily. State universities charge students very low tuition rates, and the federal government has a host of grant and loan programs designed to make college affordable to most families. (As politicians make those programs more generous, schools have spent more and raised tuitions, thus creating an upward [...]

29Jun2010 | George C. Leef | 7 comments | Continued

Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses

In his previous book, The Big Ripoff (reviewed in the June 2007 Freeman), author Timothy Carney launched an attack on two of America’s preeminent political myths—that the Democrats are “the party of the little guy” and the Republicans are “the party of free enterprise.” Both notions are useful to candidates in the endless quest for [...]

20May2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

State of Fear

State of Fear is a didactic novel, teaching while telling a story. Author Michael Crichton is attempting here to do more than just to make a general statement to the reader, such as Upton Sinclair did in The Jungle (“capitalism is bad”) or Ayn Rand did in Atlas Shrugged (“capitalism is vital”). He is attempting [...]

18May2010 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued
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