Archive for James L. Payne
Contributing editor James Payne has taught political science at Yale,Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, and Texas A&M. His latest book is A History of Force: Exploring the Worldwide Trend Against Habits of Coercion, Bloodshed, and Mayhem.
A Health-Insurance Criminal Pleads His Case
If mandatory health insurance goes through, it will turn me into a criminal. I don’t have health insurance. I don’t want it. And I will refuse to buy it even though I can afford it. Before they lead me to the cells, perhaps the prisoner may be allowed to say a few words in his [...]
16Nov2009 | James L. Payne | 8 comments | ContinuedIf You Really Love Volunteers, Mr. Obama . . .
Barack Obama gave volunteerism a big boost early this year, visiting service centers on Martin Luther King Day, greeting volunteers, and working alongside them. “Everybody’s got to be involved,” he said. “If we’re waiting for somebody else to do something, it never gets done. We’re going to have to take responsibility, all of us.”
These are [...]
The “Watchful Eye” Fallacy
Because they are made of the same human stuff, it is unreasonable to expect government officials to correct errors being made in the marketplace. A look at the market failures Obama alluded to in his speech bears this out. Take the speculative bubble in housing. Did senators see the danger before the rest of us and pass laws to limit the purchase of real estate? Of course not. They participated in the housing boom along with everyone else.
21May2009 | James L. Payne | 2 comments | ContinuedSavoring “Three Cups of Tea”: An Essay on the Future of Politics
How can we make the world a better place? Truly this has been the $64,000 question of the modern age, and politicians and ideologists have bloodied the twentieth century clamoring against each other to offer the world their answer. Yet strangely, these disputing politicians and ideologists have all shared a basic premise. They have assumed [...]
1Apr2008 | James L. Payne | 1 comment | ContinuedVolunteer Railways in Britain
In 21st-century England you don’t expect to find a fireman shoveling coal into a steam locomotive, but that’s what 59-year old Paul Rimmer does. During his shift on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, he heaves two tons of coal from the tender of engine 45212 into its roaring firebox, a tougher job than almost any [...]
1Jan2008 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | ContinuedHurrah for Voluntary Art!
My heart sank when I first heard about the New York City art project known as “The Gates.” One thousand workers were to put up 7,500 gates along the paths in Central Park and drape saffron-colored fabric from each one. I wasn’t reacting to the art. In fact, I hadn’t even decided if the project [...]
1May2005 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | ContinuedScotland: The Bitter Taste of Independence
Contributing editor James Payne visited Scotland in the fall of 2003. His latest book, A History of Force (Lytton), was published in January.
For nearly a thousand years, the Scots have been struggling to gain independence from England—and a bloody struggle it has been, too, costing countless lives and sowing destruction in both countries. An act [...]
A Philanthropist Goes to Washington
James Payne is the author of The Culture of Spending: Why Congress Spends Beyond Our Means and Costly Returns: The Burdens of the U.S. Tax System (ICS Press).
In philanthropy, as in other human undertakings, there are degrees of performance, from inspired to disappointing. Because the very act of generosity merits some credit, we are reluctant [...]
Why Children Are Dying in the Nation’s Capital
The recent anxiety about terrorism seems to have led the public to look to government with a new confidence, as if it were a father figure capable of taking care of us. Before we get too enthusiastic, however, we ought to remind ourselves what we have learned from many decades of experience with Washington, D.C. [...]
1Mar2002 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | ContinuedDo Regulators Know What They’re Doing?
Contributing editor James Payne (jlpayne@netw.com) is writing a history of violence.
Society gives great power to the regulators who set standards for the rest of us, but—strangely—it does not set standards for the regulators themselves. The laws that establish regulatory systems do not require that those who write regulations on health, safety, commerce, transportation, and [...]
Overreacting to Terrorism
Contributing editor James Payne is writing a history of violence. His previous books include a study of defense policy (The American Threat: National Security and Foreign Policy) and an analysis of militarism (Why Nations Arm).
In politics, said Gustave Le Bon, things are less important than their names. His dictum applies with special force to the [...]
Do We Really Want More Policemen?
Contributing editor James Payne is working on a book about the history of the use of force.
Curt Oldfield of Bonner County, Idaho, has perhaps the most unusually decorated car in the nation. It’s a 1986 Oldsmobile covered with 200 license plates carefully shaped and riveted to the hood, fenders, and doors. It’s driven [...]
Drifting In and Out of Socialism: The Case of Ireland
Contributing editor James Payne recently returned from a stay in Ireland.
National economic policy is generally thought to be set through an intellectual battle over social philosophy. Collectivists, with their ideology of greater government control, oppose individualists, with an equally comprehensive theory of limited government—and a nation’s level of taxation, regulation, and government ownership is assumed [...]
Why the War on Poverty Failed
James Payne is the author of Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More from the Poor and from Ourselves (Basic Books, 1998).
Well, it’s now official: the war on poverty was a costly, tragic mistake. Ordinary people have suspected that for decades, of course, but we had to wait for the New York Times to decide this news was [...]
Employers Swamped by Good Intentions
James Payne’s most recent book is Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More from the Poor—and from Ourselves (Basic Books).
One of the hidden costs of regulation is the intellectual burden of keeping up with it. In many cases, finding out what the rules are can be more than a full-time job. Consider the area of employer-employee relations. [...]
Book Review: The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State and Other Essays by Auberon Herbert
Liberty Fund, 1978
Dr. Payne is Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
The Right suffers from an awkward presentation of its vision. It declares itself for “liberty,” a word that for most people means “the power to do as one pleases.” So a great deal of effort is spent repudiating this meaning [...]
Book Review: Revolution at the Roots: Making Our Government Smaller, Better, and Closer to Home by William D. Eggers and John O’Leary
The Free Press • 1995 • 405 pages + index • $25.00
Dr. Payne, a contributing editor of The Freeman, is a Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the author of Costly Returns: The Burdens of the U.S. Tax System.
For the general reader, Revolution at the Roots provides a comprehensive survey of government-shrinking [...]
-
Latest Toon
-
Book Reviews
