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 Six Political Illusions: A Primer on Government for Idealists Fed Up with History Repeating Itself.

Hurrah 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 | 1 comment | Continued

Scotland: The Bitter Taste of Independence

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 of union in 1707, and the suppression of revolts in 1715 and 1745, left Scotland firmly a part of the United Kingdom [...]

1May2004 | James L. Payne | 1 comment | Continued

A Philanthropist Goes to Washington

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 to give an entirely negative rating to any donor, but sometimes a philanthropist comes along who tests our forbearance. A case in point is Ruth Lilly, heiress [...]

1May2003 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

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 | Continued

Do Regulators Know What They’re Doing?

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 so on have any definite ability or qualifications. Prospective regulators do [...]

1Aug2001 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Overreacting to Terrorism

In politics, said Gustave Le Bon, things are less important than their names. His dictum applies with special force to the word “terrorism,” especially today. The impression is, of course, that something called terrorism has to be, almost by definition, terrifying. A sensible analysis needs to move away from this semantic trap and examine what [...]

1Apr2001 | James L. Payne | 2 comments | Continued

Do We Really Want More Policemen?

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 mostly in parades and auto shows, but one day his daughter, lacking transportation, took it downtown. And a [...]

1Jul2000 | James L. Payne | 3 comments | Continued

Drifting In and Out of Socialism: The Case of 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 to reflect the relative strength of these contending forces. This [...]

1Apr2000 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Why the War on Poverty Failed

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 fit to print—which it finally did on February 9, 1998. In a front-page story on poverty in rural [...]

1Jan1999 | James L. Payne | 7 comments | Continued

Employers Swamped by Good Intentions

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. A few months ago, an odd travel brochure arrived in my mail. It wasn’t printed in four [...]

1Oct1998 | James L. Payne | 1 comment | Continued

The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State and Other Essays

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 and asserting that liberty means “not under physical compulsion.” Couldn’t a more effective case against [...]

1May1996 | James L. Payne | 1 comment | Continued

Revolution at the Roots: Making Our Government Smaller, Better, and Closer to Home

For the general reader, Revolution at the Roots provides a comprehensive survey of government-shrinking attempts around the nation. Prodigiously researched, it takes us to every corner of the land: welfare reform in Wisconsin, Michigan, and New Jersey; budget control in New York and Philadelphia; tax and spending limits in Arizona and Colorado; community policing in [...]

1Apr1996 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Book Review: The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America by Philip K. Howard

Random House • 1994 • 202 pages • $18.00 It is rare that a book should carry in its title a double entendre so embarrassing to the author. Howard intends to say that common sense has died in the morass of modern law and legal regulation, which he finds wasteful, counterproductive, and laughably ineffective. “Modern [...]

1Oct1995 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Perspective: Better Than Snake Oil

This issue of The Freeman emphasizes voluntarism and voluntary solutions to public problems, a topic of great interest to friends of limited government. When people have a problem to solve, they tend to reach for anything. When we’re ill, for example, there’s no limit to the remedies some of us are willing to try. Even [...]

1Oct1994 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Do English Cathedrals Need Government Help?

Dr. Payne, a Contributing Editor of The Freeman, is a free-lance writer and researcher who lives in Sandpoint, Idaho. One assumes that a great cathedral, having stood for centuries, will go on standing forever, but the truth is it is always falling down. If someone doesn’t shore up the shifting foundation and replace the eroded [...]

1Aug1994 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Inside the Federal Hurting Machine

Dr. Payne is director of Lytton Research and Analysis in Sandpoint, Idaho. His latest book is Costly Returns: The Burdens of the U.S. Tax System, published by ICS Press. If politicians give someone $1,000, press reports emphasize the wonder of the gift and explain how it has eased suffering and restored hope. But when politicians [...]

1Mar1994 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued

Perspective: Voluntarism in Health: A Forgotten Solution

In a period of escalating medical and insurance costs, the working poor are faced with inadequate medical care. They are people who exist on the edge of poverty and live without government assistance. They arc proud and self-reliant . . . . The Bradley Free Clinic in Roanoke, Virginia, exists to meet the needs of [...]

1Nov1993 | James L. Payne | 0 comments | Continued
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