Archive for Jim Peron
Ranking the U.S. Health-Care System
It is curious that the United States ranked below Europe in the World Health Organization’s 2000 World Health Report, which rated 191 countries’ medical systems. In his documentary Sicko, socialist Michael Moore makes hay out of the fact that the United States placed 37th, behind even Morocco, Cyprus, and Costa Rica. This ranking is used [...]
1Nov2007 | Jim Peron | 34 comments | ContinuedThe Peace Principle
The key principle of liberalism is peace. Some would say peaceful cooperation is the key. But in a free society one is also free peacefully not to cooperate.
Many would say the core principle of liberalism is freedom, and since the word liberalism is derived from the Latin liber, which means free, that is a reasonable [...]
Chernobyl in Perspective
When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986 the world held its breath. In the aftermath, we were told that a catastrophe had taken place. Ten years later Greenpeace said the accident was “blamed for the deaths of some 2,500 people, has affected millions and displaced hundreds of thousands, many of whom have still not [...]
1Oct2006 | Jim Peron | 2 comments | ContinuedWhen Safety Nets Fail
An elderly woman sat on the stone steps of the St.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral clutching a small
handful of wildflowers picked from a field
somewhere. She offered them up to any passerby, hoping
to earn just a few cents for them.The air in Sofia was
frigid, but at least the rain had finally stopped. I wondered
if she had sat there in the rain the day before. I suspected
she was there every day.
The Facts about World Hunger
Jim Peron is editor of Free Exchange, a monthly newsletter, and the owner of Aristotle’s Books in Auckland, New Zealand.
The headline in the New York Times screamed: “World Hunger Increasing, New U.N. Report Finds.” Coming as it did just two days before Thanksgiving, the irony couldn’t be lost on the average reader. The opening paragraph [...]
Antiglobalists Are Scarce in Poor Countries
Jim Peron is editor of Free Exchange, a monthly newsletter, and the owner of Aristotle’s Books in Auckland, New Zealand.
Whenever some international conference on world trade takes place, without fail the organized forces of antiglobalization appear outside the gates. They whine; they protest; they frequently riot and attack. If you ask them, they’ll tell you [...]
The Irrational Precautionary Principle
Jim Peron is editor of Free Exchange, a monthly newsletter, and the owner of Aristotle’s Books in Auckland, New Zealand.
Chlorine is a common chemical. It’s estimated to be used in the production of 80 percent of all pharmaceuticals. But like most chemicals it can cause problems depending on the dose, what it is mixed with, [...]
The Real Population Problem
Jim Peron is the executive director of the Institute for Liberal Studies (www.liberalvalues.org.nz) in Auckland, New Zealand, and the editor of The Liberal Tide: From Tyranny to Liberty.
According to one department of the United Nations, some 400 million people have vanished. This wasn’t a spate of alien abductions. Instead the UN’s Population Division (UNPD) lowered [...]
Bastiat, Socialism, and the Blank Slate
Jim Peron is the editor of Free Exchange, a monthly newsletter, and the owner of Aristotle’s Books in Auckland, New Zealand.
“It is evident,” the French economist and parliamentarian Frédéric Bastiat wrote a century and a half ago, “that the socialists set out in quest of an artificial social order only because they deemed the [...]
Where Have All the Marxists Gone?
From the early days of Marxism until its collapse, the Left pretended that socialist central planning would lead to greater productivity and advanced technological progress. No one seriously entertains that illusion any more. So how is it that so many Marxist ideas still hold such influence? Certainly the modern "Green" movement is filled with Marxists [...]
1Dec2002 | Jim Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy the Poor Need Property Rights
Early in the morning the streets below my flat would become a beehive of activity. Small stands were scattered everywhere, cramming every available inch of sidewalk. Small bundles of bananas, packets of tomatoes, or potatoes were for sale. Newspaper vendors grabbed the busy corners. Hawkers with every imaginable product had set up business.
[...]
How’s the Third World Doing?
The Third World is in trouble. Standards of living are plummeting, while the West is getting richer. Nearly everyone seems to believe it. The left wants to believe it as a justification for global socialism. Racists want to believe it because it "proves" the superiority of the white race. The media think it’s a good [...]
1Sep2002 | Jim Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Contradictions of Capitalism
We advocates of individual rights and free markets can’t win the intellectual debate with the ideological left. That’s because there is no intellectual debate with the left. There can’t be a debate since the opponents of capitalism are simply not open to rational discussion. They know that capitalism is inherently evil, and no argument, no [...]
1Aug2002 | Jim Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Mugging of an Environmental Skeptic
When I read Bjørn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist I felt a sense of déjà vu. As excellent as it is, what Lomborg has to say—that the world is not going to hell—has been said before. But it was ignored because it was said by a brilliant man, the late Julian Simon, who was considered politically [...]
1Jul2002 | Jim Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedWho Is a Liberal?
Liberals have it tough. I mean the real liberals. Not the modern watered-down socialists who call themselves liberals, but real, honest classical liberals. There is so much confusion over the term “liberal,” and real ones have allowed fake ones to get away with this subtle destruction of the language.
Recently I was reading two different books [...]
Scapegoating Gun Owners in South Africa
A small neighborhood grocery store had just opened for business. Without warning five armed men entered and started shooting randomly. Agostino De Andrade was hit by a bullet, but he managed to draw his gun and fire back. Store manager Nelson De Freitas drew his .45 pistol. He said: "Three men were shooting my boss. [...]
1Feb2002 | Jim Peron | 0 comments | Continued-
Latest Toon
-
Book Reviews
-
The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
