Archive for Melvin D. Barger
Why America Gets Fleeced
One of the occasional features on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw is “The Fleecing of America,” a series of segments exposing cases of waste and fraud that victimize individuals or the general public. Some of the examples are swindles or scams by private companies or individuals, and the obvious solution is to exercise more [...]
1Feb2002 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedHow Henry Ford Zapped a Licensing Monopoly
Melvin Barger is a retired corporate public relations representative and writer who lives in Toledo, Ohio. More books have been written about auto pioneer Henry Ford than any other person in the car business. Though he had critics, the judgment of history is that he put the world on wheels with his famous Model T. [...]
1Dec2001 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedFrom Leonard Read: A Legacy of Principles
Mr. Barger is a retired corporate public relations representative and writer who lives in Toledo, Ohio. The first time I ever read anything by Leonard Read—in the late 1950s—I thought he was arbitrary, opinionated, and reactionary. Within a few years, however, I was following his ideas with close attention and was also contributing to The [...]
1May1996 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Monopoly Mail: Privatizing The U.S. Postal Service by Douglas K. Adie
Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903 • 1989 * 197 pages * $34.95 cloth, $19.95 paper Once a venerated and honored government institution, the U.S. Postal Service is steadily losing public favor and support. With amazing speed, private competitors have outgunned it for market share in package and bulk mail, while the resourceful [...]
1Jul1989 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Tucker Car: Did the Big Guys Do It In?
Mr. Barger was a business writer associated with Libbey-Owens-Ford Company and one of its subsidiary firms for nearly 33 years. At first, I thought it was astonishing that Preston Tucker and his fabled car from the 1940s should suddenly reclaim the public’s attention, as a result of the new movie by Francis Ford Coppola.[1] Thinking [...]
1Jan1989 | Melvin D. Barger | 3 comments | ContinuedWho Should Support the Arts?
Mr. Barger was a business writer associated with Libbey-Owens-Ford Company and one of its subsidiary firms for nearly 33 years. He has also appeared in more than 30 amateur plays arid musicals since 1954 and had a small professional role in 1987. He is married to a commercial fashion artist, and their children have art- [...]
1Apr1988 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedYugoslavia: Trouble in the Halfway House
Mr. Barger, a retired public relations representative, is now a writer-consultant in Toledo, Ohio. What’s wrong in Yugoslavia? The news reports out of Belgrade speak of a troubled country with a stagnating economy, ruinous inflation, out- of-control foreign debt, rebellious workers, and a defiant citizenry. These problems would be ominous in any country, but they [...]
1Jan1988 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedFree-Market Mail Is on the Horizon
Mr. Barger was associated with Libbey-Owens-Ford Company and one of its subsidiary firms for nearly 33 years. He was a public relations representative at the time of his retirement and is now a writer-consultant in Toledo, Ohio. He has been a contributor to The Freeman since 1961. Writing in The Freeman in October 1962, I [...]
1Aug1987 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedSupermarket Myths
Mr. Barger was associated with Libbey-Owens-Ford Company and one of its subsidiary firms for nearly 33 years. He was a public relations representative at the time of his retirement and is now a writer-consultant in Toledo, Ohio. He has been a contributor to The Freeman since 1961. Growing up in Norfolk, Nebraska, in the 1930s, [...]
1Jan1987 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Managing by Harold Geneen with Alvin Moscow
(Doubleday & Company, Inc., 501 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530) 1984 297 pages • $17.95 cloth Few business leaders can ever hope to match the dazzling record established by Harold S. Geneen in his 17 years as chief executive officer of ITT. Although some of his corporate decisions were reversed by successors after he [...]
1Feb1985 | Melvin D. Barger | 4 comments | ContinuedWhat Killed Ma Bell?
Mr. Barger is a corporate public relations representative and writer in Toledo, Ohio. Ma Bell, the world’s biggest company and largest private telephone system, went to her Eternal Reward on January 1. Although she was reincarnated as a new, slimmed-down AT&T and seven regional holding companies, the successors to the old Bell System will be [...]
1Apr1984 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedFree Riders Face a Rocky Road
Mr. Barger is a corporate public relations representative and writer in Toledo, Ohio. “I hope you’re enjoying your day off,” a neighbor told me some years ago. “You wouldn’t have this holiday if it wasn’t for the union. Maybe you ought to thank them for the free ride you office people get while the factory [...]
1Apr1983 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedParent Power: Can It Help Public Education?
Mr. Barger is a corporate public relations executive and writer in Toledo, Ohio. The shortcomings of the public schools have become common news fare. The typical complaints are that the schools don’t teach, students’ test scores are falling, the schools are overrun with drugs and violence, and too much money is being wasted on administration [...]
1Apr1980 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedCrime: The Unsolved Problem
Mr. Barger is a corporate public relations executive and writer in Toledo, Ohio. What causes crime? Why do some individuals possess tendencies which lead them to commit acts of violence and predation: robberies, assaults, rape, and other felonies? What sets the habitual or occasional criminal apart from the mainstream of society? More important, what can [...]
1Feb1980 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedDishonest About Inflation
If we are cheating and being cheated by inflation, the cure lies in our resolution to return to “honest” money.
1Dec1979 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedA New Look at the Invisible Hand
Peaceful actions will lead to desirable ends, violent actions to chaos and disorder.
1Jul1979 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | ContinuedFreedom to Choose
The nature of bureaucratic despotism, and how to displace it.
1Feb1977 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | Continued-
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