Archive for Scott McPherson

The Private Road to Freedom

There is not a state in the union that does not struggle from year to year to build and maintain roads in something resembling an efficient, timely, or competent fashion. State legislatures and city governments raise only a chuckle from their constituents when suggesting that this time, this budget, they will get it right. In [...]

29Jun2010 | | 1 comment | Continued

Green for Profit

Have you ever heard the expression “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? What about one man’s trash being another man’s golf course? That notion is actually becoming a reality, and it proves once again the value of private initiative and the wisdom of entrepreneurialism over government control. In the sunny suburban landscape of Sandy [...]

1Oct2003 | | 0 comments | Continued

Telemarketing and Individual Rights

Do Americans have a right not to be called on the telephone? According to new rules laid down by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), they do. And as in all cases where the government manufactures “rights” seemingly out of thin air, this latest plan to forcefully interject itself into the middle of people’s relationships is [...]

17Apr2003 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Tax Code: Now That’s Outrageous!

If you’ve ever had the sinking suspicion that many in the mainstream media just don’t get it, then the September 2002 issue of Reader’s Digest was just for you. In its pages, conservative columnist Tucker Carlson penned his mighty attack on American business under the title “Artful Dodgers,” in the “That’s Outrageous!” department of the [...]

1Dec2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

Private Planes: Freedom, Security, and Responsibility

He says it takes a private plane But you could never get back to your feet again Unless you break the ball and chain He says "Now, it’s a private plane." -"Private Plane," Hüsker Dü, ’80s punk rock band In the months since September 11 the American government has been searching for the ever-elusive magic [...]

1Nov2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

Socialism in Retreat

Free-market economists have argued for decades that interventionist government policies inadvertently lead to negative long-term consequences that far outweigh the perceived benefits. This has resulted, of course, in cries from the political left that advocates of capitalism care nothing about the indigent, needy, or otherwise downtrodden. So it is with bittersweet satisfaction that one sees [...]

1Oct2002 | | 3 comments | Continued

Government and Business Are the Same?

“Let us now praise slothful, inefficient, bloated government,” reads the opening of an April 30 Washington Post essay, “When the Blue Chips Are Down, in Gov We Trust.” “Let us now rejoice in the glory of your trillions of tax dollars at work.” Why are we rejoicing? Because staff writer Paul Farhi intends to show [...]

1Sep2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

Alaskan Courtesy

*Mary Pemberton, “Alaska Court: Mentally ill can keep concealed weapons,” Associated Press, January 11, 2002. All quotes are from this report. Alaska is most often thought of as simply a snow-covered tundra far to our north. Rarely do Americans find themselves looking to that Arctic wilderness for reason to celebrate a renewed sense of personal [...]

1Jun2002 | | 3 comments | Continued

Farm Frolics

Democrats love capitalism,” charged U.S. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas during last year’s debate over tax cuts, “but they hate capitalists.”1 It is fair to say that Gramm’s analysis is on target—if only he would admit the corresponding truth in his criticism: that Republicans love capitalists but hate capitalism—particularly when it comes to their farming [...]

1May2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

Protecting Precious Resources

“If our progress is to continue, it is important that we do not forget the things which have brought us thus far.” -HENRY GRADY WEAVER, The Mainspring of Human Progress Ever since President George W. Bush proposed opening up parts of the federally owned Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for drilling, the debate has raged [...]

1Mar2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

Subsidizing Failure Again . . . And Again, and Again, and Again

Scott McPherson is a freelance writer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks the airline industry stepped up to the public trough to the tune of a $15 billion bailout—because of a radical drop in demand. Then Amtrak stepped up to the public trough—$3.2 billion in emergency financing and $35 billion in loan [...]

1Feb2002 | | 2 comments | Continued

Tall Grass, Parked Cars, and Other So-Called Offenses

Scott McPherson is a freelance writer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom.” —F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom Proponents of overactive government never challenge the principle that government exists to protect individual rights. Rather, they have simply expanded the definition of rights to include anything [...]

1Jan2002 | | 0 comments | Continued

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