Ideas and Consequences
The Times that Tried Men’s Economic Souls
Two hundred and thirty years ago this month in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the brutal and storied winter of 1777–78 came to a long-awaited close. Nearly a quarter of George Washington’s Continental Army troops encamped there had died—victims of hunger, exposure, and disease. Almost every American knows that much, but few can tell you why Congress [...]
1Mar2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedProphets of Property
In 1800, fewer than 1 million people lived in London; a century later, well over 6 million. As the 20th century dawned, London had already been the most populous city on the planet for seven decades. Britain’s population as a whole soared from 8 million in 1800 to 40 million in 1900. In the previous [...]
1Jul2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Love of Power vs. the Power of Love
Lawrence Reed is president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market research and educational organization in Midland, Michigan.
“We look forward to the time when the power of love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”
So declared British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone more than a [...]
A Tribute to a Polish Hero
One year ago the world lost a gifted science fiction writer and critic of totalitarianism when Poland’s Stanislaw Lem died in March 2006. Lem was best known internationally as author of the classic Solaris—twice adapted for the silver screen—but the majority of his fiction featured damning allegories against the suppression of the human spirit. Bruce [...]
1Mar2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedTwo Who Made a Difference
In 20 years of traveling to 67 countries I’ve come across some pretty nasty governments and some darn good people. To be fair I should acknowledge that I’ve also encountered some rotten people and a half-decent government or two. The ghastliest of all worlds is when you have rotten people running nasty governments, a combination [...]
1Dec2006 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedGovernment Putts
Mark Twain once said that the game of golf was nothing more than “a good walk spoiled.” But to avid golfers, such impertinence obscures a cardinal truth: The sport is infinitely complex and not for everybody.
Golf requires patience, concentration, and forbearance. Distractions must be ignored or compensated for by careful planning. A serious player must [...]
Free-Market Moments on the Silver Screen
If you believe in capitalism, going to the movies is all too often a painful exercise. Even those you expect to be apolitical turn up gratuitous dialogue that peddles Hollywood’s pervasive but infantile anti-market sentiments. Apparently there’s a lot of money to be made criticizing the very marketplace that enables even its most superficial critics [...]
1May2006 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Golden Calf of Democracy
“Democracy,” H. L. Mencken once said, “is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” He also famously defined an election as “an advance auction sale of stolen goods.”
Mencken was not opposed to democracy. He simply possessed a more sobering view of its limitations than [...]
A Museum You Don’t Want to Miss
More than 150 years ago Karl Marx predicted that communism was inevitable. History, he claimed, was marching inexorably toward a communist paradise. In hindsight it would appear that if anything about communism was inevitable, it was that it would sooner or later be relegated to the status of museum relic. In the capital city of a formerly communist country in eastern Europe, that’s exactly what has happened.
1Mar2004 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedLabor Freedom Makes Sense
If compulsory unionism were put to a moral test, it would flunk without debate. Forcing a worker to join and pay dues to an organization he doesn’t want to represent him is a manifest violation of that worker’s free will and right of contract. It so happens that it also fails the economic test, as two recent studies strongly demonstrate.
1Feb2003 | Lawrence Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedA Leonard Read for Africa?
A candle has been lit in east Africa. It shows promise of spreading much light where there is now much darkness. In time it may grow to illuminate an entire continent. Its appearance is a testimony to perseverance and the power of ideas, as well as a tribute to this very publication. The candle is [...]
1May2002 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Cry for Freedom Is the Scream of Nature
However frustrating the search for freedom, it must go on.
1Nov1973 | Thomas F. O'Connell | 0 comments | Continued-
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Book Reviews
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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
