Capital Letters
Capital Letters
Mistreating the Constitution? If recent items in The Freeman are any indication, its writers take a rather dim view of the Constitution and the Framers thereof. While I couldn’t agree more regarding the people who wrote our federal compact (with a few exceptions), I must take issue with how the magazine treats the Constitution itself. [...]
1Oct2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Are Corporations Islands of “Calculational Chaos”? According to Kevin Carson (“Hierarchy or the Market,” The Freeman, April 2008), a private business corporation is in effect “an island of calculational chaos in the market economy.” . . . Carson writes, “Those at the top make decisions concerning a production process about which they likely know as [...]
1Sep2008 | FEE Admin | 2 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
David Hume and Reason In the very title of his article in The Freeman of October 2007, Frank van Dun asks, “Can We Be Free If Reason Is the Slave of the Passions?” His article is uncommonly long and gauzy for a Freeman piece; and his citations to David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature are [...]
1Jan2008 | Frank van Dun | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Were Missionaries Like Psychiatrists? To the Editor: People have misunderstood and maligned Christians for two millennia, but goodness, must Dr. Szasz compare us to coercive quacks? He writes in The Freeman’s July/August 2007 issue: “Consider this parallel between psychiatry and missionary Christianity. The heathen savage does not suffer from lack of insight into the divinity [...]
1Nov2007 | Thomas Szasz | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Epstein v. Rogers In “Popular Insurrection on Property Rights” (November 2005), Richard Epstein references Will Rogers as saying that he “never found a government spending program he did not like.” Is this the same Will Rogers whom I’ve always attributed with quotes such as “Thank God we don’t get all the government we pay for.” [...]
1Apr2006 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Should the French Boycott Be Boycotted? To the Editor: I am enjoying my first issue of your publication and glad to be a new FEE supporter. I confess to having stumbled at the threshold, however; I’m dubious, that is, about [Sheldon Richman's case for] boycotting the boycott (July/August). The state/people distinction is sometimes useful in [...]
1Oct2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Poor Definitions of “Deflation” and “Inflation” To the Editor: Contrary to Stephen Davies’s March column, “The History of ‘Deflation,’” traditionally and historically, “inflation” referred to a “large” increase in the quantity of money, “deflation” to a “large” decrease. These definitions were not scientifically precise, for what is “large” was always debatable. Moreover, the quantity of [...]
1Jun2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Bike Helmets, Children, and Libertarian Philosophy To the Editor: In response to Ted Roberts’s article criticizing the admonishing of children to use bicycle helmets (“Take Your Bike Helmet to the Safety Museum,” February), I’d like to offer a couple of unscientific, anecdotal items from my own experience. One is from a few decades ago, when [...]
1May2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Free Martha? To the Editor: I was surprised to read January’s “Perspective” on Martha Stewart. If she lied when she said “she had a standing order to sell the stock if the price went below $60.00,” and that statement was made in the context of a criminal investigation, she could be guilty of obstruction of [...]
1Apr2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
What Is “Mental Illness”? To the Editor: [The March column opposing insurance parity for psychiatric treatment by] Thomas Szasz . . . shocked and disappointed me. . . . Any close relative (myself included) of a person who was formerly seriously mentally ill—with all the unwanted auditory and visual cacophony—and was returned to normal rational [...]
1Jul2002 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
To the Editor: Professor Donald J. Boudreaux’s views against government-financed adjustment assistance to workers harmed by free trade (“Compensate Workers Harmed by Trade?” November 2001) seem well-taken-except for one thing. The influence of freer trade on competition between domestic and imported products isn’t a natural phenomenon like a climate change. Rather, it’s a market transformation [...]
1Mar2002 | mnolan | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Illusion of Collective Relevance? To the Editor: I read with interest Christopher Mayer’s article “Illusion of Control” (September 2001), in which he attempted to criticize the notion of economic forecasting. While few would dispute the claim that complex forecasts are not simple, Mayer used seemingly irrelevant statistics to make his case, and in doing so [...]
1Jan2002 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Two Libertarianisms To the Editor: Jim Peron, in “Are There Two Libertarianisms?” (June 2001), sees moralism and consequentialism as two sides of a coin. He writes, “A free society is not only right but it works.” Surely there is mutual support between them. Nonetheless, there is a fundamental divide as to primacy. Moralism aims at [...]
1Oct2001 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Does the Electoral College Really Help Small States? To the Editor: While I do not favor eliminating the Electoral College per se, Lawrence Reed (“Ideas and Consequences,” March 2001) is incorrect in a major point—and it defines the need to modify the rules by which the College operates. Mr. Reed states, “[T]he fact that a [...]
1Jun2001 | FEE Admin | 1 comment | ContinuedChosen Words Have Meaning
To the Editor: I have enjoyed and appreciated Wendy McElroy’s articles in the Ideas on Liberty for quite some time, but I must take issue with her fundamental premise in “Constitutional Intentions” (June 2000). Let me quote the first paragraph in order to refer more clearly to it: “A question frequently arises in disputes about [...]
1Sep2000 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
To the Editor: In response to Charles Baird’s article “Sources of Pro-Union Sentimentality” (Ideas on Liberty, March), I would like to respond with a few points overlooked. Although I agree with most of the points brought up by Professor Baird, I think unions do play a legitimate role in the marketplace for several reasons. First, [...]
1Jun2000 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedStates’ Rights and Freedom
To the Editor: Gene Healy represents a disturbing trend among some libertarians to nostalgically recall the good old days when states were bastions of freedom. Those days never existed; and as James Madison depicts them in Federalist No. 10, even at the founding they were such bastions of tyranny that a stronger national government was [...]
1Feb2000 | FEE Admin | 3 comments | Continued-
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