All Posts Tagged With: "democracy"
Frustrating Michael Moore
Whether he realizes it or not, Michael Moore favors a system in which an elite necessarily would make critical decisions for the rest of us. He’d be incredulous to hear that, but if he ever comes to understand it, libertarians might end up with an unlikely ally.
16Oct2009 | Sheldon Richman | 3 comments | ContinuedWhy the Rush on Health Care?
Why is Obama so eager to have his healthcare “reform” voted on before members of Congress go home for their August recess? Because this advocate of “representative government,” like many others, is a big fraud. He wants the vote to occur before the members go home and get an earful from their “constituents” about how [...]
19Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 3 comments | ContinuedDo They Get to Change Their Vote?
The top U.S. trade official said it isn’t necessary to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite a campaign promise by President Barack Obama to strengthen the pact’s labor and environmental provisions. –Wall Street Journal I didn’t like Barack Obama’s protectionist appeals during the campaign, but shouldn’t those who did get to change their [...]
24Apr2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedWhere Will It Stop?
From today’s New York Times, regarding the impending auto bailout from the Bush administration: In addition to the emergency loan package, officials are working with the finance arms of G.M. and Chrysler to convert them into government-regulated financial institutions, a designation that could make them eligible for separate loans from the Federal Reserve. The administration [...]
18Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued
Fuzzy Thinking
George Orwell warned, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” That is the challenge—not allowing language and ill-defined terms to corrupt thought—that I face teaching economics to both graduate and undergraduate students. Terms that are widely used can have considerable emotional worth but little or no analytical value, ambiguous meaning, or unappreciated [...]
1Dec2008 | Walter E. Williams | 9 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2008
Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Intervention Edited by Robert Higgs and Carl P. Close Independent Institute • 2007 • 291 pages $15.95 papeerback Reviewed by Doug Bandow It doesn’t seem to matter how badly America’s foreign policy of global intervention has failed. The governing elite advocate more and more extensive intervention. Virtually every [...]
1Nov2008 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedA Property-Rights Theory of Mass Murder
Stephen Carson, a software engineer, writes independently from St. Louis. This article is condensed from “Killing and Stealing: A Property-Rights Theory of Mass Murder,” which first appeared in The Independent Review, Winter 2007, and was reprinted in Opposing the Crusader State: Alternatives to Global Interventionism, edited by Robert Higgs and Carl P. Close (The Independent [...]
1Sep2008 | Stephen W. Carson | 1 comment | ContinuedSad Democracy
During this presidential election year, it’s commonplace to sing paeans to the wonders of democracy. I, though, have never been able to join in this chorus. The principal reason is that I put no intrinsic value on democracy; what I value intrinsically is individual liberty. Democracy might have instrumental value if it is part of [...]
1Sep2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedFaculty Unions Versus Academic Legitimacy
The faculty at Montana State University in Bozeman will soon vote on whether to unionize. If a majority vote yes, the school will gradually descend into academic mediocrity or worse. The vast majority of unionized faculty in higher education are employed in government colleges and universities. This is because in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court, [...]
1Jun2008 | Charles W. Baird | 3 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – March 2008
- Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies
by Bryan Caplan Reviewed by Dwight Lee - The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World
1Mar2008 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued
A Democracy of Dunces
When pro-free-market critics of democracy explain why laissez faire is not a winning election issue, they usually say that voters have no incentive to research economic policy because one vote won’t sway the election and the expected payoff to any individual voter is infinitesimal. So, quite rationally, they vote on other bases. This “rational ignorance” [...]
1Nov2007 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedDemocracy or Republic?
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University. How often do we hear the claim that our nation is a democracy? Was a democratic form of government the vision of the Founders? As it turns out, the word democracy appears nowhere in the two most fundamental founding documents [...]
1Jun2007 | Walter E. Williams | 2 comments | ContinuedTolls on the Road to Serfdom
D.W. MacKenzie is an assistant professor of economics and finance at SUNY Plattsburgh. Many people think their taxes are too high and that the tax system is unfair. While those who favor individual liberty might find this encouraging, the specific reasons for discontent are not entirely positive. Many Americans think the current system is unfair [...]
1Apr2007 | D.W. MacKenzie | 0 comments | ContinuedCapitalism and Democracy
I recently heard a prominent American politician tell how a “chill” went up his spine when he heard someone question the importance of democracy. How could anyone doubt the value of democracy? he wondered. Fortunately, he said, he soon realized that by “democracy” his (European) interlocutor really meant “capitalism.” Whew, he thought, that’s all right, [...]
1Nov2006 | Arthur E. Foulkes | 1 comment | ContinuedPrinciples Must Come Before Politics
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. We live in a time of quick fixes and patent medicines. The “physicians” offering to spoon-feed the elixirs for what ails us are the politicians running for office. Rarely do people step back and ask themselves whether there is really any ailment at all, or whether the politicians’ [...]
1Oct2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedBook Reviews – September 2006
-
On Political
Equality
by Robert A. Dahl
Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling -
Collapse: How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond Reviewed
by Gene Callahan -
Economic Liberties
and the Constitution
by Bernard H. Siegan Reviewed by George C. Leef -
Kidney for Sale by
Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market
by Mark J. Cherry Reviewed by William L. Anderson
Democracy Versus Liberty
If a foreign power took over the United States and dictated that American citizens surrender 40 percent of their income, required them to submit to tens of thousands of different commands (many of which were effectively kept secret from them), prohibited many of them from using their land, and denied many the chance to find [...]
1Aug2006 | James Bovard | 3 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Government Beneficence and Other Fairy Tales
I admit I’m amused by the unceasing economic and political malarkey that flows from the pundits at... Read More
The Myths of the Interventionists
One of the most pernicious myths in the economic history of the twentieth century is the belief that... Read More
JPMorgan Chase and Casino Banking
JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the nation’s leading banks, revealed in May that a London trader racked... Read More
Individualism, Trade-Unions, and “Self-Governing Combinations”
Who do you imagine said this? “[Trade-unions] seem natural to the passing phase of social evolution,... Read More
Bubbles, Malinvestment, and Higher Education
Many commentators are asking whether the next big bubble to burst will be the debt associated with the... Read More
