All Posts Tagged With: "government force"

Savoring “Three Cups of Tea”: An Essay on the Future of Politics

How can we make the world a better place? Truly this has been the $64,000 question of the modern age, and politicians and ideologists have bloodied the twentieth century clamoring against each other to offer the world their answer. Yet strangely, these disputing politicians and ideologists have all shared a basic premise. They have assumed [...]

1Apr2008 | James L. Payne | 28 comments | Continued

Most Important

The most important people are the farmers, so it is said, for they feed the nation. Laborers, however, are just about as important because they do the real work. On the other hand, were it not for the doctors and for medical science, our life expectancy would be shorter, with less opportunity to enjoy all [...]

1Aug2006 | Victor Jacobson | 1 comment | Continued

Unjust Compensation

When discussing eminent-domain horror stories with government officials and other defenders of the practice, one will often hear a refrain of this sort: “None of this is any big deal, really, because the victims of eminent domain must be made financially whole, under the law.” But, just as the Constitution’s clear requirement that government only [...]

1Mar2005 | Steven Greenhut | 1 comment | Continued

Tethered Citizens

The welfare state exists to transfer resources from those who produced them to those who did not. There can be countless motives for effecting a transfer: to equalize incomes; to feed and house the poor; to eradicate drug use; to promote exports; to inhibit imports; to subsidize business and agriculture; to certify the safety of [...]

1Dec2001 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Capital Letters

Is the State Needed for Defensive Force? To the Editor: Donald Boudreaux, in “The ‘A’ Word” (July 2001), says “it’s possible that even the best feasible stateless society will be worse than a society with a well-structured government constitutionally limited to protecting its citizens from violence and theft. But let the case be made.” I [...]

1Nov2001 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | Continued

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Karol and I named our son Thomas Macaulay Boudreaux in honor of some truly inspiring classical liberals. Two of these are our dear friends Hugh and Pinky Macaulay. Hugh taught economics at Clemson University from the late 1940s until 1983 and was instrumental in shaping that school’s economics department into one of the finest in [...]

1Oct2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 3 comments | Continued

Silly Talking

Let’s talk about absolutely ridiculous pronouncements people make that either ignore simple fact or border on insanity. How about this one: Violence is no way to settle anything! Evidence suggests that violence is a very effective way of settling things. Let’s look at a few examples.

1Jul2000 | Walter E. Williams | 1 comment | Continued

The Selfishness of the Unselfish

Several years ago, I encountered a woman at a cocktail party in Atlanta who was active in that city’s historical-preservation movement. To make conversation, I asked why she thought that stricter historical-preservation regulations were required. “Because greedy developers tear down too many old and beautiful homes or renovate them in ways that destroy their historical [...]

1May2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | Continued

The Essence of Americanism

Leonard E. Read established FEE in 1946 and served as its president until his death in 1983. “The Essence of Americanism,” first delivered as a speech in 1961, was Mr. Read’s traditional opening address at dozens of FEE seminars. Someone once said: It isn’t that Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it has been [...]

1Sep1998 | Leonard E. Read | 4 comments | Continued

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