All Posts Tagged With: "occupational licensing"
A Libertarian Program for Urban Renewal
In the spirit of providing politically feasible “libertarian policies,” I want to offer a set of proposals to improve one area of American society that desperately needs it: the inner city.
29Sep2011 | Steven Horwitz | 14 comments | ContinuedThe Cancer of Regulation
Politicians care about poor people. I know because they always say that. But then why do they make it so hard for the poor to escape poverty? Licensing, for example, prices poor people out of business. Take taxis: in New York City, you have to buy a license, or “medallion.” New York restricts the number [...]
24Aug2011 | John Stossel | 3 comments | ContinuedA Tale of Two Situations
It would be wonderful to live in a world where selling a chicken and remodeling a shed weren’t rife with official allegations or burdened with state prohibitions.
4May2011 | Paul Schwennesen | 11 comments | ContinuedA Libertarian Antipoverty Agenda
Too many poor Americans are stuck in poverty because of the structural barriers government puts in their way.
24Feb2011 | Steven Horwitz | 32 comments | ContinuedEntrepreneurs Under Attack
Every day, federal, state, and local governments stifle small businesses to privilege well-connected incumbent companies. It’s a system of protectionism for influential insiders who don’t want competition. Every locality has its share of business moguls who are cozy with politicians. Together, they use the power of government to keep competition down and prices high. The [...]
24Nov2010 | John Stossel | 10 comments | ContinuedLeviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty
Does government have too much power? Certainly—just think of all the freedom Americans have lost on account of the income tax, Social Security, Department of Labor regulations, the threat of antitrust prosecution, and so on. Note that in my short list of examples, each one is due to action by the federal government. In Leviathan, [...]
12Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Right to Earn a Living Under Attack
In Louisiana it is illegal to sell and arrange flowers without permission from the government. Aspiring florists must pass a subjective licensing exam that is graded by existing florists, who have a direct incentive to keep new competitors from entering the market. Thus the failure rate is higher than that of the Louisiana bar, which [...]
1Dec2008 | Bob Ewing | 6 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – September 2007
- The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements
by Lynne Viola Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- In our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
by Charles Murray Reviewed by Michael Tanner
- Actual Ethics
by James R. Otteson Reviewed by Tibor Machan
- Black Americans and Organized Labor: A New History
by Paul Moreno Reviewed by George C. Leef
1Sep2007 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued
Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?
By Morris M. Kleiner Reviewed by George C. Leef
1Jul2007 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedAt the Intersection of the Minimum Wage and Illegal Immigration
Howard Baetjer is a lecturer in economics at Towson University. This question from a former student named Blake addresses the interaction of two hot political issues: “I remember in class that raising minimum wage is a bad thing to do. My question to you is, since illegal immigrants don’t get paid minimum wage most of [...]
1Mar2007 | Howard Baetjer Jr. | 6 comments | ContinuedThe Government Licensing Scam
Last May a man named Mike Fisher, from the town of Newmarket, New Hampshire, performed an act for which he will pay dearly under penalty of law. He engaged in a consensual commercial transaction with another willing individual. He performed a manicure. Mike Fisher, outlaw, enemy of the realm, planted himself outside the state Board [...]
1Apr2006 | P. Gardner Goldsmith | 2 comments | ContinuedPharmacists and Freedom
According to the newspapers, pharmacists throughout the United States are refusing to fill prescriptions for the “morning-after” pill and other contraceptives because of religious objections. This has caused some concern and has prompted at least one governor to intervene. Last spring Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich issued an emergency order requiring pharmacies to honor all prescriptions. [...]
1Jul2005 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedOnly One Place of Redress: African Americans, Labor Regulations, and the Courts from Reconstruction to the New Deal
Most black people believe that history demonstrates the necessity of labor-market regulations on their behalf. The message of this book is that the one place of redress blacks (and other minorities) had against discriminatory state and federal economic regulations was the court system guided by the principles of what came to be called, and later [...]
1Sep2002 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedProperty and Liberty
Property is “the guardian of all other rights,” as Arthur Lee of Virginia wrote in 1775.[1] The Supreme Court declared in 1897: “In a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.”[2] Unfortunately, legislators, judges, and political philosophers in the twentieth century [...]
1Sep2000 | James Bovard | 5 comments | ContinuedLa Lucha: The Human Cost of Economic Repression in Cuba
Patricia Linderman is a writer and translator currently living in Leipzig, Germany. As I opened the gate of the high security fence around my yard in Havana, a black woman in her 30s glanced left and right and quickly wheeled her rusty Chinese bicycle inside. Her name was Marta, and she was wearing a pair [...]
1May2000 | Patricia Linderman | 4 comments | ContinuedPounds of Prevention, Ounces of Cure
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, an old adage tells us. Like most old adages, there is wisdom here. It is sensible to spend a bit of time and effort to prevent a more costly bad occurrence. If, for instance, you need to go up to your roof, you make sure [...]
1Aug1998 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedWhat’s So Bad about Big Government Anyway?
In a recent conversation I used the term “big government,” clearly in a pejorative way. Another person spoke up to challenge me, asking, “What’s so bad about big government?” He went on to name some benefits that he supposed were possible only with a powerful state. We debated whether it was true, for example, that [...]
1Dec1997 | George C. Leef | 17 comments | Continued-
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