The Perils of Positive Rights

Tibor Machan is a professor at the Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University. One of the most powerful ideas opposed to the free society is a notion political philosophers call “positive rights.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? What could be wrong with being positive? Sounds like something out of Anthony Robbins or Norman Vincent [...]

Let’s Not Promote Dependency

Daniel Oliver (www.smart.net/~doliver/) is a Washington, D.C.-based editor and writer and a research associate at the Capital Research Center (www.capitalresearch.org). Despite the good news that national welfare rolls have declined nearly 40 percent over the last five years and that recent federal and state reforms appear to be at least partly responsible for this decline, [...]

Government and Disaster Relief

The North Dakota flood this past spring was a heartbreaker. The scenes of devastation gripped the nation and brought tears to the eyes of millions.

Back here in Michigan, my historian friend Burt Folsom used the occasion to acquaint me with an event about which I knew nothing: the terrible Michigan fire of 1881. Folsom noted a couple of differences between these two natural disasters, and gave me an earful of information that readers of this column may find interesting.

The Virtues of Competition

Competition is a universal and extremely powerful force. Long before we began to record history, man was competing for food, mates, and territory. Later, we found ourselves competing for jobs, resources, customers, victories in athletic contests, and awards in many different fields of human endeavor. Competition in one form or another is inevitable as long [...]

Victor Hugo: Liberty and Justice For All

Literary lion Victor Hugo inspired an outpouring of generous sympathy for wretched people oppressed by government. He chronicled the evils of police power. He spoke out against capital punishment. He denounced taxes and tyrants. He opposed war. He expressed confidence in the ability of free people to achieve unlimited progress.

Individual Responsibility and Economic Well-Being

Dr. Cleveland is an associate professor of finance at Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama. Mr. Stephenson is a student there. Despite being motivated by apparent concern for the poor, government efforts to redistribute income have failed. Decades of U.S. welfare programs have failed to rescue both the urban and the rural poor. The only way to [...]