All Posts Tagged With: "security"
Big Government–Big Risk
In his Freeman column last June, “The End Run to Freedom,” economist Russell Roberts makes the following argument: As people get wealthier, they demand more security. Their demand for security leads many people to favor the welfare state or the nanny state. The welfare state refers to a government that subsidizes people who bear losses; [...]
1Jan2007 | David R. Henderson | 11 comments | ContinuedThe End Run to Freedom
What does the future hold for economic life in the United States? Will we move toward greater freedom or less? What role will ideas and rhetoric play, if any, in making sure that the direction is one that lovers of freedom prefer?
1Jun2006 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedUndoing the Fourth Amendment
Carlos Gonzalez, 21, of Weston, Florida, stands
spread-eagled while an officer pats him down.
When the officer bends to frisk his legs, Carlos
lowers his arms without asking permission. The officer
snarls, “Hey,were not even close to being finished.What
are you trying to hide?” While a crowd watches, Carlos
is ordered to disrobe. He hands over his shoes and belt
and empties his pockets as the search continues in mortifying
detail.
The Economic Foundation of Freedom
The late Howard Buffett was a U.S. representative from Nebraska (1943–1949 and 1951–1953). This article, condensed from a lecture at Midland College in Fremont, Nebraska, is reprinted from The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, December 1956. For more information on Buffett see Joseph R. Stromberg, “Howard Homan Buffett: Old Rightist Extraordinaire” at www.antiwar.com/stromberg/s042401.html. A clear understanding [...]
1Sep2003 | Howard Buffett | 1 comment | ContinuedPostconstitutional America?
It’s a cliché that in time of war we must shift the balance between liberty and security, sacrificing some freedom to protect our society from assault. Funny how we blithely forget other fond adages when they become unfashionable, such as Benjamin Franklin’s famous warning about trading freedom for security. It is more important than ever [...]
1Feb2003 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedSome Questions
I’m writing these words in the early-morning serenity of my home, two weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks. All appears peaceful, fine, and as it was before September 11. My son, Thomas, is upstairs sleeping the sweet sleep of a child too young to comprehend what is happening. The world that he understands is [...]
1Jan2002 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedOn Reading History
Economics is the discipline that I loved first and that I continue to love above all. The economic way of thinking—as the late Paul Heyne called it—is a potent solvent for cutting through the nonsense and irrelevancies that typically loom large in policy discussions. No one lacking a solid grasp of economic principles can understand [...]
1Aug2001 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedReflections on Self-Responsibility and Libertarianism
Nathaniel Branden is the author of 20 books, including The Art of Living Consciously, Taking Responsibility, and most recently, My Years with Ayn Rand. His Web site is www.nathanielbranden.net. The traditional American values of individualism, self-reliance, self-discipline, and hard work had their roots, in part, in the fact that this country began as a frontier [...]
1Apr2001 | Nathaniel Branden | 3 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 | ContinuedUnconventional Wisdoms: The Best of Warren Brookes edited by Thomas J. Bray
Pacific Research Institute • 1997 • 302 pages • $16.95 Philip Murray is associate professor of economics at Webber College in Babson Park, Florida. Warren Brookes was a nationally syndicated columnist who developed a reputation as a great opponent of statist nonsense and a great proponent of sound thinking in science, economics, and politics. In [...]
1Mar1998 | Philip R. Murray | 0 comments | ContinuedTwo Cases of Press Malpractice
Dr. Machan, this month’s guest editor, is a professor of philosophy at Auburn University, Alabama. His next book, A Primer on Ethics, will be published later this year by the University of Oklahoma Press. 1. The Wells Fargo Affair In late January, Wells Fargo Bank acquired First Interstate Bank of California in what the press [...]
1Sep1996 | Tibor R. Machan | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Welfare State: Promising Protection in an Age of Anxiety
Anxiety, according to The Random House Dictionary, denotes “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by apprehension of danger or misfortune.” By this definition, the twentieth century qualifies as an age of anxiety for Americans. There is irony in this condition, because in many respects we twentieth-century Americans have enjoyed much more security than our forebears. [...]
1May1996 | Robert Higgs | 1 comment | ContinuedLosing Freedom Costs a Lot
Mr. Semmens is an economist with Laissez-Faire Institute in Chandler, Arizona. Over the last fifty years, the federal government in the United States has taken on behemoth proportions. Six new cabinet departments have been created (Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs). Twenty new “independent establishments and government [...]
1May1996 | John Semmens | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomic Ends and Means
“It is common to see good intentions, if they are carried out without moderation, push man into very vicious results.” —Montaigne In the current debate over federal farm policy, those who express concern at the government’s mountainous holdings of surplus agricultural products are accused of lacking sympathy with the plight of the farmer. When the [...]
1Jul1956 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedSecurity May Betray Us
Mr. Rutledge is the noted author, and owner of Hampton Plantation, McClellanville, South Carolina. I live on a great river, and westward from my place, for some 60 miles, there is not a human habitation. Not far from where I live is a plantation, the owner of which is not satisfied with the size of [...]
1Nov1955 | Archibald Rutledge | 0 comments | Continued-
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