President Biden has reversed himself under pressure from his progressive flank and has given the go-ahead for a new moratorium on renter evictions throughout most of the United States for individuals making up to $99,000 a year (couples, $198,000). The twist is that...
Sheldon Richman

TGIF: Why Wouldn’t Government Grow?
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 6, 2021 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
One of the least mysterious things in life is why the government grows. The better question is why it ever shrinks. People who devote lots of time to thinking about the importance of individual liberty know that government is inimical to human flourishing. So they...

TGIF: How Science Becomes Religion
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 30, 2021 | Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The popular slogan today is "Believe in science." It's often used as a weapon against people who reject not science in principle but rather one or another prominent scientific proposition, whether it be about the COVID-19 vaccine, climate change, nutrition (low-fat...

TGIF: Critical Race Theory and the Schools
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 23, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman
The government's K-12 schools--aka "public schools--are once again a battleground on which a bitter dispute is playing out. Wait!--once again? The government's schools have been a battleground since their inception in the 19th century. Since that's where the children...
TGIF: Who’s the Aggressor? Who’s the Victim?
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 16, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
When a libertarian says that the most basic individual right is the right not to be aggressed against, a clever interlocutor may accuse the libertarian of begging the question, of stuffing the rabbit into the hat. The trick, the critic will say, is in the word...
TGIF: Watch the Forest as Well as the Trees
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 9, 2021 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
It's always important not to miss the forest for the trees. U.S. government announcements, such as its report of the turnover to the Afghan government of the seventh and last military base in Afghanistan, Bagram, should lead no one to think that U.S. foreign policy...
TGIF: Defend the Enlightenment!
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 2, 2021 | Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The libertarian philosophy is embedded in Enlightenment liberalism. This is clearly seen in its commitment to free inquiry (reason) and free speech, the full realization of which, I argue, requires complete respect for individual rights, including property rights....
TGIF: Liberty as a Problem-Solving Process
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 25, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Strictly speaking, liberty isn't the solution to problems. It's what creates the framework in which solutions can be discovered. That is an important distinction because it reminds us that advocates of full-blown liberty do not offer the world a problem-free society...