Jacob Hornberger | The Libertarian Institute

Stealing Land to Build Trump’s Wall

by Jacob Hornberger | Jan 22, 2019 | Featured Articles, Politics

As I have repeatedly emphasized over the years, a system of immigration controls inevitably involves immigration enforcement measures. That is, when we talk about immigration controls, we are not simply referring to a sign at the border that says: “Do not enter without the official permission of the U.S. government.” No immigrant would pay any attention to such a sign. Thus, to enforce the immigration-control system, the federal government increasingly enacts immigration-enforcement measures, which inevitably involve a violation of the libertarian non-aggression principle. They stop people...

Trump’s Sanctions Meet His Trade War

by Jacob Hornberger | Dec 10, 2018 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

President Trump’s sanctions against Iran have just intersected with his trade war against China. The intersection comes in the form of the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Huawei Technologies, one of the most prominent companies in China. Meng was arrested by Canadian officials on the request of U.S. officials as she was changing planes in Vancouver. U.S. officials are now seeking Meng’s extradition to face criminal charges in the United States. The charges? Get this: They are alleging that she violated Trump’s sanctions against Iran. What? Meng isn’t a U.S. citizen. What does she...

We Are (Mostly) All Socialists Now

by Jacob Hornberger | Sep 24, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

There is a popular conception among some libertarians that the reason that we live under a massive welfare-warfare state is because government has a natural propensity to grow. The notion is a popular one among libertarians who promote anarchism, i.e., the total absence of government. The argument goes like this: The Constitution, which was supposed to keep government reined in, has proven to be a worthless document because government is a cancerous blob that inevitably grows of its own accord, rendering constitutional restraints meaningless. The cancerous blob argument, however, is...

Abolish the National Anthem

by Jacob Hornberger | Sep 10, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

It’s football season again, which means that the kneeling controversy is back. Two years ago, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick ignited a national controversy by kneeling during the singing of the national anthem before the start of a football game. He was protesting racial injustice in the United States, including the killing of African-Americans by white police officers. The controversy generated heated, emotional reactions on both sides. Some players sympathized with Kaepernick’s message and began following his lead by also kneeling during the national anthem. Many fans...

Legalize Drugs — All Drugs

by Jacob Hornberger | Aug 30, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

In 1972, Newsweek published what must have been considered by many readers to be a shocking commentary on the drug war by libertarian Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman. Entitled “Prohibition and Drugs,” Friedman’s article called for the legalization of drugs — all drugs. Friedman made two primary libertarian arguments in favor of drug legalization: freedom and practicality. He wrote, On ethical grounds, do we have the right to use the machinery of government to prevent an individual from becoming an alcoholic or a drug addict? For children, almost everyone would answer at least a...

Why No Outrage Over U.S. Killing of Children?

by Jacob Hornberger | Jul 8, 2018 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

National outrage over President Trump’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents as a way to deter illegal immigration into the United States has forced the president to abandon the policy. The outrage came from all sides of the political spectrum, especially from the left, and from the mainstream media. Trump’s policy is obviously cruel and brutal, given that it uses children as pawns to achieve a political end. No matter how much psychological damage is inflicted on children owing to the fear that comes with forced separation, the idea is that such emotional damage is...

Cuba Denuclearized in 1962. Why Continue the Embargo?

by Jacob Hornberger | Jun 26, 2018 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

In a time in which President Trump is saying that the U.S. government will lift economic sanctions against North Korea if it “denuclearizes,” why not lift the decades-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba? After all, Cuba “denuclearized” back in 1962. Why is the U.S. government still punishing the people of Cuba with its brutal economic embargo? In fact, the continued existence of the Cuban embargo might well cause North Korea to ask: If we really do denuclearize, how can we be assured that U.S. officials will really lift their sanctions on North Korea given the continuation of their brutal...

‘A Republic, If You Can Keep It’

by Jacob Hornberger | Feb 18, 2018 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution, wrote that of all the enemies to liberty, war is the greatest. What he meant by that is that governments inevitably use wars and other crises and emergencies to centralize and expand their powers over the citizenry. Thus, in the process of claiming to keep the citizenry safe from external threats, the government often becomes a grave threat to their freedom and well-being. The United States has been at war for more than 15 years, ever since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. But it’s actually much worse than that. If we...