Laurence Vance | The Libertarian Institute

Yes, Republicans Are the Party of Drug Warriors

by Laurence Vance | Mar 16, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, Politics

The federal government considers growing, distributing, buying, selling, possessing, or using marijuana to be a criminal offense, punishable by fines and imprisonment. Possession of marijuana will get you a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction. Yet there are fourteen states (plus the District of Columbia) where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. In the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the Court ruled that the federal government has the authority to prohibit marijuana possession and use for any and all purposes because...

Ice and Fire

by Laurence Vance | Feb 5, 2020 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics

The relationship between conservatism and libertarianism is a tenuous one. However, such was not always the case. Fellow travelers of both groups were united in opposing Roosevelt’s New Deal. The work of the late economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on the “Old Right” is indispensable here. After World War II, the political right was generally opposed, not only to “domestic statism,” but also to war, foreign intervention, and “American statism in the international arena.” But after the death of the political and intellectual leaders of the Old Right, the conservative movement — which...

Australia and New Zealand Show the True Nature of Social Security

by Laurence Vance | Jan 7, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles

Writing at the Christian Post in “Will Social Security Go Broke?” Christian financial advisor Chuck Bentley recently answered a question about Social Security from a “Worried Millennial”: I’m a recent college graduate with my first “real” job. With that comes paying into the Social Security System. My concern is whether or not there will be funds for me someday, especially in light of the recent deficit report. Bentley correctly observes that “many fear that the money to fund America’s Social Security program will run out and a large portion of our population will be negatively affected.”...

Monsters and U.S. Foreign Policy

by Laurence Vance | Nov 27, 2019 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Libertarianism

It looks like the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity will be having some competition. The formation of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft was recently announced. The think tank gets its name from John Quincy Adams. According to the organization’s website, The Quincy Institute promotes ideas that move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace. The foreign policy of the United States has become detached from any defensible conception of U.S. interests and from a decent respect for the rights and dignity...

Oklahoma Frees Some of Its Political Prisoners

by Laurence Vance | Nov 15, 2019 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism

Communist and other authoritarian and totalitarian governments around the world have always, throughout history and at this very time, arrested (or sometimes just simply seized) and jailed (or sometimes just killed) political dissidents and other nonconformists whom they considered to be “enemies of the state” whose only crime was disagreeing with some government law or policy. Those so horribly treated didn’t kill anyone, assault anyone, violate anyone’s natural or civil rights, destroy anyone’s property, steal anything from anybody, or rape anyone. They were incarcerated (and sometimes...

The Letter That CEOs Ought to Be Writing

by Laurence Vance | Oct 11, 2019 | Economics, Featured Articles

The mass shootings in August at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and at a bar in Dayton, Ohio, prompted the CEOs of more than a hundred large and small corporations to write a letter to the members of the U.S. Senate about “a public health crisis that demands urgent action” — gun violence. Says the letter in part, As leaders of some of America’s most respected companies and those with significant business interests in the United States, we are writing to you because we have a responsibility and obligation to stand up for the safety of our employees, customers and all Americans in the communities...

The Real Korean Question

by Laurence Vance | Jul 15, 2019 | Featured Articles, Politics

Last year in June, Donald Trump met with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, in Singapore. Said Trump, We’re very proud of what took place today. I think our whole relationship with North Korea and the Korean Peninsula is going to be a very much different situation than it has been in the past. We both want to do something. We both are going to do something. And we have developed a very special bond. So people are going to be impressed. People will be very happy and we’re going to take care of a very big and very dangerous problem for the world. I want to thank Chairman Kim. Earlier this...

What Robert Reich Failed to Say about Marijuana Legalization

by Laurence Vance | Jun 20, 2019 | Featured Articles, Politics

Professor, economist, author, and political commentator Robert Reich is best known for being President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997. Before that he held positions in the administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was a professor at Harvard. After leaving the Labor Department he taught at Brandeis University, ran for governor of Massachusetts (he lost), and was a member of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. Since 2006, he has been the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University...