TGIF: Envy, Ignorance, Barbarism Triumph in New York

TGIF: Envy, Ignorance, Barbarism Triumph in New York

by | Nov 7, 2025 | , , , , , ,

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's mayoral victory in New York City is a triumph of moral barbarism, economic illiteracy, illogic, and just plain envy. Mamdani's campaign had a double pitch: billionaires should not exist, and "the people" deserve free stuff. At first I thought his supporters did not understand the old free-market meme, TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Nature provides only raw materials, which are useless in their original state. Ingenuity turns them into resources. But then I realized that while Mamdani used the word free, he also said he would get...

read more
TGIF: Separating Powers

TGIF: Separating Powers

by | Oct 31, 2025 | , , ,

We may be sure that the "separation of powers" doctrine is of no interest to the vulgar egotist currently residing in the White House, which happens to be undergoing the most glorious renovation the world has ever known. Or so we hear. But it stands to reason that the doctrine is vital to personal liberty. No imagination is needed to understand what concentrated political power is likely to mean for the individual and society. The name most closely associated with the separation of powers is Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755), a judge, philosopher, and...

read more
TGIF: The Libertarian Apostle of Peace

TGIF: The Libertarian Apostle of Peace

by | Oct 24, 2025 | , , ,

With Donald Trump furiously, ineptly, and fraudulently campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, it may interest liberals—the classical variety, libertarians—to know that the first Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1901, was shared by one of their own. This was a man who espoused the same political-economic philosophy as his fellow Frenchman Frédéric Bastiat and Englishman Richard Cobden. Its pillars were freedom, unrestricted trade, and peace. That man was Frédéric Passy (1822-1912). Passy shared the prize with Henry Dunant, founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross and originator of...

read more
TGIF: The Absurdity of Democracy

TGIF: The Absurdity of Democracy

by | Oct 17, 2025 | , , , , ,

If the continuing incompetence of Congress over passing a budget and reopening the U.S. government doesn't show the absurdity of unlimited representative republicanism, what could do so? Whether or not to extend COVID-era special subsidies for medical insurance appears to be the main issue, but other issues are undoubtedly involved. If it isn't one thing, it's another. That's politics. The problem is that the government has its hands in everything. That means a constituency exists for each thing the government does. If you want to upset and mobilize a group of people, call for an end to some...

read more
TGIF: Hooked on the State

TGIF: Hooked on the State

by | Oct 10, 2025 | , , ,

Since the government partial shutdown began, we've been seeing panicked headlines about states being denied federal money for promised or already-started energy and infrastructure projects. Other sorts of subsidies are also in jeopardy. You'd think that not getting money from Washington was the worst thing that could happen. Oh my goodness, federalism might be breaking out! Unfortunately, we can be sure that no restoration is in the works. We are not about to return to the long-gone world in which the national government had few powers and the people of the 50 states grappled with...

read more
TGIF: Free Movement Increases Wealth

TGIF: Free Movement Increases Wealth

by | Oct 3, 2025 | , , ,

In a recent interview with Nathan Goodman of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Professor Michael Clemens, a GMU specialist in migration economics, put forth "a strange and striking fact about the world economy." A lower-skilled person's location in the world can make a significant difference in how much wealth he creates, not just for himself but for society in general. According to Clemens, few people appreciate that, say, a poor shoeshiner in Haiti could earn far more money doing the same work in a wealthy American city because his customers, who are rich by world and...

read more

The Great Enrichment Is Real

by | Sep 28, 2025 | , ,

From about 1800 to the present the world's economy did something good, which looks to be permanent and looks to be justified. If contrary to the evidence we cling to our prejudices about economic history—our view that the Industrial Revolution was improverishng, or that the Grteat Enrichment was an irremediable environmental disaster, or that Europe is rich only because of poverty in the Third World, or that the new rich are always getting relatively richer, or that after all any enrichment is vulgar—we will mistake how we got here and will give mistaken advice on how to move forward. We...

read more
TGIF: Trump Fibbed about Favoring Free Speech

TGIF: Trump Fibbed about Favoring Free Speech

by | Sep 26, 2025 | , , , ,

Trump fibbed when he signed his first executive order in January, the one that promised never to repeat the Biden-era barriers to free speech. Everyone knows this by now. FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) summed it up well, yet only scratched the surface: "We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president." The Maestro dislikes being criticized, and he regularly displays his willingness to use government power to get revenge. We see this with his string of lawsuits against newspapers and networks for being "unfair" and...

read more

Read My Books

Coming to Palestine

What Social Animals Owe to Each Other

Podcasts

scotthortonshow logosq

coi banner sq2@0.5x

liberty weekly thumbnail

Don't Tread on Anyone Logo

313x0w (1)

313x0w (1)

313x0w (1)

Pin It on Pinterest