Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute

TGIF: The Glorious Bourgeois Peace Movement

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 3, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Those of us whose pro-peace/antiwar principles are of the bourgeois classical-liberal variety need reminding now and again that we have a glorious tradition going back hundreds of years. We need not get lost in the dominant rhetoric that opposes war, empire, and its deadly accouterments from a flawed anti-individualist, anti-Western, and socialist position. No, we can draw on a proud history of writers and activists who opposed war and intervention not just for the obvious reason -- harm to others -- but also because peace and nonintervention are required for reaping the full benefits of...

TGIF: Don’t Police the World

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 27, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

"We" -- to be precise, U.S. policymakers and their quasi-private-sector, tax-nourished enablers-beneficiaries-- must not police the world, become directly involved in wars, covertly assist belligerents, or act as arms merchants and bankers. The central government can't be a benign policeman, even if its intentions were as stated (which they may be): international rules-based order and economic stability. But it can wreak havoc by trying. We know this because it already has. Pick your start date, but the last 30 years present evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of what U.S.-sponsored "order"...

TGIF: Extend Tolerance to Commerce

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 20, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Perhaps you've noticed that we live in intolerant times. Many people claim to be endangered by the mere spoken or written expression of views on a range of issues. This has led to direct action to disrupt speakers on college campuses and elsewhere and to indirect government efforts to censor users of social media, which so far the courts have frowned on. Believe it or not, this has had a silver lining. It's elicited articulate renewed defenses of free speech and tolerance -- long taken for granted. But the tolerance movement should go further to include what the late philosopher Harvard...

TGIF: Why Is Government Stuff Called “Public”?

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 13, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Government facilities and services -- which are actually disservices overall -- are called "public" while services that are efficiently responsive to the public are dubbed "private." Why is that? That way of framing the distinction could be intended to subtly denigrate the marketplace, or "private sector," where profit "selfishly" motivates people who, in the process, improve strangers' lives every day. That sector's record is noticeably better than the "public sector's." So we're taught to believe that the government's motives are purer -- the unselfish pursuit of the "public interest" by...

TGIF: A Market for Law?

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 6, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. --Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1792 Sometimes an idea that at first sounds nuts isn't really nuts at all. Case in point: the market-anarchist principle that people should be free to buy the law and protection they want in the market. Even a subscriber to Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism might raise an eyebrow because Rothbard...

TGIF: Limited Government’s Bait and Switch

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 29, 2023 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

In a fundamental respect, libertarian minarchism (minimal, or limited, government) and market anarchism (or anarcho-capitalism) have something important in common: neither can guarantee individual rights. But there's a big difference: unlike market anarchism, minarchism appears to offer a guarantee, which allegedly makes it preferable to market anarchism. Actually, it's a false guarantee, a bait-and-switch. So it's not preferable to market anarchism, at least on those grounds. However, what market anarchism can do is show how everyday incentives will tend to protect liberty (and already do...

TGIF: Hurrah for Real Globalization!

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 22, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Globalization, like the free market and classical liberalism generally, isn't wildly popular these days, is it? People blame globalization for all sorts of bad things, and the raps are usually bum. In truth, to the extent that governments keep out so-called foreign people, goods, and money, they make nearly everyone poorer. Even the few immediate beneficiaries pay a price in the long run. So who speaks up for real globalization? I have to add the adjective real because counterfeit globalization has been circulating for a while. That's politically managed commerce where governments, most...

TGIF: Free Speech Affirmed — Pretty Much

by Sheldon Richman | Sep 15, 2023 | Featured Articles, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

[Updated Sept. 16] The preliminary injunction against federal censorship of social-media users has survived the Biden administration's appeal. However, it remains on hold until Sept. 22 while the Supreme Court considers the matter. The latest ruling, 78 pages long, by a panel of Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judges, affirmed the core of District Judge Terry Doughty's July 4 preliminary order, but the revised order has two big differences. The appellate judges exempted some defendants and narrowed Judge Doughty's list of prohibited actions to just one modified but broad prohibition. We'll...