In the video "How Capitalism Makes You Less Free," self-described Marxist Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom, boldly asserts that all societies must have some kind of economic planning. That's...
Libertarianism
What Is Easy and What Is Not Easy
by Sheldon Richman | May 15, 2024 | Blog, Economics, Justice, Libertarianism
It is easy to oppose Israel's massacre in the Gaza Strip. Just watch a few horrifying videos. What is not easy is understanding the price system, its prerequisites -- private property and free exchange -- and its benefits for mankind, including civil peace.
TGIF: What Is Self-Determination?
by Sheldon Richman | May 10, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
People go on quite a bit about self-determination these days. Some decry the denial of self-determination to "the Palestinians." Others insist that only "the Jewish people" can have the right to self-determination between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea....
TGIF: Spooner versus bin Laden
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 26, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
In his 2002 letter to America justifying the savage 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (himself killed in 2011) wrote after listing his grievances against the U.S. government: You may then dispute that all the above does not justify aggression against...
TGIF: Thomas Szasz – Unappreciated Libertarian
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 19, 2024 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I maintain that mental illness is a metaphorical disease: that bodily illness stands in the same relation to mental illness as a defective television set stands to a bad television program. There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography. --Thomas...
A Free Market Embraces Human Nature
by Owen Ashworth | Apr 3, 2024 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
Much like the debate around being a glass half full or half empty person, there is split opinion over whether human nature is generally good or bad. Young people are more likely to view human nature as self-serving, unsympathetic, and narrow minded than older...
In Defense of Inaction
by Brad Pearce | Mar 27, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Libertarianism
On March 17, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by a woman named Mary Anastasia O’Grady titled, “Giving up on Haiti Isn’t a U.S. Option.” She argues, in short, that Americans don’t have a choice but to continue doing all the things that have failed in the past...
Washington, We Have a Problem
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 22, 2024 | Blog, Economics, Libertarianism, Politics
Centralized power has a problem: the individual. Every person is a potential disrupter of The Plan, and disruption must be forbidden. Otherwise, why have a central plan? This applies regardless of whether the planning is economy-wide or for particular sectors, such as...