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Sheldon Richman Articles

TGIF: What’s Wrong with the Welfare State

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 19, 2021

Let's start with what is not wrong with the welfare state. Much criticism of the welfare state focuses on how it encourages dependence not only on the government, but dependence on others per se. In some circles the wish for a social safety net is disparaged as a...

TGIF: U(nspeakably) S(adistic) Foreign Policy

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 12, 2021

If you had set out to construct a foreign policy designed to impose indescribable suffering on millions of innocent people around the world, you'd have a tough time coming up with anything more systematic and effective than U.S. foreign policy. An inventory of U.S....

TGIF: That Old Minimum-Wage Magic

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 5, 2021

You don't have to actually think that legislating and raising the minimum wage will help low-skilled workers earn more money. That's not the point. The point is to display your correct political religion. Today favoring stepping the minimum wage up to $15 an hour is...

Individual, Not National, Self-Determination Should Be the Goal

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 5, 2021

Jeff Halper, the American-born, Israel-based veteran human-rights activist is heroic. He has dedicated his life to working for justice for the Palestinian victims of Israeli settler colonialism, much of that as the director of the Israeli Committee Against House...

TGIF: What Now, Libertarians?

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 12, 2021

The prospects for individual liberty and the required rollback of the government seem as bleak as ever, but we can't let appearances, no matter how pervasive, be decisive. The spark within most people--the longing to chart one's course in life--never really dies....

TGIF: Imperial America, Which Never Left, Is Back

by Sheldon Richman | Feb 5, 2021

In a cliche-ridden foreign-policy speech delivered at the State Department on Thursday, President Joe Biden declared that "America is back"--on the global stage, presumably, as policeman of the world, but certainly not a disinterested policeman. The problem is that it...

TGIF: Is Socialism Good in Theory?

by Sheldon Richman | Oct 9, 2020

This is an expanded version of something I wrote for The Freeman, October 2003, during my tenure as the editor. Socialism has been mortally discredited on economic grounds, thanks to Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, and history. But for many people it has not been...

Unpleasant Times

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 31, 2020

If Ludwig von Mises were alive today he would be viewing our current predicament with alarm but not surprise. He lived through something similar about a century ago. In response to inexcusable police brutality, some outraged people who've taken to the streets have...

Regarding Seth Rogen: Some Feelings Ought to Be Hurt

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 3, 2020

When actor Seth Rogen, an atheist of Jewish heritage, announced that he no longer supports Israel -- "I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life" -- he was criticized for his apostasy. (Being an atheist does not constitute Jewish heresy, but breaking...

To Annex or Not to Annex — Is the Question Moot?

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 22, 2020

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains under a cloud of personal corruption, had more or less promised to annex some of the West Bank in July. He's let his deadline slip, we've been told, because he doesn't want to proceed while his buddy Trump is...

TGIF: Mises, Ryle, and Me

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 10, 2020

In 1949, the first year of Harry S. Truman's only elective presidential term, three things happened that were of huge importance ... at least to me. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) published Human Action. Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) published The Concept of Mind. And, oh...

TGIF: Replace Your Divots

by Sheldon Richman | May 22, 2020

I am not, nor have I ever been, a golfer. I did golf once, just before the turn of the century, and I disliked it. Nevertheless, I live by a cardinal principle in golfer etiquette: Replace your divots. A divot, of course, is a chunk of turf that is dislodged by a golf...

TGIF: Is Self-reliance a Libertarian Ideal?

by Sheldon Richman | Apr 17, 2020

An Associated Press article published a few days ago reported on disagreements among libertarians over what, if anything, the government may properly do about the coronavirus pandemic. My purpose here is not to comment on the quotes from the various libertarians. I...

TGIF: Libertarianism in Emergencies

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 27, 2020

Libertarians have always acknowledged that emergencies -- severe extraordinary conditions of limited duration -- can justify actions that would be unacceptable under normal circumstances. This doesn't mean that all the rights-based rules disappear, only that some...

TGIF: Despite Appearances, ‘Price Gouging’ Helps People in Distress

by Sheldon Richman | Mar 20, 2020

[This article originally appeared on the American Institute for Economic Research website on September 12, 2017.] Critics of the free economy often complain that the market fails to “behave” as economic theory predicts. Hence the voluminous literature on “market...

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Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.

What Social Animal's Owe to Each Other

by Sheldon Richman

These essays, written over the past 20 years, have a single underlying theme: namely, that we human beings, as social animals, need individual freedom to fully flourish.

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Coming to Palestine