Sheldon | The Libertarian Institute

Sheldon Richman Articles

TGIF: Immigration and Social Engineering

by Sheldon Richman | Aug 4, 2017

Immigration brings out the social engineers and central planners across the political establishment. We see this clearly in the debate over Donald Trump's support for legislation that would cut legal immigration in half while tilting it toward well-educated...

TGIF: What the Left Should Like about Public Choice

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 28, 2017

Although the public choice school of political economy has been demonized in a new work of putatively progressive fiction masquerading as intellectual history, good-faith leftists (if they don't already regard themselves as libertarians) may be surprised by how their...

TGIF: On Property and Aggression

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 20, 2017

Some critics on the left enjoy faulting libertarians for believing that property is a bulwark against aggression. To the libertarian argument that violations of property -- including trespasses on land -- constitute aggression, these critics respond that property...

TGIF: We Are the Economy They Want to Regulate

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 14, 2017

Critics of the libertarian philosophy think they can score points by calling libertarians "market fundamentalists." It's supposed to conjure images of dogmatic religious fundamentalists, just like the term global warming denier is supposed to conjure images of...

TGIF: How to Spite Putin

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 7, 2017

I don't think the Russian government fooled around with the 2016 presidential election. The U.S. government won't release its evidence so that it can be judged by independent experts -- and that makes me suspicious. I am not impressed that a bunch of "handpicked"...

Lost Articles

by Sheldon Richman | Jul 4, 2017

Originally published January 26, 2007 The Constitution says that to be elected to the U.S. Senate, a person has to be 30 or older, a citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state from which the candidate is elected. Alas, it says nothing about knowing...

TGIF: The American Way of War

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 30, 2017

The most striking fact about the United States of America is not its supposed founding principles -- more often lauded than observed -- but how often "the greatest country on earth" has waged war. If we count wars against internal "enemies" (i.e., the Indians), covert...

TGIF: Wrong Lessons from the Congressional Shootings

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 16, 2017

I'll start off by saying that no one should commit violence except as a last resort in immediate defense of self or other innocent life. I know this subject lends itself to endless hypothetical scenarios, but that's all I'm going to say -- except for this: political...

TGIF: Let’s All Calm Down about Russia

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 9, 2017

I can understand why the ruling elite, broadly conceived to include the intel bureaucracy and military-industrial complex, has an interest in positing Russia as our enemy. The reasons are obvious enough. What I can't understand is why common Americans would fall for...

TGIF: An Idiot Abroad

by Sheldon Richman | Jun 2, 2017

I've got a few leftover thoughts about Donald Trump's trip to Europe. (Here's what I said about the Middle East portion.) As usual, I oppose both Trump and his mainstream critics. It's possible for both sides to be wrong in a dispute. First, trade. Trump famously said...

TGIF: Trump’s Mideast Mission Impossible

by Sheldon Richman | May 26, 2017

By now, comparing someone to the underwear gnomes of South Park fame is trite. Were it not for Donald Trump, I wouldn't go near it. But I cannot resist because it's a salient feature of his way of "thinking" -- although posing would be the better word here....

TGIF: The Real Danger from Trump Is Ignored

by Sheldon Richman | May 19, 2017

While the chattering classes spend all their time rehashing Donald Trump's alleged -- there's a word you don't much see in the media anymore -- coordination with Russians over their alleged -- there it is again -- hacking of the Democrats' email, a story with far more...

TGIF: The Debate Over Taxation Cannot Be Value-Free

by Sheldon Richman | May 12, 2017

Lenin reportedly said, "The best way to destroy the capitalist system [is] to debauch the currency." If by "capitalist system"* we mean only what Adam Smith called "the obvious and simple system of natural liberty," we could improve on the quote: the best way to...

TGIF: The War Party Talks Nonsense on Korea

by Sheldon Richman | May 5, 2017

The Really Serious People -- you know, the politicians and pundits who have been wrong on every call on foreign policy in recent memory -- think that talking to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un would be foolish because it would "legitimate" him and his brutal regime....

TGIF: Talk to, Don’t Provoke, North Korea

by Sheldon Richman | Apr 28, 2017

There's little more we can do than hope that some cool heads around Donald Trump are telling him he'd be nuts to attack North Korea. I don't know who they might be. Still, we must hope. It doesn't take a lifetime of study to know that, fortunately, no military...

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

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.

More Info

Coming to Palestine