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...
Scott talks to Tom Woods about his latest free ebook, The Pentagon vs. The Economy. Woods examines the many ways America's military-industrial complex distorts the economy, often applying Frederic Bastiat's principle of "seen vs. unseen" to demonstrate just how many...
The time is now for American libertarians to get together and publicly broadcast “the solution.” It is my belief that almost all long-time libertarians agree on this solution with perhaps slight variations. The internal debate is mostly in the practicality of the...
The aftermath of George Floyd's murder has ushered in a grisly scene of terror for many. All around the country police are attacking peaceful protestors while ideological opportunists loot and riot, destroying private property and burning down cities. As emotions run...
Pascal's Wager is a familiar idea. It goes something like this: regardless of what you may think about the existence of God, rational cost-benefit analysis says you should sign on. After all, if you do and you're wrong, what have you lost? But if you don't and you're...
While sicknesses and death mount from the coronavirus pandemic, the responses by all levels of government have been overwhelming. School closings, business closings, cancellations of sporting events and concerts, “stay in place” orders, hysterical panic spread by the...
In his State of the Union Address—February 4, 2020—President Trump outlined his reasons for punishing nations that manipulate their economies in order to achieve some internal policy goal, such as China. The president claimed that such manipulation was unfair and...
Ludwig von Mises famously argued that people must choose between outright socialism and unfettered capitalism, because there is no coherent “middle ground” between the two. The allegedly reasonable compromise of a highly interventionist state — where the authorities...
"Successful economies are not jungles, they’re gardens, which is to say that markets, like gardens, must be tended, that the market is the greatest social technology ever invented to solving human problems, but unconstrained by social or democratic regulation, markets...
Creationism has lost the argument in the public square. Any biologist working to understand life-related phenomena has no choice but to take seriously Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. That is, all of the apparent design and purposefulness that we...
"(Close) all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull’s-eyes, deadlights, and blinds—in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses.” -Frederic Bastiat from his...
In most schools – public and private – children are brainwashed into believing that the federal government is not only benevolent, but that it protects the individual’s life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness. Though that was the original intention of the...
Abstract: The question over the validity of centralized medical occupational licensing isn’t exactly at a fever pitch in modern America’s dialectic, nevertheless, it warrants rehashing whenever possible. Though presumably well-intentioned by the various contemporary...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpPTzBEC1qc In this episode of the show, Keith and I take on the classic blueprint for a free society: Frederic Bastiat's "The Law." A special thanks to new patron Joshua Bond! Episode 99 of the Liberty Weekly Podcast is Brought to you...
