Since socialism is "in" today -- even though many people who say they favor it have no idea what it is -- F. A. Hayek's last book, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988), is worth checking out. Hayek, the late great Nobel-laureate economist of the Austrian...
bureaucracy
TGIF: Governments Create Problems; Markets Fix Them
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 14, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
My article "Complete Liberalism" prompted an unexpected challenge. An interlocutor, who says he owns a business and thus is not antibusiness, claimed that my article suggested that, unlike government regulators, businesses never get things wrong. Yet business failures...
Episode 659: The Irrationality Of Policing w/ Former LEO Pat Watson
by Peter R. Quiñones | Nov 18, 2021 | Free Man Beyond the Wall
81 Minutes Strong Language Pat Watson is former military/law enforcement and is the host of the Uncensored Tactical Podcast. He has written two books and his latest is titled, "Fuck Bureaucracy" Pat joins Pete for a special episode in which he has designed a line of...
Episode 523: The Prison Nightmare and Bureaucracy w/ Former Correction’s Officer J Flintlock
by Peter R. Quiñones | Jan 13, 2021 | Free Man Beyond the Wall
44 Minutes Not Safe for Work J Flintlock is the host of the Flintlock Faction Podcast. He served in the military and is a former prison guard J joins Pete to give him an inside look into the bureaucracy that is the US prison system and to give insight into just who is...
Government’s Perverse Incentives
by Sheldon Richman | Dec 8, 2020 | Blog, Libertarianism
It might seem reasonable to think that in the early days of a pandemic involving an unfamiliar pathogen, the public ought to allow the government leeway in its imposition of extreme measures, such as the virtual shut down of economic activity. But the initial...
TechnoAgorist: President Gilligan
by Ryan Burgett | Nov 16, 2020 | Blog
My children love watching Gilligan's Island. I appreciate that the show is mindless fun and that I don't have to worry about it pushing some stupid, progressive agenda on my children. Recently, after dinner we were watching our daily episode and in it the characters...
You Say You Want A Revolution
by Steven Woskow | Jul 9, 2020 | Blog
Defund the state! “I want to say that as long as we don’t receive our rights as citizens, without the terrible and discouraging bureaucracy, I’m declaring that I’m not paying taxes to the State of Israel,” Rudner said. “I call on all Israelis to do the same. Maybe...
The Bureaucratic Revolution
by Scott Horton | May 8, 2019 | Blog
On the Human Action podcast, Jeff Deist interviews William L. Anderson about the Ludwig von Mises classic Bureaucracy. Update: Mises is killing it today. Also check out this great article, "3 Ways to Help Bridge the Racial Wealth Gap," by Jordan Setayesh.
Why Politicians Love Deals like the Amazon Deals
by Ryan McMaken | Nov 17, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics
Amazon isn't the first big corporation to manipulate policymakers by shopping around the idea of relocating its headquarter to the "right" city. The "right" city, of course, is the one that provides the company with enough tax breaks and other political favors so as...
SF Man Has Spent 4 Years and $1 Million Trying to Get Approval to Build Apartments on His Own Property
by Christian Britschgi | Feb 24, 2018 | Economics, Featured Articles
To understand how difficult and expensive it is to build housing in San Francisco, observe the case of Robert Tillman. Tillman owns a single-story laundromat in the city's Mission District. Since 2014, he has been attempting to develop his property into a 75-unit...
Government Job Security
by Eric Schuler | Jan 28, 2018 | Blog
Reason's Remy has a new music video out that explains why government employees almost never get fired. It's well worth your time.
Left of the Left: Why Do Feds Have To Do NIH?
by Zack Sorenson | May 14, 2017 | Blog
As a libertarian, I'm obviously against government programs like NIH. Most of the reasons are theoretical, perhaps principled. But, from the practicality perspective, most liberals who support these sort of "public good" programs don't account for opportunity costs...
The Right to Try to Live
by George Leef | Apr 6, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice
The Right to Try: How the Federal Government Prevents Americans from Getting the Lifesaving Treatments They Need by Darcy Olsen (HarperCollins, 2015); 311 pages. The highly acclaimed 2013 movie Dallas Buyers Club told the story of Ron Woodroof, who tried desperately...
This is Government: California County Clerk Pleads Guilty in Massive Bribery Scheme
by James Holbrooks | Apr 3, 2017 | Blog
This article originally appeared at Anti-Media. Orange County, CA — On Wednesday, a former county clerk in southern California plead guilty to running a bribery scheme that forged case results in exchange for money — a scheme that netted him over a quarter of a...
Blog
Blame Mexico? Blame Neocons! Blame Big Pharma! Blame the USA!
ABC News: If fentanyl is so deadly, why do drug dealers use it to lace illicit drugs? I have an alternative explanation. America has been fighting endless wars almost the entire century. Many have come home from these never-ending wars with injuries and pains. Doctors...
My Testimony Before the Maine State Senate
In support of Ld 1054, Defend the Guard legislation: Thank you all so much for the opportunity to testify before your committee today. Today is the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Iraq War II. The consensus now is that we should not have done it. Iraq was not...
These Iraq War Supporters Are Still in Congress
On March 19, 2003 the United States began its military invasion of Iraq. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq passed Congress in October 2002, with 296 congressmen and 77 senators voting in favor of giving President George W. Bush carte blanche...
Laci Green is Wrong: Democratic Competition vs. Free Market Competition
In environments where there's a lot of competition, people tend to lie out their ass and you can apply this to any competitive situation. Take capitalism. As industrialization took full effect, the Federal Government had to interfere because there was so much false...
Empower the Workers: Decriminalize Economic Activity Between Consenting Adults
The most reliable and effective protection for most workers is provided by the existence of many employers. As we have seen, a person who has only one possible employer has little or no protection. The employers who protect a worker are those who would like to hire...
Chris Rock’s New Special Exposes His Political Ignorance
A common claim among Democrats is that, "It's not that people don't want to be educated, they just haven't been given the opportunity, thus government spending on education needs to increase." If there were ever a group of people capable of "educating" themselves it...
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