taxes

No, Disney World Isn’t the First of ‘One Thousand Liechtensteins’

One of the stranger narratives coming out of the controversy over Disney's "special district" in Florida is the notion that Disney's Florida property is some sort of truly independent self-governing entity operating without government oversight. Most claims in this regard wildly overestimate the degree to which Disney enjoys self-governance. Some also claim that Disney's Florida special district represents some sort of model for a truly "private city" in the model of a sovereign city-state. Or as one Twitter commenter put it, "Unironically, Walt Disney style private city-states is my...

Ryan McMaken | 4 min read

Economics, Featured Articles - Apr 12, 2022

Abolish Society Security

Social Security is the compulsory government retirement program Americans are required to pay into for as long as they are employed. All revenue which is used to pay for Social Security is acquired through payroll taxes. More specifically, it is acquired through Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, which also fund Medicare and Social Security disability benefits. A specific portion of these taxes then pay for the benefits received by retired Social Security beneficiaries, currently a pension averaging $1,657 per month which is eligible to individuals over the age of 62. In...

Starte Butone | 5 min read

Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF - Feb 25, 2022

TGIF: On Privilege

One of the most abused words in English is privilege. Observe how indiscriminately this word is spoken and written. For example, in some quarters, all straight white men -- without exception -- are said to be privileged, which seems absurd. Practically all we hear about these days is privilege, who has it and who doesn't. Well, not exactly -- because those who are said not to have it are often called "underprivileged." I think it was the late P. T. Bauer, the great free-market development economist, who pointed out how peculiar a word that is. Underprivileged? Wouldn't that mean...

Sheldon Richman | 4 min read

Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy - Dec 28, 2021

Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey’s Economic Woes

vladimir putin and recep tayyip erdoğan (2015 06 13) 3

Since the first assault on Turkey’s finances in 2018, which I wrote about multiple times (here, here, and here), I’ve been the lone voice telling everyone that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a lunatic but he’s a lunatic with a plan. That plan is to de-dollarize the economy of a valuable member of NATO geostrategically. Since the first shots across the bow by the Trump administration at Erdogan’s toying with those powers east of the Bosporus (Russia, China and Iran) the Turkish lira has been the primary mode of attack against Erdogan. Erdogan has pursued what has been deemed unorthodox...

Tom Luongo | 15 min read

Featured Articles, Foreign Policy - Dec 16, 2021

The Costs of War on Your Wallet

James Madison warned us about the costs of war. War comes with an extremely high price tag. According to the Cost of War Project by the Watson Institute at Brown University, the U.S. spent $2.26 trillion on the war in Afghanistan alone. That comes to over $300 million spent every single day over the span of two decades. In 2018, the Watson Institute calculated that America’s “war on terror” had cost the equivalent of $23,000 per taxpayer. But the average person has no sense of the cost of America’s neverending wars. That’s because the government primarily pays for its wars by borrowing...

Michael Maharrey | 6 min read

How I Robbed the World Bank

jpb world bank press passes wrecking ball 2

I have always had a bad attitude toward official secrets regardless of who is keeping them. That prejudice and John Kenneth Galbraith are to blame for an unauthorized withdrawal I made from the World Bank. When I lived in Boston in the late 1970s, I paid $25 to attend a series of lectures by Galbraith on foreign aid and other topics. The louder Galbraith praised foreign aid, the warier I became. His hokum spurred my reading and led me to recognize that foreign aid is one of the worst afflictions that poor nations suffer. As one critic quipped, foreign aid is money from governments, to...

Jim Bovard | 9 min read

The Ticking Time Bomb of Social Security

At a time when President Biden and congressional Democrats are pushing to expand the breadth of entitlements to include free preschool and subsidized child care, little attention is given to the fact that the country’s biggest existing entitlement program—Social Security—is a financial wreck. The program’s payouts have exceeded revenue since 2010, but the recent past is nowhere near as grim as the future. According to the latest annual report by Social Security’s trustees, the gap between promised benefits and future payroll tax revenue has reached a staggering $59.8 trillion. That gap...

Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | 5 min read

The Government Is Coming for Your 401K

Quiet conversations are occurring in the halls of Congress, think tanks, NGOs, and academia on how to continue the enrichment of the public sector elites and their various complexes (military, education, financial, healthcare, and “non-profits”). The “wise men” know China's ability to absorb our inflationary monetary and fiscal policies is near capacity. Yes, the “undesirables” (mostly working class) are on their way out but with inflation rising the Federal Reserve cannot just keep printing money and monetizing the debt. A “wealth” tax on billionaires is not going to fly and will not...

Mike Fedele | 3 min read

Economics, Featured Articles - Oct 25, 2021

Wall Street Is Setting a Trap For Bitcoin Buyers

So Tuesday October 19th, 2021 was supposed to be the day that changed everything for bitcoin. And it may, just not in ways anyone bullish on crypto should be comfortable with. Finally the SEC approved a Bitcoin ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF (BITO) began trading this week to great fanfare in the cryptocurrency community. There was much rejoicing as Bitcoin hit a new all-time high which it has since given back. On the heels of that announcement Valkyrie changed the proposed ticker symbol for its Bitcoin Strategies ETF, another futures-based product, to BTFD. Gotta love the cheek,...

Tom Luongo | 13 min read

Featured Articles, Libertarianism - Oct 7, 2021

Don’t Draft Women (Or Men Either)

As in many previous years, this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is chock-full of terrible legislation slyly inserted for the purposes of concealing matters from the public. Both parties have been long guilty of this, with both groups using the NDAA to pass police state legislation increasing federal spying and law enforcement powers. All of the NDAA should be considered controversial, since so much of it is devoted to perpetuating the US’s aggressive, wasteful, and counterproductive efforts at global hegemony. But the NDAA also often contains domestic innovations like...

Ryan McMaken | 5 min read

News

News Roundup 5/22/22

US News Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager admits the campaign was unsure if Russia interfered in the election, and Hillary approved giving the information to journalists anyway. [Link] Two Secret Service agents were sent home from South Korea after one assaulted...

UK & Allies Plan to Arm Ukraine, Moldova with ‘NATO Standard’ Weapons

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that London and a number of allies are developing a scheme to supply NATO-grade weapons to Moldova and Ukraine, as Kiev urges for increasingly advanced arms from Western partners despite billions in lethal aid already provided.

Russia Sets Conditions to Ease Black Sea Blockade

Russia has offered to relax its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, but only in exchange for sanctions relief from the West, amid fears that the war raging in Eastern Europe is driving a major international food crisis.

House Passes Bill Expanding Federal Anti-Terrorism Mandate

US lawmakers have passed a sweeping domestic terrorism bill that will create several new law enforcement units and establish a task force to seek out white supremacists and neo-Nazis within the armed services and federal police agencies.

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Blog

NATO War Games on Russia’s Border, Ministry of Untruth, & Free Market Social Justice (Roundtable)

https://youtu.be/Qnaeyc3KwgY

Former U.S. Navy Sailor Makes the Case for Libertarianism

https://youtu.be/uI0iYWMK8Z8 [J]ustice is the means by which an individual who was victim to a criminal act is made whole again. If a statist society cannot perfect man’s own construct, how could a stateless society fare any better? Derek R. Wills, The Liberty...

The Antiwar Comic: The War for the Weak

This one feels like a Babylon Bee prediction. More comics at the Webcomic Factory.

Poverty, Churchill, Free Markets, Iran, and Shortages (Weekly Roundtable)

https://youtu.be/L1cGI5U_UaA

News Editor Kyle Anzalone’s Speech to Liberty On the Rocks in Denver 5/4/22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACQOSAkiqqs

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The Scott Horton Show

5/21/22 Hassan El-Tayyab: Now Is the Time to End the War in Yemen

Download Episode. Hassan El-Tayyab of the Friends Committee on National Legislation joins Scott on Antiwar Radio to discuss the effort to end the war in Yemen. Both sides have agreed to a ceasefire which has brought the level of violence down and the access to food...

5/19/22 Patrick Cockburn on the Arrogance of War Hawks on All Sides

Download Episode. Scott talks with Patrick Cockburn about Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Western response. Cockburn argues that, regardless of any media spin, the Russians are running into more trouble than they expected to in Ukraine. He chalks that up to hubris...

5/16/22 Ben Freeman on the Links Between Foreign Governments and America’s Foreign Policy “Experts”

Download Episode. Scott interviews Ben Freeman about the money governments like Saudi Arabia and Ukraine invest in D.C. lobbying. They begin by discussing the Middle East Institute, a Saudi-funded D.C. Think Tank that brands itself as an objective institution...

5/16/22 Ted Snider: Did the CIA Oust Imran Khan?

Download Episode. Scott is joined by Ted Snider to discuss the removal of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan’s government announced in June of 2021 that Pakistan would no longer host any American military bases. Then, earlier this year, Khan was forced out by...

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Conflicts of Interest

COI #279: The Evil Republicans guest Patrick MacFarlane

On COI #279, Patrick McFarlane returns to the show to discuss the most hawkish GOP members of Congress. Odysee Rumble Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash...

COI #278: George W. Bush Finally Says Something True About Iraq

On COI #278, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman cover former President George W. Bush’s viral confession- by-gaffe to war crimes in Iraq, President Joe Biden’s resistance to Kiev’s demands for long range rocket launchers, U.S./Israeli war drills aimed at Tehran, and the...

COI #277: The Bipartisan Consensus HATES Diplomacy

Kyle Anzalone discusses the latest news about the war in Ukraine and NATO expansion. Odysee Rumble Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash Qp6gznu4xm97cj7j9vqepqxcfuctq2exvvqu7aamz6...

COI #276: Biden’s War on Truth guest Misty Winston

On COI #276, Misty Winston joins Kyle Anzalone to discuss the war on truth, 1A, and Julian Assange. Misty Winston host a show on TNT Radio from 3-6 est M-F. Follow her on Twitter @SarcasmStardust. Odysee Rumble Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP...

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Don't Tread on Anyone

Refuting the “Good War” Narrative. Dr. Thadeuss Russell & Keith Knight

https://youtu.be/UXADj372WU0 On Sept. 1, 1939, 70 years ago, the German Army crossed the Polish frontier. On Sept. 3, Britain declared war. Six years later, 50 million Christians and Jews had perished. Britain was broken and bankrupt, Germany a smoldering ruin. Europe...

Decriminalize All Capitalist Acts Between Consenting Adults. Dr. Chris Freiman & Keith Knight

https://youtu.be/UiiFaw8nLLI This book argues that there’s nothing wrong with ignoring politics. To the contrary: you should disengage from politics to pursue more effective forms of altruism. Instead of watching presidential debates, attending city council meetings,...

The Problem With 2000 Mules

https://youtu.be/cwRkItxSbxs “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,...[A]nd if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who...

The Lab Leak Hypothesis, Evolution, Innovation, & Rational Optimism. Matt Ridley & Keith Knight

https://youtu.be/DPEP1TGyqqQ The cumulative acceleration of knowledge by specialists that allows us each to consume more and more different things by each producing fewer and fewer, is I submit, the central story of humanity. - Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p....

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Liberty Weekly Podcast

On the Brink of Nuclear War ft. Connor Freeman Ep. 216

https://youtu.be/CJ62Lw1PJsg In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Connor Freeman about the dismal state of U.S./Russian relations. We discuss the spiraling escalation in Ukraine and U.S. policy decisions which signal that the unthinkable may be inevitable....

Addiction and COVID-19 ft. The Clean Libertarian Ep. 215

https://youtu.be/38r3URgicX4 Much has been said about the excess rate of substance abuse during COVID-19. To try to understand some of these causes, I brought on my friend Drew Cook of the Clean Libertarian. Drew is a recovering addict who is now working to help other...

Press Censorship in Wartime Ep. 214

https://youtu.be/s5Jhj1smhFI With the risk of kinetic war between the US and Russia becoming more and more likely each day, the United States is already marshalling its forces to silence domestic and international dissent to the conflict. In this episode, I examine...

How World Leaders Justify Mass Murder ft. Laurie Calhoun Ep. 212

https://youtu.be/LuhS86vS9nY Laurie Calhoun joins me to discuss her book "War and Delusion," where she details how world leaders have used Just War Theory to wage wars of aggression. Further, we pose the question: In the modern era, is a "just war" even possible? We...

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Year Zero

A Conversation with Patrick MacFarlane

Patrick joined me again. In this episode we discuss Ukraine Russia, China, culture, democrats, republicans, and traditional family. Liberty Weekly Discord Libertarian Institute 19 Skills Pdf Autonomy Course Critical Thinking Course Donate Patreon...

The Network w/John Robb

John Robb joined me to talk about the network, its operations, where it fails, and why he thinks conspiracy theorists are wrong. Global Guerillas Substack Discord Libertarian Institute 19 Skills Pdf Autonomy Course Critical Thinking Course Donate Patreon...

Post COVID Music Industry w/David Sanchez, Carlos Sanchez, Kyle Matovcik

I invited some of my friends that play music to discuss how the COVID tyranny has affected them in the music industry. Havok Riffs or Die Deadline Kyle twitter A Common Crown Discord Libertarian Institute 19 Skills Pdf Autonomy Course Critical Thinking Course Donate...

America’s Response to the War in Ukraine w/Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp joined me to discuss the American reaction to the war in Ukraine. We discuss how the sanctions and information war seem to be targeting Americans rather than the Russian politicians. Is the Biden Administration utilizing propaganda to manufacture consent...

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