Machan is interviewed for television on a huge range of questions concerning the efficacy of capitalism and the free society. Only a smart part appeared on the broadcast. Here is the entire tour de force: everything you wanted to know about economic freedom from one of its most prolific defenders.
The tragedy of mercantilism is that it tends to creep up when it can do the most damage, that is, during economic downturns. Sure enough, the US is experiencing a wave of protectionist sentiment, legislation, and action, some of it supported by the supposed friends of free trade. Let us begin the round up.
"Social responsibility" is out. Richard Teather explains that activists are demanding even more: corporate citizenship. This concept demands that a company's whole actions be carried out with regard to their "social impact" as interpreted by unions, environmentalists, poverty campaigners, and other non-profits. Of course, and mainly, it also means big donations to their organizations.
In one democracy you vote but every other year for candidates (who may not win) to "represent" you and many others indirectly on myriad issues. In the other, you vote daily, often, directly, for specific vendors, goods, or services, in an endless plebiscite going on every minute of every day, with dollars as ballots.
Susan Hurley has written a book of fundamental importance. Although she is by no means a libertarian, and uses no distinctively libertarian assumptions,
Gordon Graham challenges practically the whole of reigning orthodoxy in political philosophy in his remarkable book. To the bien pensants of political theory, "political participation" and "democratic decision-making"
This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the National Industrial Recovery Act, FDR's planning legislation that created the National Recovery Administration, the NRA. Henry Hazlitt saw precisely what the NRA would lead to, and after a dispute with the The Nation that resulted in his losing his position as literary editor, he wrote the following brilliant attack for the American Mercury.
The growth of government since WWII was along non-military lines. These years were crisis years from about 1963 to 1974. Turmoil, conflict and uncertainty were commonplace. Assassinations were numerous. Johnson and Nixon were presidents. The welfare state expanded.
The attack on September 11, 2001, showed us what we can expect from any fresh crisis. Military forces were assigned to domestic police activities. Police state surveillance was expanded. But, wiping out terrorism cannot be done. The ultimate result is Big Brother.
The phrase "exporting jobs" is a misnomer. A job is not a good, nor is it a service, so it cannot be imported or exported. Only goods can fit that terminology, and one can neither purchase nor sell a job, so to say that U.S. corporations are "exporting jobs" is at best to be using economic language in a sloppy and inaccurate way.
