Watchdog groups are correct to monitor the disbursement of the Red Cross's September 11 donations. And the issue of appropriate uses of charitable funds promoted for a particular purpose must be addressed. But the same issue should be raised about innumerable government initiatives whose claimed goals are also undermined by the same diversion of resources.
My 7-year old daughter asked me the other day whether I was born before email. "Yes," I confessed. Then she quickly followed up: "Where you born before plastic?" "No," I said, "I was born after plastic but before email." Satisfied that she had placed me within the structure of the history of the world, she went back to her weekend play.
Forest industry and other private timberland owners increasingly are burdened by environmental and other government regulations that in many cases constitute de facto seizures of their property rights.
Last year, Salon.com announced that it was very fashionable to fry your Thanksgiving turkey, a tip which the truly fashionable regarded as at least 12 months out of date. For those out of the loop — not that it matters now — frying involves injecting the turkey with hot sauce and submerging it in 6 gallons of lard heated to 450 degrees.
When there is a shortage of a good, it is safe to say that it is a result of government incursion into the economy. In the Cipro shortfall resulting from the current Anthrax scare, the likely culprits are FDA regulations and the patent system.
Had the United States pursued a policy of economic freedom with respect to energy production over the last thirty years, the conditions for OPEC’s success as a cartel would never have been present in the first place.
The recent World Trade Center disaster may provide some economic opportunities for small, select groups, but the vast majority of people—including most New Yorkers—will be left worse off than before.
In a market economy, marginally "superior" technology-where it can be objectively defined-doesn't necessarily end up dominating, and that's the way it should be.
Forbes magazine's Peter Brimelow and Edwin Rubenstein ask, "Does Hayek’s Law condemn the U.S. economy to a Japanese-like L-shaped recession?" John Cochran responds.
By subsidizing sports facilities, governments are taxing average people and boosting the incomes of some very wealthy individuals. What justification exists for this practice?
