The Social Security Act is considered the first federal social welfare program in American history, being signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. American government pensions have existed for government employees and veterans since the Civil War, and private pension systems even longer. There was not great support for a public pension system in the US, as voluntary association and self-sufficiency was the standard.
Ludwig von Mises’s Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow has become quite popular recently. The Mises Book Store has sold out of its physical copies, and the PDF, which is available online for free, has seen over 50,000 downloads in the past few days.
Few ideas are as closely associated with Marxism as the concepts of class and class conflict. It is, for instance, impossible to imagine what a Marxist philosophy of history or a Marxist revolutionary theory would be in their absence.
In Aristotle’s well-known Ethics, he poses an age-old question: Can reasoning guide action, and should it direct our way of living? Unfortunately, this question loses its relevancy when put in the context of coercive governments, not unlike our own twenty-first-century American government which is hypervigilant and ever present in many aspects of our lives, including our education. What autonomy are people left with for the formation of reasoning when their beliefs and actions have already been decided for them through indoctrination and regulation?
Thomas Woods has reminded us more than once that “no matter who you vote for, you get John McCain.” It’s not strictly and always true, of course, but the evidence is clear that it’s often true. The latest example is the GOP’s speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) who has turned out more or less exactly like us skeptics have predicted. Johnson is a friend to the war party, a do-nothing on issues important to the rank and file (like immigration), and a true enemy of the people on issues like warrantless spying.
Last week I posted something on how business confidence affects capital investment. Many factors may affect business confidence. The psychological mindset of business owners might change on its own. Public policies may affect business confidence too.
Over the weekend, the Iranian military launched hundreds of drones and missiles toward Israel. Israeli, American, and Jordanian air defenses reportedly intercepted and shot down almost everything Iran fired. One child from a Bedouin village in southern Israel was hurt by shrapnel falling from an intercepted missile, and an Israeli air base in the Negev Desert—also in southern Israel—sustained some structural damage.
