Infrastructure’s Forgotton Failures

The Free Market 12, no. 7 (July 1994)

 

Federal bureaucrats think they, not the financial markets should direct investment spending. They want to rebuild “infrastructure,” fund space stations, install magnetic supertrains, and set up information highways (or redistribute the existing ones). That’s what President Clinton means when he says he’ll “grow the economy” through “investment.”

Abolishing Socialism with Solzhenitsyn

The Free Market 12, no. 7 (July 1994)

 

Alexandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s return to Russia has engendered more than the usual amount of scaremongering. The author, we are told, is a Pan-Slavic nationalistic and religious fanatic whose views are outdated and irrelevant. Yet Solzhenitsyn used his first speech and press conference in Russia to promote two economic ideas that can actually move Russia forward: private property and free enterprise.

The Whiskey Rebellion: A Model for Our Time?

The Free Market 12, no. 9 (September 1994)

 

In recent years, Americans have been subjected to a concerted assault upon their national symbols, holidays, and anniversaries. Washington’s Birthday has been forgotten, and Christopher Columbus has been denigrated as an evil Euro-White male, while new and obscure anniversary celebrations have been foisted upon us. New heroes have been manufactured to represent “oppressed groups” and paraded before us for our titillation.

Peace on Earth

The Free Market 12, no. 12 (December 1994)

 

“Peace on Earth” should be more than a holiday cliché. The costs of war and its perpetual threat are immense, and threaten freedom and civilization itself. Even with the end of the Cold War, the U.S. finds itself in an endless series of military squabbles, including Panama, Iraq, Somalia, and Haiti, with prospects for future involvement in Korea, Bosnia, Cambodia, and Rwanda.

Privatize the Welfare State

The Free Market 13, no. 1 (January 1995)

 

The phrase “End Welfare As We Know It” is a classic Clinton evasion. It sounds bold and “neoliberal” at first, but on close examination it collapses into nothingness. Almost any change in a policy qualifies as ending it “as we know it.” It could mean cuts. It could also mean more spending and redistribution. 

Victory in California

The Free Market 13, no. 1 (January 1995)

 

The two-to-one vote in favor of California’s Prop. 187 is a milestone in the battle against the welfare state. It is a victory that will help reclaim individual liberty against centralized power.

Out-spent, smeared, and attacked by both left and right, grassroots activists put Prop. 187 over the top. The story of their triumph is an object lesson in how exploited American taxpayers can take back the liberty and property the ruling political class has systematically stolen from them for more than a century.

FDR’s Chain Letter

The Free Market 13, no. 1 (January 1995)

 

What program consumes the largest share of the federal budget? What program is predicted to go belly-up in short order by every knowledgeable observer? What program are the leaders of both parties committing to protect until it bankrupts the country and destroys what’s left of intergenerational amity? 

Revolution Comes Home, The

The Free Market 13, no. 1 (January 1995)

 

The election of 1994 was an unprecedented and smashing electoral expression of the popular revolution that had been building up for many months: a massive repudiation of President Clinton, the Clintonian Democratic Party, their persons and all of their works. It was a fitting follow up to the string of revolutions against government and socialism in the former states and satellites of the Soviet Union. The anti-government revolution has come home at last.

Bring in the Scabs!

The Free Market 13, no. 2 (February 1995)

 

This past baseball season promised to be the most exciting in my lifetime. Then the players’ union opposed the owners’ demand for a salary cap and refused to work. Baseball struck out. In the battle over blame, the most curious call is the union’s for a “free market.” The most often-cited remedy is to remove the owner’s antitrust exemption.