Mugging of Texaco, The

The Free Market 15, no. 1 (January 1997)

 

The furor over the supposed racism of Texaco’s management dramatizes, in miniature, the tragedy and danger of so-called civil-rights legislation. The Texaco story paints a vivid picture of what we’ve become: an economy distorted and abused by a racial spoils system, in which race is pitted against race, employees pitted against employers, and all power is held by federal bureaucrats and magistrates who “resolve” disputes by taking capitalists to the cleaners.

Truth About the G.I. Bill, The

The Free Market 15, no. 1 (January 1997)

People who advocate tax-funded school vouchers for private schools frequently hail the G.I. Bill of Rights education vouchers for World War II veterans as a model. In truth, the G.I. Bill was a budget-busting middle-class entitlement scheme that had destructive effects on higher education, and set the stage for virtually all our current educational problems.

Scandal of Housing Vouchers, The

The Free Market 15, no. 1 (January 1997)

 

In October, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros spent $716 million to demolish decrepit housing projects. Before you cheer, consider this. The units won’t be replaced with a market system. More money will be spent on yet another socialistic program, this time to pay welfare recipients to move into private housing in suburbia and elsewhere.

Slouching Towards Statism

The Free Market 15, no. 1 (January 1997)

 

Which is a greater cause of cultural and moral decline: the private sector or the government? Asked another way, which is doing more to promote a return to civilized social norms: the market or the central state? The answer highlights a dividing line between left and right.

Röpke Rescued

The Free Market 15, no. 2 (February 1997)

 

The fame of the Austrian School in the 1920s and 1930s rests on its fierce resistance to the main intellectual currents of the time: welfarism, collectivism, and central planning. The Austrian economists battled these trends, made the case for the genuinely free society—necessarily based on private property and capitalism—and paid a heavy personal price. 

I’ll Never Retire

The Free Market 15, no. 2 (February 1997)

 

Before the mid 1950s, there was no “retirement” as we use the term today. A 1950 poll showed most workers aspired to work for as long as possible. Quitting was for the disabled. Life did not offer “twilight years,” two decades of uninterrupted leisure courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Dangers of Government Safety, The

The Free Market 15, no. 2 (February 1997)

 

Among the many excuses for government planning is that it makes life safer for one and all. The automobile bears the brunt of this central planning. Like most all interventions in the free market, the effect of mandates to make the car safer is nearly the opposite. Witness the recent air bag fiasco.

Gold or the Fed?

The Free Market 15, no. 2 (February 1997)

 

If members of the congressional classes of 1994 and 1996 are serious about curbing government, they should rally around Ron Paul, the newly elected congressman from Texas’s 14th district. For Ron, a longtime friend of the Mises Institute, is the outstanding political opponent of the main engine of statism in American life: the Federal Reserve.

Bowdlerizing the Data

The Free Market 15, no. 2 (February 1997)

 

Academic fraud has never been more acceptable. Works of literature are purged of material contrary to the latest political fad. Photographs are airbrushed to exclude incorrect habits like smoking. Movies with the wrong message are cut.

No More Great Presidents

The Free Market 15, no. 3 (March 1997)

 

My idea of a great president is one who acts in accordance with his oath of office to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Not since the presidency of Grover Cleveland has any president achieved greatness by this standard. Worse, the most admired have been those who failed most miserably. Evidently my standard differs from that employed by others who judge presidential greatness.

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