The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

Fifteen years ago, Murray N. Rothbard wrote a piece on the most prevalent economic errors of that time. What are the great economic errors alive today?

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

E.O. Wilson of Harvard University is among the world’s most esteemed biologists. An authority on ants, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes and coined the term “sociobiology,” outraging his peers by suggesting that human behavior has some relation to human nature. Sadly, these triumphs seem to have inspired him to lay down the law on everything—a trend that culminated about a year ago in his book Consilience, which purports to unify all branches of science, religion, ethics, and art into a recipe for human happiness.

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

When one thinks of “death by government,” either those killed by armed members of the state or the millions who have perished in the vast gulags and prisons run by governmental agents usually come to mind. However, government has demonstrated far more creativity in eliminating people than just by shooting or starving them to death. It also has successfully drowned them while destroying property to the tune of billions of dollars. Here are a couple of horror stories.

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

The technology is Now Available that would allow your grocery store to track the movements of customers across the store using the distinct infrared signature of each individual. By linking the data with information at the checkout counter, the purchasing habits and meanderings of each person could be analyzed. 

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

It was a revolting display to see the bureaucrats at the Justice Department cheer Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s decision. Many of these people didn’t even know how to get around the web twelve months ago, and now they are making decisions for millions of consumers and threatening to smash the company that democratized information. The government, driven by power-lust and fueled by the envy of Microsoft’s competitors, is happy to jam a crowbar into the wheel of commerce.

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

Until a few months ago, the sum of my experience with Latin America had been a few trips to border cities like Juarez, Nogales, and Tijuana. Beyond that, I had to depend upon Dan Rather, the New York Times, and various social activist groups to find out what was true about life South of the Border. All had a sad story to tell.

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

Americans are concerned about the rising cost of pharmaceutical drugs. This has drawn the attention of writers, politicians, and others who have attempted to deal with the issue in typical fashion by advocating the use of government force to implement their plan.

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

[Editorial note: H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) wrote this translation in the days during and after World War I. Woodrow Wilson’s wartime central planning, which led to arrests of businessmen and other dissenters, caused him to wonder what happened to the ideals of the American Revolution. Perhaps the language of the original Declaration was too anachronistic for modern ears? He offered his own translation into American dialect.]

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

The Free Market 18, no. 5 (May 2000)

Watching Joel Klein of the Antitrust Division on television, speaking about the dangers that Microsoft poses to the public, calls to mind a passage from Martin van Creveld’s The Rise and Decline of the State: “Born in sin, the bastard offspring of declining autocracy and bureaucracy run amok, the state is a giant wielded by pygmies.