The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999)

The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999)

As the bureaucrats pursue their Draconian war on drugs, the Clinton administration is conspiring with the pharmaceutical industry to provide drugs at taxpayer expense. Under the guise of expanding Medicare—already a massive wealth transfer from young to old—prescription drugs will be included among the benefits the feds use to further rope senior citizens into the government orbit.

The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999)

Making splashy headlines, the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University reported this summer that marriage rates are at an historic low. Americans are waiting longer to get married and are choosing alternative arrangements to marriage. Data showing that divorce is on the decline turn out to be more complicated: people are taking fewer risks with marriage in the first place. In thirty years, the percentage of adults living as a partner in marriage has slipped from 68 to 56.

The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999)

America’s “War on Drugs” has become primarily a war on marijuana smokers. Federal data released this year reveals almost half of all drug arrests are for marijuana, and that approximately one in seven drug prisoners is now behind bars for marijuana offenses. Research reported by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) in June found that 59,300 Americans are sitting behind bars on marijuana charges.

The Free Market 17, no. 10 (October 1999)

Although it went unobserved in media accounts, there was something for everyone in Mrs. Albright’s splendid little war: the left can toast their humanitarianism, right-militarists can justify more “defense” spending, Nato has a new lease on life, the Serbs were rid of the Kosovars, and 10,000 ethnic Albanians received free passage and the option of permanent residency in the US. “Only in America!” as the saying goes.

The Free Market 17, no. 10 (October 1999)

This year marks the 250th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the greatest of all German writers and poets and one of the giants of world literature. In his political outlook, he was also a thorough-going classical liberal, arguing that free trade and free cultural exchange are the keys to authentic national and international integration. He argued and fought against the expansion, centralization, and unification of government on grounds that these trends can only hinder prosperity and true cultural development.

The Free Market 17, no. 10 (October 1999)

The politics of discrimination have been a major force for statism for decades. Only recently have some politicians yielded to public pressure to pull back from their absurd enforcement of quotas. 

Californians rescinded their preferential treatment for protected minorities in state colleges. Courts overturned pro-minority-biased admissions policies at the University of Texas Law School as unconstitutional. 

The Free Market 17, no. 10 (October 1999)

Opinion polls on taxes are the shabbiest of the lot. People are asked questions like: would you rather have Congress cut taxes or provide more essential government services? The results are invariably ambiguous. Reporters then claim that a surprising number of people are pleased with the amount of taxes they pay. Conclusion: there is no tax revolt.

The Free Market 17, no. 11 (November 1999)

Jesse Ventura, Governor of Minnesota, took a position that is extremely rare in state government. He said that neither the state nor the city nor any other unit of government should spend any money on funding yet another municipal ballpark or providing a taxpayer subsidy to professional ball teams and their media flunkies. “The taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for new stadiums,” said Ventura.

The Free Market 17, no. 11 (November 1999)

Even when the market produces amazing new technology, it can become a basis for criticism. There are two main excuses used today to justify intervention in the technology market. The first argues that manufacturers build a planned obsolescence into their designs. The second argues that a path dependency subsidizes some firms artificially at the expense of others. Let’s take them in order, with examples.