Is the Starving Man Free?

Modern “liberals” who advocate the view that government should provide us with the necessities or alleged necessities of life rarely appreciate that this assistance rests on a system of mass robbery and enslavement that is highly inimical to their professed belief in liberty. In fact, the advocates of such policies present them in quite the opposite light, as enhancing our liberty. This contention rests on the conceptual claim that liberty requires certain of our most basic needs to be satisfied, if necessary by the actions of others. Adherents of this view assert that “the starving man is not free”.

The Epistemological Case for Capitalism

In In the early 1950s, writes Guido Hulsmann in his biography of Mises, Mises’s NYU seminar dealt increasingly with epistemological questions. The epistemology of economics was not just an idle pastime for ivory-tower intellectuals; it was of direct practical relevance. How does economic theory relate to reality? Most economists believed -- and still believe today -- that their propositions concern only hypothetical conditions never actually given in real life.

Patent Hypocrisy

It always galls me when I see limousine liberals send their kids to fancy private schools while supporting public school; or Congressmen exempting themselves from their own wage and hour legislation.

The Frightful Face of Stimulus

Among businesspeople, bankers, and investors, there is a growing fear that the economy is headed towards recession or already in one. But that alone is not the source of worry. After all, an economy if left alone to function in freedom can recover. The real problem has to do with the political response. There is every indication that no matter who comes to be in charge in November, we face a future of massive spending, inflating, and regulating. And here is the real danger.

The Conspiracy Theory of History Revisited

Murray Rothbard writes: Anytime that a hard-nosed analysis is put forth of who our rulers are, of how their political and economic interests interlock, it is invariably denounced by Establishment liberals and conservatives (and even by many libertarians) as a “conspiracy theory of history,” “paranoid,” “economic determinist,” and even “Marxist.” These smear labels are applied across the board, even though such realistic analyses can be, and have been, made from any and all parts of the economic spectru

The Frightful Face of Stimulus

Among businesspeople, bankers, and investors, there is a growing fear that the economy is headed towards recession or already in one. But that alone is not the source of worry. After all, an economy if left alone to function in freedom can recover. The real problem has to do with the political response. There is every indication that no matter who comes to be in charge in November, we face a future of massive spending, inflating, and regulating. And here is the real danger. One only needs to look at such preposterous measures as the “stimulus package” that Congress passed to much fanfare. Dumping money into consumers’ hands, drawn from wherever they can get it, is the only means these guys can dream up to shore up prosperity. That only proves that they don’t know what brings about prosperity in the first place, which is not Congress but free enterprise.

Generalissimo Washington: How He Crushed the Spirit of Liberty

Washington Transforms the Army

In June of 1775, George Washington was appointed Major General and elected by Congress to be commander in chief of the American revolutionary forces. Although he took up his tasks energetically, Washington accomplished nothing militarily for the remainder of the year and more, nor did he try. His only campaign in 1775 was internal rather than external; it was directed against the American army as he found it, and was designed to extirpate the spirit of liberty pervading this unusually individualistic and democratic army of militiamen.

Subscribe to