54.

Living by a Premise

In addition to his prolific publication record, Leonard Read gave many speeches and presentations both to Foundation for Economic Education audiences and others. Among those presentations was a commencement speech given at Hillsdale College and published in Imprimis in 1972 (Read 1972b).

55.

Individual Rights, Freedom,
and the Better World

Most people are in favor of a better world; but ask them how to achieve it, and they may not have anything substantial to say. Without a solid understanding of why the world isn’t better and a positive vision of achievable changes that would improve society, the desire for a better world does not translate into a better world in reality.

56.

The Two Commandments

For years, I have told my public-policy classes that the biggest problems stemming from government come from violations of two of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s possessions” and “Thou shalt not steal.” Coveting is a significant impetus behind the intention to harm others to benefit oneself; stealing is the action triggered by coveting.

57.

Violence, Liberty, and Love

Virtue is widely preached and admired. Most people consider themselves virtuous. Yet in our society, virtue is being increasingly crowded out by violent coercion. This suggests a need to consider the differences between social coordination based on virtue, which is voluntary, and that based on coerced virtue, which actually degrades what we consider good and lets the muscles of virtue atrophy from lack of use.

58.

Leonard Read’s
Conscience on the Battlefield

Leonard Read was long at the forefront of libertarian belief in America. And because he believed that “war is liberty’s greatest enemy, and the deadly foe of economic progress,” Read thought about war as well, particularly in his 1951 pamphlet Conscience on the Battlefield (Read 1951), probably his most controversial essay. In our seemingly warlike time, his thoughts are worth recalling.

59.

Amoral Markets versus
Immoral Coercion

I am a believer in the power of liberty—voluntary relationships—to bring out the best in individuals and, therefore, society. But that well-founded belief makes it painful to see markets—voluntary exchange—blamed for social problems while government coercion is supported as a means of achieving some utopian vision.

60.

Seeing the Light on Looting

Having written about public policies for three and a half decades, I have often struggled with the slipperiness of words. Using words without thinking about them gives power to those who can manipulate their meanings to mislead others, and it encourages equivocation—changing the meaning of a key term or phrase in the course of an argument—in public policy discussions, a logical fallacy that can be used to create many ways to rob Peter to pay Paul with the coercive power of government.

61.

What Should Government Do?

Toward the end of his 2012 State of the Union speech, President Obama says, “I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: that government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more” (Obama 2012). Ironically, Obama was one of American history’s most aggressive expanders of the scope and reach of the federal government. There is a cognitive dissonance between these quoted words and the laundry list of things he wanted to do for—and to—Americans.

62.

The Something-for-Nothing Syndrome

While most of Leonard Read’s writings were published through the Foundation for Economic Education, not all of them were. For instance, his 1937 Romance of Reality predates FEE’s 1946 founding. Another example is a speech Read made to Hillsdale College—“The Something-for-Nothing Syndrome” (Read 1976b), published in its December 1976 issue of Imprimis.

63.

Follow Read’s Pattern

Americans have recently been through some of the most heated presidential campaigns in history. Competition has in large part become a matter of trying to buy votes with promises to abuse the liberty of those voters. But what would a campaign by a candidate who was a true lover of liberty look like?