One truism has never been successfully challenged: Government interventions lead to a less efficient, less well-ordered society. In his important book, Basic Principles of Economic Value , Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk develops, among other important concepts, his basic law of prices and includes a footnote that is both intriguing and worthy of
Reichsführer Perry is mad with power . How else can you explain his executive order mandating that Texas girls ages 11 and 12 receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine before entering the sixth grade starting in September 2008? The principled Libertarian view is that Perry’s order is an aggression on the bodies of these young girls. But, of
Seems the Communist Chinese have a better grasp of the sanctity of property rights than many US municipalities. The International Herald Tribune is reporting that Ma Kettle of Chongqing, China, actually beat city hall . The photo accompanying the story is truly worth a thousand words - a scene reminiscent of the Bugs Bunny episode Homeless Hare
How do you restore the dignity supposedly missing from our capitalist society? According to the socialists at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), you restore dignity by having one group of Americans thieve from another, and you have government arrange the transaction. Where is William Graham Sumner when you need him most? According to EPI’s
Traveled to a big city lately? If so, you must have gotten words of wisdom from someone close to you. Advice, such as: do not walk the streets after dark; and, beware of pickpockets. Sound advice indeed. However, let us look closer to what is being said, and what is not said. Your sage friend is really stating that you must be careful on public
It appears that the Appalachians are about to move again. Earthquakes? Shifts in tectonic plates? Not this time. Instead, the movement will be the result of an even more damaging force: congressional legislation. As a young buck growing up in Pittsburgh, I enjoyed riding my bike through the hills and valleys of the Appalachian Plateau of
The lovers of Liberty sometimes discount how hard the statists work. Certainly, we discuss and debate, and read and write, all in an effort to further the cause of Freedom. We grow hungry and need refreshment; that we accept. But, what about the socialists who are in the midst of economic and political plans that will exterminate close to 100
Bill Steigerwald, associate editor, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, puts the horrible Virginia Tech shooting in its almost-forgotten historical context . On March 18, 1927, Andrew Kehoe, board member of Bath Consolidated Schools, Bath Township, Michigan, carried out a massacre that killed 45, including 38 grade-school children. Though, unlike Cho
OK, melting ice and potential oil in the Arctic have brought out the worst in neighboring governments. ( U.S. expedition mapping the Arctic ) But, I have to ask, “What’s in it for me?” There are three possible outcomes: ownership of the oil-rich land is given to me (highly unlikely); it’s given to another individual, or group of individuals, who
It has been said that political movements which appear anemic, confined to the corner tables of beer halls and coffee houses, can become juggernauts overnight with the right dose of ideology, and favorable general mood and climate. Certainly history confirms as much. Today, it starts with the cupcake. You know, the 200 calorie right-of-passage
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.