What drives domestic politics today is government income redistribution. It forms the core of virtually every fiscal battle, since every policy that gives some what they don’t pay for must be funded from others’ pockets. That gets highlighted during income tax season. The lowest 40% of earners now pay negative income taxes as a group (largely due
Most years, the millions of last minute tax filers make April 15 National Procrastination Day. This year, procrastinators can stall even longer, because April 15 falls on a weekend, pushing the deadline to April 17 (April 18 in states celebrating Patriot’s Day on the 17th). But those honoring this unofficial holiday feel guilty about it. That
In “ George Mason: Protectionism at its Worst, “ T. Norman Van Cott makes the case that despite Mason’s important contribution to America’s revolution and to the principles of American government (particularly in the Virginia Declaration of Rights), his involvement in the slavery issue reflected nothing more than self-seeking. I do not disagree
Adam Smith is history’s most famous economist, yet people know precious little about what he wrote. Perhaps that is because the natural time to reflect on his contributions — the anniversary of his birth — is unknown. However, we do know that he was baptized on June 5, 1723, making the 5th an appropriate time hook to consider his work and
Some legislative efforts are being made to require the government to pay just compensation for takings done in the name of endangered species ( example ). But none of these efforts have so far considered the relevance of the third amendment. Many years ago, Justice William Douglas said, “a few provisions of our Bill of Rights, notably the Third
With seemingly everyone complaining about gasoline prices, I have heard the words greed and greedy used more frequently now than I can ever remember. But I have noticed that accusations of greed are logically inconsistent, yet consistent in expanding government power to coerce some on behalf of others. The most common inconsistency employed in
Marvin Horne, long-time raisin grower, is charged with “stealing from us,” according to the president of the Fresno Cooperative Raisin Growers. What is his crime? Selling his entire crop. That could cost him over $1 million as the result of an administrative hearing this month. Selling what you produce is an odd reason for being defamed and
May 8 marks the 1899 birth of Friedrich Hayek. Though best known as an economist, he was acclaimed for contributions in many fields. Nobel Prize winners and others have lauded him as the 20th century’s outstanding economist, social scientist, and political philosopher. Peter Boettke named him “probably the most prodigious classical liberal scholar
There is a bias to over-emphasize short-run, visible benefits in politics, often to the exclusion of what Frederic Bastiat termed the unseen effects on others and in the long run, because a politicians’ primary success requirement is to get elected long before all the consequences of their policies become obvious. T hat was Henry Hazlitt’s central
Americans seem to have an overwhelming desire to believe that government is the answer, regardless of the question. But given that this belief is untenable to anyone paying even cursory attention to reality, they evade rather than face that reality by constantly looking for the “if only” that might square the circle-if only we could find the
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.