 A Revolutionary Struggle
by Tibor R. Machan
Be it welcome or not, there are a revolutionary struggle afoot in the
world. It started when certain thinkers began to dispute the claims made
by defenders of various rulers--monarchs, dictators, tsars and the
like--that some people have a divine or natural right to run the lives of
other people. (Read more...)
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Saturday
December 27, 2008 |
Year End Pet Peeves
by Tibor R. Machan
Mostly I write on topics I suspect concern a wide enough audience.
Columnists don’t just write on anything that pops into their minds but
need to do a bit of service to reader-clients. But, if one has a regular
venue for one’s columns, it maybe fine, now and then, to indulge oneself
with a topic or two that’s more personal. Even these will, of course, aim
to please, if only by inviting reader-clients to know a bit of the writer. (Read more...)
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Saturday
December 20, 2008 |
Against USA, Inc.
by Tibor R. Machan
Government, even if democratic--meaning one that serves everyone in
society--is to be limited in its scope. That scope is to secure our
rights, just as the American Founders envisioned it. (Read more...)
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Bailout Is No Public Good
by Tibor R. Machan
The failures are a very good reason to stop all this wealth redistribution
and government regimentation--those folks up there in Washington,
Sacramento, Brussels, and the like just haven’t clue and thus all they can
do when they insist on “doing something” is to muddle about, pose,
pretend, or fake. (Read more...)
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The FDR "Solution"
by Tibor R. Machan
It is a very scary prospect but if president-elect Barack Obama is
serious about admiring President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for how the
latter dealt with America’s Great Depression, then America and the world
may be in for some very ugly times indeed. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 3, 2008 |
India, Government & Insecurity
by Tibor R. Machan
My impression is that if we had governments around the globe that
focused on their proper and properly limited job--namely, the securing or
protection of our rights--and they eschewed involvement in the
undertakings that's none of their business, there would be less terrorism
by far. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 26, 2008 |
No, I'm Not Mean
by Tibor R. Machan
No, I am not mean. I am personally a frequent contributor to
voluntary efforts to lend a hand even while my focus in my writings
happens to be mostly on eliminating coercion from human interactions. (Read more...)
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Thursday
November 20, 2008 |
Bailouts Destroy Prudence
by Tibor R. Machan
This is just one of thousands of results of the mixed economy, the
welfare state, in which your individuality is abolished and you are
treated as a member of some ant colony or bee hive. You will be
conscripted to be part of it all, never mind how sensibly you may figure
out to deal with the fiasco. (Read more...)
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Exceptions Not the Rule
by Tibor R. Machan
Many years ago I saw a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson who fell out of an airplane without a parachute, landed in a tree that slowed his fall and left him totally uninjured, and lived to write a best selling book about his experience. But, I am pleased to report, he did not become an advocate of everyone jumping out of airplanes. (Read more...)
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American Commissars
by Tibor R. Machan
My reason for focusing on these ideas is not so much to dispute them from the viewpoint of sound
political economy but to examine them as instances of rank and immoral political elitism.
(Read more...)
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Obama, Franken and Socialism
by Tibor R. Machan
The race in Minnesota was still too close to call on Friday, November 7th
but the fact that Senator Obama, who had by than become president elect of
the United States, made a strong plea for electing Mr. Franken is a
significant and distressing clue to what we are in for over the next
several years. (Read more...)
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Whistling in the Dark
by Tibor R. Machan
It is hardly ever disputed among honest political economists that most Western countries, including the United States, are welfare states or mixed economies. Unlike, say, a fascist or socialist country, in a relatively free society if a substantial number of voting citizens champion a system that undermines the very li... (Read more...)
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Futility of Egalitarianism
by Tibor R. Machan
The ancient Greek myth of Procrustes’ bed has it that the bed had the attribute of being exactly as long as anyone who lay down on it. Procrustes didn't disclose to his guests his scheme that those who laydown on this extraordinary bed got manipulated so that if they were too short for the bed they had their legs ch... (Read more...)
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What Politicians Should Say
by Tibor R. Machan
Here is what members of Congress should tell the voting public: "Ladies and Gentleman, you asked for it and now you have got it, good and hard." (Read more...)
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Wednesday
September 17, 2008 |
Welfare State Follies
by Tibor R. Machan
By all historical accounts the fully free society has never been tried, so arguing about it will always be to a large extent theoretical. But than nearly all of contemporary astrophysics is theoretical, as it much of psychology and other social sciences in which controlled experiments are not possible or permissible. Based, however, on much thinking and research, some of it historical enough, there is no reasonable doubt about the benefit of human liberty in all realms of human endeavor. Unfortunately the sole trial has been conducted in the realm covered by the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, effecting religion and the arts and humanities (including journalism). And few other than out and out Fascists and theocrats deny that in these areas freedom has been all to the good! It may, therefore, be reasonably inferred that liberty would mostly likely serve us well in all areas of human concern, including the financial markets and even emergency services, two in which recent upheavals haven’t been dealt with swimmingly by the welfare state. That’s despite the fact that welfare state measures--namely vast government interference in various professions and ordinary human activities--are most often defended on the grounds that they are needed to prevent or cope with disasters, financial or natural! (Read more...)
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Another Problem with Welfare Rights
by Tibor R. Machan
A welfare or positive right, so called, is something that can only be protected by coercing others to provide it. Consider the right to health care. This supposed right can only be honored by making health care professionals provide services for those who have need for it. (Read more...)
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Is Religious Politics Libertarian?
by Tibor R. Machan
In many ways the principles of a fully free society are the most hospitable to the great variety of faithful in a large society. The main reason for this is that in such a free society the right to private property is strictly protected. Even more, the strict protection of the right to private property serves religion well because it establishes a culture of tolerance and non-interference among the different faithful. (Read more...)
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NATO, Georgia and Russia
by Tibor R. Machan
Thomas Friedman of The New York Times writes that he is against expanding NATO. While he condemns the Russian government for its muscle flexing vis-à-vis the Republic of Georgia, he considers Georgia’s desire to join NATO unwise. As he recounts his and some of his allies reasoning at the time when the USSR collapsed, "It seemed to us that since we had finally brought down Soviet communism and seen the birth of democracy in Russia the most important thing to do was to help Russian democracy take root and integrate Russia into Europe. Wasn’t that why we fought the cold war — to give young Russians the same chance at freedom and integration with the West as young Czechs, Georgians and Poles? Wasn’t consolidating a democratic Russia more important than bringing the Czech Navy into NATO?" (Read more...)
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The Scope of Public Choice Theory
by Tibor R. Machan
Prague, Czech Republic. In October 1985 (I think it was) Professor James Buchanan, now at George Mason University's Department of Economics, received the Nobel Prize in his discipline for his pioneering work—in collaboration with Professor Gordon Tullock—in what came to be called public choice theory. The gist of this theory is that those who work in government, often referred to in the honorific terms as doing "public service," are, contrary to widespread impression, just as much motivated by personal or self-interest as are people in the market place. In other words, politicians and bureaucrats pursue their own agendas, not those of "the public," just as people in business do. And from this a number of interesting insights follow about the nature of government policy. (Read more...)
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Human Rights Were Not Invented
by Tibor R. Machan
Professor Lynn Hunt's recently published book is titled Inventing Human Rights and though it is full of very useful information about the emergence of the idea of basic human, individual rights, it also perpetuates, perhaps entirely unconsciously, a very serious error. (Read more...)
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Leader of the Free World Torpedoes Freedom
by Tibor R. Machan
Cologne, Germany. As The New York Times reported the other day-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/business/worldbusiness/30trade.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin --the United States was among three of the most powerful economies of the world, China and India being the others, to ground to a halt the effort at the World Trade Organization (which recently met met in Geneva, Switzerland), to eliminate or at least lower farm subsidies so as to open markets that could then admit as serious participants citizens of poor countries the economies of which are only going to improve of their farm products can be sold globally. It is truly disgusting and embarrassing that America is among the countries where protectionism is a major political force. (Read more...)
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A Chance for Freedom?
by Tibor R. Machan
Lugano, Switzerland: Over the last two and a half decades or so I have been attending conferences organized by the Business & Economics Society International that has its home at Assumption College in New Hampshire.
This summer I believe I have attended for the fifth or sixth time, often presenting papers and taking part in discussions about business ethics and political economy.
(Read more...)
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Fourth of July and the Public Interest
by Tibor R. Machan
Throughout history political thinkers have been doing a lot of fretting about the public good (or public interest, common good, general welfare, etc.). Usually they came up with massive plans or enchanting visions. Plato's teacher, Socrates, was the great grand daddy contributing to this tradition, what wi... (Read more...)
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Public TV bash
by Tibor R. Machan
A colleague asked me to come and sit with him and his pals at the table to celebrate KOCE-TV’s 35th anniversary celebration. I went, though with some trepidation, given that KOCE-TV is a "public" television station in Orange County, CA. It is mostly funded from contributions but does receive about 10% of its operating expenses from the government, via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I was informed by one official at the organization. Compared to many other subsidized undertakings, the amount isn’t huge but, still, it does involve robbing Peter a bit so as to support Paul with the latter’s preferred projects. (Read more...)
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Politicizing Science
by Tibor R. Machan
As many who read my columns would know, I am an avid reader of Science News, the magazine of the Society for Science and the Public located in Washington, D. C. It's now been a few decades that I have been kept abreast of developments in a great variety of sciences, natural and social, by reading this publication. (Read more...)
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