We Americans are far too generous with Uncle Sam. Why do we yield to his pleas for funds so readily? He’s the spendthrift uncle who’s flat broke, but still likes to dress well and drive a Mercedes to his bankruptcy hearing. So, he drops by at suppertime, has a free meal, and hits you up for a hundred or so. Historically, we’ve been a soft touch
Good News Is Bad News. “Those who would understand the mysteries of the marketplace must drink deeply of the well of Wisdom.” That’s Socrates, 122BC. Now Socrates, may or may not have said that. But if he didn’t, he should have. Take Friday, the 8th: the financial news was intoxicating. The jobless rate fell to 4.7 from 4.8. virtually no
The universe is full of mysteries; like when does the phone company collect the coins in pay telephones? (Have you ever seen a guy in a phone company uniform lugging a satchel full of quarters out of the airport phone booths?) Why is it that your driver’s-side windshield wiper is ALWAYS the faulty one? And why do we Southerners say “lyberry”
“The ways of government are unknowable to man”. Somebody must have said that over the past 5000 years. In fact it must have been stated every five minutes by anybody who thought about government. Socrates, Aristotle, Hume, Locke, even Ronald Reagan. Maybe even David Bronner. Know him? You should — he runs the Alabama Pension Program and he just
I loved my cat. Probably as much as my cousin, Malcolm, who owed me fifty bucks. So when she died — my cat, not Malcolm — I was unhappy. I remembered the words of Genesis. “Dust thou art and to dust returneth.” How depressing. But I cheered up a little when I reread that big, black book and noticed that the author didn’t specifically mention my
The Iraqi version of Jack the Ripper, Al-Zarqawi, got his. So, that was good. But our buoyant mood was ruined by the Rhode Island legislature. Though not near the malingnancy of Al-Zarqawi, they planted a small, silly IED in the pathway of freedom. Just a pinprick — insignificant — still, as ominous as smoke curling out of the barn door. The
Sometimes there’s nothing so relaxing as sitting on your patio alone enjoying a beer, with only the backyard birds for company. And sometimes nothing beats a brew with a pal at your corner tavern. But in both cases, there’s an uninvited and invisible third party who can not be ignored. He’s the governor of your state and his fellow legislators —
Let us be honest. I’m only a 93% Libertarian and roughly a 90% patriot. That’s why I curse our Alabama Legislature’s proposal to mount cameras at traffic intersections, but view with calm equanimity the wiretapping of suspects or even suspected suspects who’d like to blow up New York City; or poison Chicago’s water supply or otherwise harm me or
I don’t mean to pick on the US Postal Service, but I must admit to a strong (but not yet clinical) obsession with monopolies — especially those that deliver mail. Consequently, the planet’s largest governmental monopoly draws my attention like cow patties attract flies. Maybe its existence is necessary just to provide a real-world experiment in
You rarely learn anything from TV except for its incredible lack of reality and its delight in delivering statist messages. But the other night was an exception. I learned something. The History channel was relating a lottery scandal of some years back in Pennsylvania.. Not surprisingly, lottery officials were bribed so that 3 specific numbers
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.