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Economics
Why We Need a Flat Tax
Making tax returns easier — without Turbo Tax — is just reason “The system of discriminatory taxation universally accepted under the misleading name of progressive taxation of income and inheritance is not a mode of taxation. It is rather a mode of disguised expropriation of the successful capitalists and entrepreneurs”. – Ludwig von Mises If the free market has been so successful at massively reducing poverty worldwide, then why do people continue to complain about inequality? People often argue that the free market has enabled a small group of wealthy individuals to profit
Civil Liberties
Juneteenth: 3 Lessons in Activism
On June 19th, 1865, Texas became the last state in the nation to proclaim enslaved African Americans free. Exactly three years ago this past Monday,
Economics
High Time to Rethink High Schooling
Why Educational Vouchers Are Not Enough In 1955, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Milton Friedman, introduced the idea of school vouchers
All Learn Liberty Blog Posts
Poverty & Inequality
Featured On Demand Program of the Week: Social Justice
In this On Demand Program, our professors will explain the means and ends of arguments for social justice through the lens of classical liberalism. You’ll learn more about how to adapt your own arguments to fit the critiques of markets and individual liberty that come from advocates for social justice. Then we’ll look at the […]
Uncategorized
Why Is Unemployment Persistently High for Low-Skilled People?
A student recently asked me why unemployment remains so stubbornly high, especially for lower-skilled people. Here’s an adaptation of my answer. No one can know for sure the precise causes of unemployment; the economy is a fantastically complex system, like an ecology but still more complex, so unemployment is sure to have a variety of […]
Uncategorized
Holiday Season Brings Booze (Taxes)
Christmastime isn’t just about giving presents and sleeping in all morning. For many, it means boozy holiday parties and a chance to kick back a beer (or three) with family and friends. But holiday brews aren’t cheap—and it’s not the alcohol that makes them so expensive. In the video below, George Mason University Professor Christopher […]
Uncategorized
Discussion Question: Vaccines
A 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield claimed that vaccines to common viruses, such as the measles, were linked to causing autism. Based on this (widely discredited) study, many parents have not let their children receive vaccinations. Should parents have the right to do this? Should parents have the right to keep their children from receiving […]
Uncategorized
Star Wars Proves the Road to Dictatorship is Democratic
The newest Star Wars movie is smashing box office records. But it’s not just a science-fiction tale of lightsabers and Sith lords. “The Force Awakens” continues the story of a democratic republic that succumbs to ruthless dictatorship when its citizens give up their civil liberties. Promising security, Emperor Palpatine didn’t simply proclaim himself supreme ruler—he […]
Uncategorized
Did you know Hollywood blockbusters are often subsidized by government?
States compete with each other to attract film studios with subsidies that make the cost of filming cheaper. While politicians sell these subsidies as good for economic development, they often cost taxpayers quite a bit of money. This is one of the reasons that many shows and movies which take place in Washington, D.C., like […]
Uncategorized
New Hampshire Legislators Join the Free Speech Movement
While students are enjoying their break from classes, New Hampshire legislators are standing up for their free speech rights on campus. A pair of state representatives recently introduced two bills to protect academic freedom at New Hampshire’s public colleges and universities. They’re not alone: Learn Liberty has launched a new website encouraging students to #SpeakFreely […]
Uncategorized
Summer Internship: Support Free Speech on Campus with FIRE
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education seeks summer interns to aid them in their work defending free speech and individual rights on college campuses across the country. The paid internship is located in FIRE’s Philadelphia, PA headquarters and runs from early June to late July. For more information and to apply, check out FIRE’s […]
Uncategorized
Don Boudreaux: Middle Class Rising
The following post appeared on Don Boudreaux’s blog, Cafe Hayek, on December 20th, 2015. There’s been a lot of reporting recently about a new Pew Research Center report misleadingly titled “The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground” and even more misleadingly subtitled “No longer the majority and falling behind financially.” But here’s a picture of Pew’s […]
Uncategorized
The Death Star: Building It, Not Destroying It, Was the Catastrophe
You might have come across this recent article which argues that destroying the Death Star in Star Wars would have economically crippled the galaxy. There are a number of problems with the article, as Janet Neilson at the Foundation for Economic Education points out. The three major causes for concern are: Mistaking the cost of […]
Uncategorized
Quote of the Day: Hayek on Money
F.A. Hayek was highly critical of central banking and of government’s proclaimed interest in holding a monopoly on the issuance of money. Hayek eventually turned his opinions on money and free banking into an economic treatise in the book “The Denationalization of Money“. Some even say Hayek predicted the emergence of Bitcoin nearly three decades […]
Uncategorized
Will Taxing the Rich Fix the Deficit?
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have never met a tax they didn’t like. They argue that it will balance the budget and act as though it was a silver bullet to the U.S. government’s fiscal woes. But will taxing the rich really fix the budget deficit? Professor Antony Davies tackles that question in this Learn […]
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Learn Liberty Staff Profile: Eric Andreasen
Learn Liberty: First, when did you join the Learn Liberty team and what is your role? Eric Andreasen: I joined the Learn Liberty team as a marketing intern in 2013. In addition to my duties as Marketing Coordinator, I manage the organization’s social media accounts. LL: How did you find your way to the philosophy […]
Uncategorized
Wait: Why Would a Liquor Store Want to be Forced to Close on Sundays?
Alcohol laws are some of the most headache-inducing rules on the planet. Recently, AL.com ran an article about Sunday alcohol sales in Alabama with notes about how you can buy alcohol in some places on Sundays, but only (say) for on-premises consumption. Or only if you’re a restaurant or a hotel. Or only for off-premises […]
War on Drugs
Featured On Demand Program of the Week: Vice City
In this new On Demand series professors Peter Jaworski, Aeon Skoble and Daniel D’Amico will take you on a journey into the world of government regulation of all things vices. You’ll explore how government deregulation of craft beers has helped reshape the entire industry and how alcohol laws in Virginia actually do the opposite of […]
Uncategorized
Wealth and Exploitation
The following is an excerpt from Don Boudreaux on his blog, Cafe Hayek. Be sure to click through and read the whole post. Deirdre [McCloskey] acknowledges that a great deal of exploitation has occurred throughout history – exploitation that enriched some people and impoverished others. (Indeed, such exploitation continues to occur in various forms and degrees.) […]
Uncategorized
Discussion Question: Thalidomide
Thalidomide was a drug marketed in the 1950s in West Germany for the treatment of morning sickness and other nausea in pregnant women. However, thousands of women who took thalidomide had babies who were born with limb deformities, and many of those children also died shortly after birth. Can the government justifiably keep thalidomide out […]
Uncategorized
Remy Explains Democracy to Dictatorship through Star Wars
Star Wars, whose next installment opens this week, includes many important themes. One of the most relevant today is that a democratic republic is precious thing. If it is not guarded, it can quickly turn into a dictatorship. People often forget that pre-Nazi Germany was a constitutional democracy and that Hitler came to power by […]
Uncategorized
Star Wars’s Timely Message on the Rise of Dictatorships
The next installment of Star Wars premieres Friday. The Star Wars franchise tells the story of a republic that falls into a dictatorship because its citizens desire safety and are willing to sacrifice civil liberties in response to fear. Sound familiar? Western countries, including the U.S., have sacrificed hard won civil liberties as a way […]
Education
Announcing Institute for Humane Studies at the International Students For Liberty Conference 2016
Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) has a few breakout sessions at ISFLC 2016 you wont want to miss. Be sure to register for ISFLC before the new year when prices jump! Looking for another reason to attend the 9th International Students For Liberty Conference? I’ve got three: David Friedman, Bryan Caplan, and Antony Davies. The […]
Education
Microaggressions and Professor Speech on Campus
The fall semester at many universities is coming to an end. That means course evaluations – one of the few opportunities students have to provide feedback on their professors. Constructive criticism is often taken into account in decisions about promotions and tenure. But now there is a movement to expand course evaluations to include feedback […]
Uncategorized
Minimum Wage and Employment: Debunking the Oft-Cited 1994 Study
Preston Cooper over at Economics 21 has written an excellent piece about minimum wage’s effects on employment. Economics teaches us that when you raise the price of a good, the amount of that good which is demanded goes down. This is true whether the thing for sale is ketchup or labor. Supporters of the minimum […]
War on Drugs
Blurred Lines: Police and Military
Dozens of innocent people are terrorized, shot, or killed each year because of botched SWAT team drug raids on wrong houses. Dozens more are killed each year because of botched SWAT team drug raids on the correct houses. This needless suffering and death is largely a result of the massive increase in police militarization in […]
Education
Trivia: Did you know this about Rose Wilder Lane?
Did you know? Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder, was sympathetic to communism until a Red Cross mission to Russia, that would later influence her to become a libertarian? This article from the Foundation for Economic Education explains her disillusionment with communism: “Lane visited the Soviet Union […]