Category:Liberty
The classical liberal case against nationalist immigration restrictions
March 26, 2017 | Post
If any part of liberalism needs revitalizing, it’s the case for liberalizing immigration. Nationalists on the left and right argue that easing immigration restrictions would make Americans worse off. During the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders criticized open borders as a “right-wing proposal” that would “make everybody in America poorer.” And of course Donald Trump is calling […]
Mercy Otis Warren: Conscience of Great Causes
March 25, 2017 | Post
Two centuries before “women’s lib,” in the run-up to America’s Revolutionary War, Mercy Otis Warren was already a liberated woman by the standards of her day. And she did the liberating herself. In the latter half of the 18th century, Warren was an accomplished poet, playwright, pamphleteer, and historian — though much of what she […]
Entrepreneurs create value for disabled workers.
March 24, 2017 | Post
Any entrepreneur who succeeds in reducing costs faced by a laborer who suffers from a disability can earn a profit.
Criminalization without Representation
March 24, 2017 | Video
Criminalization without representation is what happens when unelected officials use regulation to effectively create criminal laws — 295,000 of them. This video was created in partnership with the Manhattan Institute. Learn more about their work on overcriminalization.
Trump, Trade, and Great Power War
March 23, 2017 | Post
One of the signature features of President Donald Trump’s campaign was his hostility to free trade. Then-candidate Trump repeatedly denigrated various multilateral trade pacts as bad deals for the United States. Pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, appointing opponents of free trade—such as Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro—into key positions, and promises of tariffs that are likely to […]
Violent video games do not cause real-world aggression
March 22, 2017 | Post
Upon seeing a copy of the (now classic) fighting game Mortal Kombat, Senator Joe Lieberman announced his intention to introduce legislation that would prohibit the sale of such games to minors.
Mary Wollstonecraft: Libertarian Feminist
March 21, 2017 | Post
Almost two centuries before the women’s lib movement and a full century before the suffragettes, not all women were quiet subordinates to men. In this 1996 essay, historian Jim Powell provides us with an illuminating account of the brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft, an 18th-century author and philosopher who never minced her words in defense of equal […]
Liberty and "social" justice for all is impossible
March 19, 2017 | Post
To provide benefits under the umbrella of social justice, the government will have to violate individuals’ rights to themselves and their property.
Remembering the forgotten women, victims of government
March 17, 2017 | Post
in honor of Women’s History Month, I want to highlight three stories of women you probably have never heard of — victims of government.
How urban planners broke Brooklyn
March 17, 2017 | Post
Zoning and landmark laws have frozen much of New York into a life-size historical diorama: neighborhoods frozen in time, where the only thing that goes up is the rent.
The moral dimensions of liberty; Why goodness requires freedom
March 16, 2017 | Post
Freedom is an essential component of human morality at all levels.
Vivien Kellems: "Please Indict Me!"
March 13, 2017 | Post
“All our liberties are due to [wo]men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land.”
3 women who inspired the modern libertarian movement
March 12, 2017 | Post
Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and Ayn Rand together comprise the “founding mothers” of modern libertarianism.
Huge net costs from Trump’s new executive order cutting refugees
March 11, 2017 | Post
President Trump earlier this week issued a revised version of his infamous executive order to temporarily ban the issuance of new green cards and visas for nationals from Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan. The new order dropped Iraq, which eviscerated Trump’s argument that the list of banned countries is based on an existing list […]
Market demand is reforming farm ethics
March 10, 2017 | Post
Regardless of one’s position on eating meat, one can still care about not intentionally inflicting pain on animals.
In praise of safe spaces on campus
March 9, 2017 | Post
I want to come out in favor of safe spaces. Not everywhere, or for all purposes, but in general I think there should be a strong presumption in favor of limited and exclusive safe spaces for any group that wants to establish one. Of course, the group would need to have the ability and legal […]
Women prosper when markets are free
March 8, 2017 | Post
Today is International Women’s Day and, in some of the least surprising news of the day, it turns out that women’s equality ties into economic freedom. International Women’s Day was founded by the American Socialist Party in 1909 and usually ends up celebrating women in government, politics, and statism, but let’s look at something else. […]
The battle to make America wet again
March 8, 2017 | Post
The forgotten story of how American women turned the tide against Prohibition and reclaimed the moral high ground from the dry movement.
The less work required, the happier we’ll be
March 8, 2017 | Post
Jobs are the means, not the ends in themselves.
Anonymity and doxing in the 1787 ratification debates
March 7, 2017 | Post
The American founding generation had this crazy idea that ideas mattered more than who espoused them.
The business case for supersonic overland
March 7, 2017 | Post
Wouldn’t a fleet of supersonic aircraft overland create intolerable sonic booms that would rattle windows and scare livestock?
Why sex work should be legal
March 6, 2017 | Post
The most straightforward reason to oppose the criminalization of the sex industry is that trading sex for money is not wrong.
Why congressional term limits could limit presidential power
March 3, 2017 | Post
The incentive structure of the federal government needs adjusting.
How Capitalism Freed Victorian Women
March 2, 2017 | Video
Dr. Thaddeus Russell explains how capitalism offered women their own jobs, money, and freedom.