Would you tell a lie to protect someone from harm?
With minor variations between the states, the law governing the use and ownership of real property emerged as part of English common law.
In 1930, total government expenditure was 10% of GDP. Of that, approximately 3% was federal spending, and 7% was state and local spending. Today, government expenditure is about 40% of GDP, with 25% of that spending federal, and the remaining 15% state and local.
As Hayek long argued, a free society is governed by general, abstract rules that are equally applicable to all persons, including government actors.
In the absence of a compelling interest, such as preventing physical harm, governments have no right to control what goes on inside of churches and other houses of worship.
National and state governments often create accommodations to protect religious individuals from neutral, generally applicable laws, but they have also passed laws affirmatively protecting religious citizens from discrimination by both private and governmental entities. Most prominently, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, prohibits employers with more than 15 employees from […]
Politicians have never met a new taxpayer-funded government program they didn’t like.
If conservationists truly want to protect the pangolin, they’ll need to acknowledge the incentives of the humans that threaten them, and create policies which address them.
To answer this question we must first learn the distinction between contemporary conceptions of freedom and “The Freedom of the Ancients.”
Rather than invent new human rights, people who are concerned about poverty should first ask what kind of barriers government creates that prevent social mobility. Those barriers should all be removed before any thought is given to taxing some people in order to give money or resources to others.
“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” — Milton Friedman
There are two problems with an estate tax: 1. The belief that estates should be taxed at all reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of economics, and 2. The actual taxing of estates has very different effects than those that advocates imagine it will have.
In this seventh installment in his series on religious liberty, Prof. Mark Hall explains how legislators have carved out exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act to protect religious ceremonies involving controlled substances.
The really radical idea behind the rule of law is that the lawmakers themselves are not above the law. It is “the law” that rules, not those who make and enforce the law.
Is national defense a “public good?” Professor Chris Coyne outlines what it means to be a public good and raises the question of whether we should privatize our National Defense/National Security in America or leave it to the government.
“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
What is it about well intentioned, well-funded, state led, humanitarian aid programs that makes them fail so miserably? The truth is, humanitarian aid intended to alleviate suffering often fails, and in many cases causes additional harm to those who are already suffering. In the first 8 months after Hurricane Katrina, billions of dollars were wasted, […]
Was the Iraq war worth it? The U.S went into Iraq under the pretense of weapons of mass destruction, but another reason was the effort to show Iraqis the power of freedom… to make Iraq safe for democracy. 100,000 civilian casualties and 800 billion dollars later it’s hard to argue that Iraq is better off […]
Professor Mark Hall catalogues a history of accommodating religious objections to military service in this third installment to his series on religious liberty.
Does foreign intervention do more harm than good? It’s hard to look at suffering in developing nations and stomach much of the poverty that exists in the world. Naturally, we all want to help, but to help requires a knowledge that people in a given community have gained over time. Based on experiences, habits and […]
A lack of basic police accountability foments distrust within communities, especially communities of color, turning the social contract on its head.
Do the benefits of foreign intervention outweigh the costs? Foreign intervention is a source of much disagreement among those who believe in a limited government. If the role of government is to keep us safe, is intervening internationally necessary to do so? Professor Chris Coyne of George Mason University explains. Learn more: http://hayekandchill.com/foreign-policy/
John Locke’s most important ideas, for your list-reading pleasure.