Tag: government
Millennials Like Socialism — Until They Get Jobs
June 28, 2016 | Post
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared at the Washington Post. The author, Emily Ekins, will be joining Learn Liberty on Facebook Live this upcoming Thursday the the 30th at 3pm to talk about this and other election issues. Millennials are the only age group in America in which a majority views socialism favorably. A national […]
Putin’s Crackdown on Social Media Provides One Important Reminder to Americans
June 20, 2016 | Post
Russia has been cracking down on its internal dissent, limiting speech that does not coincide with the government’s narrow and controversial policies. Last year, up to 54 people were sent to prison for hate speech, marking a dramatic five-fold increase from five years ago. Take Anastasia Bubeyeva, for example. Bubeyeva now lives alone with her […]
Government Goes into Debt to Help the Poor, Ends up Stealing from Them Instead
June 16, 2016 | Post
We all know government debt is bad for the young. But it’s also bad for the poor. Hurting the Kids to Help the Elderly The well-known political philosopher Loren Lomasky recently reminded us of why debt is bad for the young. We might be able to justify spending now, and borrowing to finance the spending, […]
Privatize the TSA!
June 7, 2016 | Post
Editor’s note: This blog post by Gary Leff was originally posted at the travel blog View From the Wing. The TSA has failed to meaningfully detect dangerous items going through the checkpoint for years. Their 95 percent failure rate is hardly new, ten years ago it was a 91% failure rate. That’s unacceptable. We don’t need […]
A Little White Lie I Told as a Camp Counselor Explains Political Strategy Perfectly
June 6, 2016 | Post
It would not be remarkable to observe that politicians lie. Many people lie. What is remarkable is that politicians keep telling the same lies over and over again. Few people do this. (Donald Trump, who tells a new lie almost every time he opens his mouth, is not a counterexample to this observation because he […]
How My Annual Halloween Parade Explains Donald Trump’s Success
May 26, 2016 | Post
Many public intellectuals and political pundits were surprised by Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the Republican nomination. In my opinion, this is because they succumbed to what has (unfairly) become known as the “Pauline Kael syndrome.” Pauline Kael is the New Yorker critic who was reputed to have remarked after the 1972 Presidential election that “Nixon […]
How the State Became the American Woman’s Real Enemy
May 18, 2016 | Post
Editor’s Note: This is part one in a two part series from Sarah Skwire on women and liberty. You can read part two here. I’ve been a feminist for as long as I can remember. One of our oldest family stories is of Young Sarah asking Mom why Puppy Chow had a commercial that said “Don’t […]
Legal and Cultural Approaches to Pluralism and Diversity
May 12, 2016 | Post
The term “pluralism” connotes both a description of our deep differences and a political response to those differences. Let’s start with pluralism as a description of our cultural reality. Our society is incredibly diverse when it comes to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, and sexuality. We have different life experiences, we live in different communities, […]
Minecraft and Spontaneous Order
May 4, 2016 | Post
A recent piece in The New York Times Magazine explores the world of Minecraft and how children interact with the game. Minecraft is a game which allows players to build complex creations in a virtual world, either on their own or in shared spaces with other players. The gameplay combines a number of different elements: […]
On Loyalty Day, Here’s What We Really Need to Be Remembering
May 1, 2016 | Post
Sunday is Loyalty Day, which celebrates loyalty, responsibility…and subservience to the country. That’s right—Loyalty Day is a day set aside as a time for the “reaffirmation of loyalty to America.” A little creepy, right? Many Americans are rightly proud of their country and loyal to it—up to a point. Loyalty Day gives us the opportunity […]
Supreme Court Questions Constitutionality of Obama’s Executive Action on Immigration
April 26, 2016 | Post
The Supreme Court is currently considering the legality of President Obama’s executive action on immigration that grants legal status to an estimated four million undocumented immigrants who have children who are U.S. citizens and no criminal record. The debate has divided those who love liberty, because while the policy—ending forced deportations of upstanding parents of […]
The Game of Thrones Must Be Stopped
April 22, 2016 | Post
What does the hit HBO series Game of Thrones tell us about political science and the incentives faced by people in positions of power? Professor Matt McCaffrey explains in the following Learn Liberty video.
When the Government Tries to Protect Your Freedom and Ruins Everything
April 12, 2016 | Post
“That, gentlemen, is freedom.”So spoke an esteemed friend and mentor to me, decades ago, on listening to clarinetist Edmund Hall play an effortlessly glorious solo on the Louis Armstrong record Ambassador Satch. “What could he mean?” I wondered. “What has making music to do with freedom?” He did not explain.I now believe what my friend […]
Should You Hire a Private Bodyguard?
March 18, 2016 | Post
Editor’s note: This blog post contains descriptions of rape and sexual assault. Reader’s discretion is advised. I lived in Erlangen, Germany for much of 2009, getting around on a bicycle. After the big April beer festival, the “Bergkirchweih,” my lock was cut and my bike was thrown down a hill and set on fire (it […]
The Red Rising Trilogy, A Review
February 29, 2016 | Post
The Red Rising trilogy is a “must read” for those who follow young adult dystopias, dystopian fiction in general, and contemporary science fiction, as well as those interested in “big idea” fiction about individualism and liberty. Red Rising owes a debt to many science fiction works that came before it, from Frank Herbert’s Dune and […]
Quote of the Day: Thomas Jefferson the Anarchist?
February 2, 2016 | Post
The First Rule of Wing-Walking
January 25, 2016 | Post
Wing-walking was the practice of getting out of the cockpit of a biplane (while someone else was flying the thing) and staggering along the wing holding onto struts or wires. It was a thrill show for onlookers at air shows and barnstorming events in the 1920s and 1930s in the U.S. But for the wing-walker […]
New Smoking Ban is Anti-Liberty
January 18, 2016 | Post
The government “smoking police” are at it again. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently proposed a rule that will force more than 3,100 housing agencies in the United Sates to become smoke-free. Specifically, the regulation will prohibit “lit cigarettes, cigars and pipes in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and […]
Quote of the Day
January 5, 2016 | Post
Star Wars’s Timely Message on the Rise of Dictatorships
December 17, 2015 | Post
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 […]
The Hunger Games as a Political Allegory
December 16, 2015 | Post
Over at the Foundation for Economic Education, Jeffrey Tucker has broken down the political allegories of the Hunger Games. With the long-awaited finale of the Hunger Games series just recently released, it’s a great time to consider the political implications of the story, especially considering the series’ popularity with young people. Tucker touches on many […]
Discrimination, Freedom of Association, and “True Capitalism”
December 14, 2015 | Post
In order to label a country “capitalist” there must be complete freedom of association and private property. There is a limited government in place, but the government would be a referee, not a player. It would be outrageous to watch ESPN and hear, “The ref had a great game! He sacked the quarterback twice and […]
Human Rights Day
December 10, 2015 | Post
Today is Human Rights Day, a day when we commemorate the respect for individual rights, which are largely responsible for the human flourishing enjoyed in recent centuries. In the U.S., human rights are enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They guarantee basic rights like freedom of expression, self-defense, and due process. Historically, […]
Staff Profile: Cassie Whalen
December 8, 2015 | Post
Learn Liberty: First, when did you join the Learn Liberty team and what is your role? Cassie Whalen: I joined the Learn Liberty team in September of 2014 as an intern, but I loved working here so much that I didn’t want to leave. Luckily I got hired, so now I write for various Learn […]