Understanding the far-reaching positive influence of individual property rights requires some creative thinking.
A for-profit company is helping rural Africans earn money from their land by securing their property rights.
Should governments have a blanket right to exclude immigrants?
On the 8th anniversary of Minecraft’s launch, let’s take a moment to appreciate just how great it is.
California is running on the equivalent of a Windows operating system (OS) that’s backwards compatible with earlier versions of the OS — and thus just as confusing, complicated, and conservative as you would expect from a system dating back decades.
Truly supporting choice means supporting the right of individuals to choose.
Watson offered up a simple truism about feminism that is more powerful than it might sound: “Feminism is about giving women choice.”
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 […]
Whether you’re on the right or the left, if you care about civil rights, property rights, or liberty, abolishing civil asset forfeiture should be high on your agenda.
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 free-market concept is simple — private property owners should be able to preside over whatever policies they want.
Last Christmas, Pope Francis criticized holiday consumerism, saying that ours is “a society often intoxicated by consumerism … wealth and extravagance.”
To understand why this sort of critique is mistaken, and why consumerism and capitalism deserve our love at Christmastime and throughout the year, we need to go back to basics.
I was still a Soviet citizen when I first read some of the international documents on human, economic, and political rights.
The most far-fetched myth that I’ve encountered recently is that the wealth of the modern Western world, especially that of the United States, is the product of slavery.
One great benefit of markets is that prices tell us what to do. Not through orders, which often don’t work, but through incentives.
With minor variations between the states, the law governing the use and ownership of real property emerged as part of English common law.
The right of humans to freely cooperate on an open market is the surest way to bring about not only economic, but human harmony.
After putting a “For Sale” sign in the window of his car, which was parked on the street outside his home, Michael Cefali was surprised to receive a $50 ticket from the city of San Juan Capistrano. According to the Orange County Register, Cefali violated a city code which “prohibits the parking of a vehicle […]
YouTube is effectively censoring video content by barring videos that depict controversial subjects from collecting advertising revenue.
Does a ban on signs on the beach infringe on property rights? Edward and DeLanie Goodwin, in partnership with the Pacific Legal Foundation, argue that it does, and have filed a lawsuit with Walden County, Florida. Walden County recently banned all signs on private beach property—this includes “Private Property” and “No Trespassing” signs meant to […]
A few weeks ago, park staff asked Bina Ramesh, a 22-year-old woman celebrating her birthday at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, to change her attire because they deemed it inappropriate—something that Ramesh interpreted as an obvious ploy to discriminate against women. The story does make the park look pretty unsympathetic. It seems […]
Property rights are key for a free society. Since they set out what belongs to whom, they are the foundation for human freedom. Property norms tell us who can do what, with what, and to whom. When securely guaranteed, property rights offer a basis (if not the best basis) for predictability and stability. As social […]
Many voters, especially younger voters, are “feeling the Bern.” But what exactly are they feeling? Generally, these individuals believe that some people (financially successful individuals) owe other people (low-income individuals)—and that some people, like those of the working class or youth demographic, are entitled to receive benefits at the expense of others. Is This an […]
Saving a species from extinction is a daunting and important task. On many occasions, legislation designed to protect endangered species can be both inefficient and ineffective. Protecting the environment has the same problems – no matter how well-intentioned environmental protection laws are, unintended consequences often make bad situations worse, exacerbating pollution and environmental waste. Can […]