Free Republic

America's current struggles notwithstanding, life here is pretty good. We have a standard of living that's the envy of most of the world. Why did that happen? Prosperity isn't the norm. Throughout history and throughout the world, poverty has been the norm. Most of the world still lives in dire poverty. Of the 6 billion people on earth, perhaps 1 billion have something close to our standard of living. Why did America prosper when most of the people of the world are still poor? Milton Friedman taught me the answer. More than any other American, Friedman, who won the Nobel...

It's from a few months ago, but still very good.

I used to be a Kennedy-style "liberal." Then I wised up. Now I'm a libertarian. But what does that mean? When I asked people on the street, half had no clue. We know that conservatives want government to conserve traditional values. They say they're for limited government, but they're pro-drug war, pro-immigration restriction and anti-abortion, and they often support "nation-building." And so-called liberals? They tend to be anti-gun and pro-choice on abortion. They favor big, powerful government -- they say -- to make life kinder for people. By contrast, libertarians want government to leave people alone -- in both the...

Anybody watched Stossel. Drew Carey is on trying to save Cleveland. Stossel had on Kunicich, who as boy wonder mayor of Cleveland drove it into bankruptcy, and the head of the planning commission. These 2 demostrate why Cleveland and other cities dominated by Democrats are hopeless cases.

Licensing Madness My show tonight tonight asks, why do so many occupations need a license? Requiring permission from the state to do everything from flower arranging to practicing law paralyzes competition and protects entrenched special interests.Our most outrageous example of licensing madness is the plight of David Price, a man who learned the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished, especially when messing with lawyers. Price made the mistake of helping Eldon Ray, a fellow Kansan who was fined for practicing architecture without a license. Price didn’t represent Ray in court; he just helped Ray by writing a letter...

Succeeding in business is tough. You have to create a product that people want and then hope that they want it more than they want your competitors’ products. Superior workmanship, innovation, advertising and customer service might accomplish that, but if you want a special advantage, it sure helps to have a few friends in high places. In this week's syndicated column, I write again about Serious Materials, a "green" window manufacturer that got serious attention from Vice President Biden: Biden laid it on pretty thick for Serious Materials: "This is a story of how a new economy predicated on innovation...

The government-school establishment has said the same thing for decades: Education is too important to leave to the competitive market. If we really want to help our kids, we must focus more resources on the government schools. But despite this mantra, the focus is on something other than the kids. When The Washington Post asked George Parker, head of the Washington, D.C., teachers union, about the voucher program there, he said: "Parents are voting with their feet. ... As kids continue leaving the system, we will lose teachers. Our very survival depends on having kids in D.C. schools so we'll...

Video at link Stossel: Michelle Berry runs a day-care business out of her home in Flint, MI. She thought that she owned her own business, but Berry's been told she is now a government employee and union member. It's not voluntary. Suddenly, Berry and 40,000 other Michigan private day-care providers have learned that union dues are being taken out of the child-care subsidies the state sends them. The "union" is a creation of AFSCME, the government workers union, and the United Auto Workers.

Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn't just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit. F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote "The Road to Serfdom" in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. The book was a hit. Reader's Digest produced a condensed version that sold 5 million copies. Hayek meant that governments can't plan economies without planning people's lives. After all,...

I am watching Stossel and he was interviewing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Stossel asked him about his support of the creation of Government Motors. Rep. Ryan made some rambling response that to me sounded almost like he voted no before yes a la John Kerry. Bit disappointed with that answer.

Somehow we as citizens get used to hearing the word "crisis," and, naturally, we feel that something should be done about whatever it is this time that is causing the next in the long line of so-called crises. However, why is the assumption that government should be the solution? Why are other solutions not sought after? Take John Stossel's recent show on obesity (two clips): As one can see, Meme Roth uses all of the standard demagogic arguments for government action. Our kids are our most precious asset and parents are just too stupid to take care of them. Second,...

When you gas up your car, do you think that you're doing something evil? After all, I'm told that burning gasoline helps "murder the Earth," not to mention fills the coffers of terrorists and despots. So we must move away from oil. Al Gore says, "The future of human civilization is at stake." But I need the gas. I need to drive. I need electricity to light my home. What can I do? Is there an alternative? There is, I'm told. "What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here...

Obama: I Will Tax You to Punish Banks   Today President Obama will propose a new tax on the nation’s biggest banks, reports today's Washington Post. How will the tax work? Firms would pay a "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" at an annual rate of $1,500 for every $1 million borrowed to finance lending and other activities.In other words, the Obama Administration is going to punish those greedy banks by making it more expensive for you to borrow money. This is wrong on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin. Let's start with a point made by Jamie...

Here's a Label: "Stupid"   Labels change over time to ensure no delicate sensitivities are bruised. That's what happened with the word "poor," as in "poor children." Poor children became "disadvantaged." They didn’t get any extra money for that, unfortunately. Now, they're "at-risk." That's not enough, say some members of the language police.People like Washington State Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin, who says "We really put too many negatives on our kids... We need to come up with positive terms." Her solution? Call the kids "at hope."Since Franklin is a politician, she wants to impose her whims on everyone...

omorrow, my Fox Business Network show about Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" will finally air. That should stop the emails like this one from Karen Cooper: "Oh for the love of god! 'Atlas Shrugged' explains about 99 percent of what's wrong in all of the arenas of topics: health care, education, climate change, unions, the economy, etc. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE cover 'Atlas.'" Cooper makes a good point. Even though Rand published "Atlas" in 1957, her descriptions of intrusive and bloated government read like today's news. The "Preservation of Livelihood Law" and "Equalization of Opportunity Law" could be Nancy Pelosi's or...

Stossel's discussion of Atlas Shrugged, on Fox Business 1/07/10

There are several information programs out there produced by John Stoical, that address our health care situation.  They are very good because they cover a number of important issues, help the viewer to understand basic principles, and provide sound ideas how to improve the presnt system, which the present health care plan on Capital Hill does not do. The first presentation I'm going to bring to your attention is a six part ABC 20/20 program that appears on YouTube.  The second will be a sixteen clip presentation on Stossel's FoxNews Business site. The ABC 20/20 presentation is entitled, "John Stossel...

Here is video of Bill O'Reilly talking with John Stossel about a controversial "race, culture, class, and gender task force" at a university in Minnesota that will require students to accept theories like "white privilege and institutional racism." (Video)

John Stossel's new show, aptly titled, "Stossel," will debut tomorrow, December 10, on the FOX Business Network (not FOX News). It premieres at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Thursday, and will repeat Fridays at 7:00 p.m., Eastern. Ironically, the Friday repeat runs up against his old ABC show, 20/20...

John Stossel has broadcast the following email: It’s finally here – my new Fox Business show! Fox fittingly has titled it, Stossel. It premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. It will repeat Fridays at 10 p.m., where I’ll be up against my old program, 20/20. FBN has given me an opportunity to do 44 TV shows on what I am passionate about: economic liberty. For my first shows, at least, I will experiment with a studio audience. I’m inviting both friends, and people who will scream at me and tell me free markets are evil. If you are in the New...