by Donald C. Ernsberger edited by Jarret Wollstein At the heart of economic theory is the concept of value. What gives an article value? Is it something inherent in an object, or is it some other factor? Does value derive from human effort, or something else? The two major and fundamentally opposite economic systems – capitalism and Marxism – give completely different answers. The Labor Theory Karl Marx's labor theory of value asserts that the value of an object is solely a result of the labor expended to produce it. According to this theory, the more labor or labor time that goes into an object, the more it is worth. Marx defined value as "consumed labor time", and stated that "all goods, considered economically, are only the product of labor and cost nothing except labor". The labor theory of value is the fundamental premise of Marx's economics and the basis of his analysis of the free market. If it is correct, then much of Marx's critique of capitalism is also correct. But if it is false, virtually all of Marx's economic theory is wrong. Here is an example of how the labor theory of value works: A worker in a…
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by Mark Tier Some years ago, on a ferry crossing Hong Kong's harbor (before the communist takeover), I struck up a conversation with a black musician from Seattle, who told me how much he preferred Hong Kong to the States. What impressed him most about Hong Kong was that "everybody has a job!" Each time he repeated this comment his eyes would almost caress the Hong Kong skyline. He spoke as if a place where everyone has a job was alien to his experience, as if he thought of Hong Kong as a fantasy land, a place that simply could not exist on Earth. Back home, he told me, unemployment, especially for blacks, is high. He was also puzzled at the widespread influence of the United States here, and the evident esteem in which his country was held when his personal experiences were quite at variance to this image. Something he definitely did not miss, he said, was his treatment by the Seattle police. Back home, most blacks were poor and therefore, treated badly by the police. Those who appeared to have money weren't much better off. The police assumed they were drug dealers, and treated them badly too. This man's sense of…
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by Dr. Mary J. Ruwart We all want a safe, pollution-free environment - and with hope in our hearts many of us have turned to government rules and regulations to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the horrors of a ravaged world. Yet pollution of our air and water still threatens. In South America the rainforests are cleared so rapidly that some of us may live to see them vanish from the earth. In Africa, big game animals are hunted to extinction. Where has our environmental strategy failed? What can we do to make things right again? The Greatest Threat Of All Toxic Waste: Ironically, the greatest toxic polluter of our nation's environment is the very government we've turned to for protection. The greatest polluter is the US military. Pentagon spokesperson Kevin Doxey told the National Academy of Sciences in 1991 that, "We have found some 17,400 contaminated sites at 1,850 installations, not including formerly used sites." The "contamination" consists of toxic solvents used to de-ice military planes, byproducts of the manufacture of nerve gas and mustard gas, and radioactive debris. In 1988, the Department of Energy estimated that it would take 50 years and $100 billion to clean up a…
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by Geoffrey Erikson The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command. The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep your ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty Fear vs. Hope Certainly one of the most controversial topics of debate in the political arena - anywhere in the world - is the topic of immigration. On the question of immigration policy, opinions range from "open door" advocates of free immigration to "closed door" advocates of zero immigration, and every shade of the spectrum in between. Most Americans fall somewhere in the middle. They recognize, that unless they are Native Americans, their ancestors were once immigrants. They also…
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by Jarret B. Wollstein We are living in exciting times. From the Soviet Union, to Cuba, to East Germany, totalitarian socialism is crumbling and human liberty is advancing throughout the world. With little more than their bare hands and raw courage, ordinary people on every continent are defeating the tanks and secret police of tyrants. We are eyewitnesses to the realization of Victor Hugo's famous maxim, "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." Without Liberty, No Other Human Values Are Possible Liberty is the freedom to act as you please so long as you don't coerce others. Liberty means you can associate with others voluntarily, you can speak and publish freely, you can practice the religion of your choice (or none at all), keep what you earn, run your own business, and love and live as you please (so long as you don't violate the rights of others). We need liberty to think, to create, and to fulfill our individual and unique potential. Liberty is as much a requirement of our psychological nature as food and air are requirements of our biological nature. When liberty is denied, economies stagnate, cultures deteriorate, science declines,…
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by Jarret Wollstein "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and conflict; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." James Madison 4th President of the USA and primary framer of the US Constitution Politicians and major media constantly tell us that oppressed peoples crave "democracy," and that only a democratic world will be free and peaceful. Now President Bush has launched a campaign to bring "freedom and democracy" to the world. But are freedom and democracy the same thing? And will democracy imposed by force guarantee peace? Democracy, Collectivism and Individualism Consider the meaning of three key political concepts: Democracy: that form of government in which sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them or by officers elected by them. Collectivism: a politico-economic system in which the means of production and the distribution of goods and services are controlled by the collective, that is, the society or state considered as a group – e.g. Nazi Germany and Communist China. Individualism: The social theory which advocates the free and…
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WE MUST END TAX SLAVERY NOW! by Jarret B. Wollstein Out-of-control taxes and regulations are crippling America. According to current federal budget projections, within 15 years the government will take 70% of your income directly in taxes.  America will look like East Germany under the Soviets. IRS agents raided the Engleworld Learning Center near Detroit. Parents were told their children would not be allowed to leave until parents immediately paid any balance due to the Learning Center for the coming months. However, the money would not go to the Center, but to the IRS. A creative IRS official thought he had a great way to force parents to pay the Center's taxes. "It was like something out of a police state," Sue Stoia says. "They were using the children as collateral." Marilyn Derby, director of Engleworld, said, "Parents were not allowed to see their children until they had signed an agreement with the IRS. It was a very scary situation, like the Gestapo was here. Children were crying, parents were trembling. I told one woman whose hands were shaking that she shouldn't sign anything she didn't want to. She signed anyway." 18 Elderly Nursing Home Residents Die When The IRS Seizes…
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by George L. O'Brien edited by Geoffrey Erikson The tax-supported "public school" system is in trouble. There are chronic problems with discipline, mounting violence, declining test scores, and administrative costs spiraling out of control. Government schools continue to graduate functional illiterates, and US public school students' math skills are now among the worst in the industrialized world. How bad is it? The US has 27 million illiterates as well as 40 to 50 million people who can barely read at the fourth-grade level. The US is also among the worst industrialized countries in the areas of math and science. More than half of all 18-year-olds cannot find Britain or France on a map. The defenders of the government schools claim the problem is a lack of money. However, in real terms, spending on education has actually risen over the last 40 years. The US ranks near the top in the world in per student spending – more than either the Germans or the Japanese. The cost per student in government schools is nearly twice that of a typical private school, yet the results are distinctly inferior. There is so much dissatisfaction with government schools that many parents are paying to send…
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How over 200 Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws Enable Police to Confiscate Your Home, Bank Accounts & Business Without Trial by Jarret B. Wollstein "A police dog scratched at your luggage, so we're confiscating your life savings and you'll never get it back." Police stopped 49-year-old Ethel Hylton at Houston's Hobby Airport and told her she was under arrest because a drug dog had scratched at her luggage. Agents searched her bags and strip-searched her, but they found no drugs. They did find $39,110 in cash, money she had received from an insurance settlement and her life savings; accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper and hospital janitor. Ethel Hylton completely documented where she got the money and was never charged with a crime. But the police kept her money anyway. Nearly four years later, she is still trying to get her money back. Ethel Hylton is just one of a large and growing list of Americans – now numbering in the hundreds of thousands – who have been victimized by civil asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, everything you own can be legally taken away even if you are never convicted of a crime. Suspicion of offenses which, if…
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by Sheldon Richman Unplanned Order Which came first, the chicken of economics or the egg of economic action? Did the discipline of economics precede the object of its interest? The obvious answer is no. To say yes would be like saying that astronomy preceded the planets and stars – or that before Newton, apples didn't fall from trees. Yet, there are people who speak as though they believe that there was no economy before there were economists. This isn't just an interesting intellectual exercise. It bears on how we understand the economic process and ultimately how we view government involvement in that process. The first people who could be called economists were descriptivists rather than prescriptivists. They were concerned with what people do, not with what they should do. The discipline of economics began as a riddle to be solved. At least as far back as the Middle Ages, some perceptive observers noticed a kind of order – things were produced and placed in proximity to the people who were willing to make trades to obtain them. Yet this order was undesigned. No one planned the overall scheme. How did it happen? How could there be unplanned order? It was…
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by Jarret Wollstein Why Liberty Must Be Sold In folklore, to succeed all you need to do is come up with a great idea or product. "Invent a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." Unfortunately, the world almost never beats a path to anyone's door. Countless brilliant inventors, artists, and scientists have died in abject poverty. On the other hand, thousands of people who developed modest improvements have become wealthy and successful. What is the difference between these two groups? Why have so many ordinary people with so-so ideas succeeded while many brilliant people with great ideas have failed? Certainly there are factors outside of your control which contribute to success or failure. But one of the most important factors is something you can learn and develop: effective salesmanship. Salesmanship simply means presenting your product in a way that is attractive and emotionally compelling to your audience. If you want your ideas or products to be accepted, you must beat a path to the world's doors. This is particularly true if your product is a new or misunderstood idea, such as liberty. Like any other product, liberty must be sold. Selling Liberty Below are…
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Razones en contra de las restricciones comerciales por Vincent H. Miller y James R. Elwood traducido por Alberto Mansueti El señuelo del proteccionismo El argumento en pro del llamado "proteccionismo" (que algunos llaman comercio "justo" o "leal") puede sonar atractivo al principio. Los partidarios de las leyes "proteccionistas" sostienen que dejar fuera los artículos extranjeros conservará puestos de trabajo, dará a las industrias achacosas oportunidad de recuperarse y prosperar, y reducirá los deficits comerciales. ¿Son válidos esos argumentos? Proteccionismo: sus costos John Stuart Mill "el filósofo liberal clásico del siglo pasado" observó agudamente que "las barreras comerciales infieren graves daños a los países que las imponen." Y eso es verdad hoy como entonces, por las siguientes razones: Empleos Perdidos: Las leyes proteccionistas erigen impuestos (derechos) sobre los bienes importados, y/o decretan límites (cuotas) sobre las cantidades que de los mismos se permite ingresar al país. Son leyes que no sólo restringen la elección de bienes de consumo, sino que también contribuyen grandemente al costo superior tanto de bienes como de hacer negocios. De esta manera, bajo el "proteccionismo" Ud. termina más pobre, con menos dinero para comprar otras cosas que Ud. quiere y necesita. Además, las leyes proteccionistas que disminuyen…
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by Larry Dodge & Don Doig edited by Mark Valverde & Larry Dodge "For more than six hundred years – that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215, there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of such laws." Lysander Spooner "An Essay on The Trial By Jury," 1852 Jury Veto Power America's founders worried that the government they created might someday grow too powerful, passing and enforcing laws which would violate the rights of the very people it was intended to protect: ordinary, peaceful, productive folks. So they kept an "ace in the hole," a trump card they believed citizens could and would use to hold this new, experimental government in check. That ace was the right to…
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by Jarret B. Wollstein "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."      Voltaire No right is more fundamental than freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech you can't communicate your ideas and feelings, decry a social injustice, pursue an artistic vision, investigate scientific truth, practice a religion, or criticize government. If freedom of speech is destroyed, self-development is crippled, social progress grinds to a halt, and official lies become the only "truth." Although freedom of speech can be inhibited by intolerant people, it can only be destroyed by brute force, particularly government force. If evangelical Christians demand that Playboy magazines be removed from store shelves, that is not censorship. Others are free to demand – just as forcefully – that Playboy be kept on the shelves. And merchants can reject the evangelical's demands. But when government sends in police to close down bookstores, arrest musicians, artists, and photographers, burn videotapes, or shut down computer networks, that is censorship. Censorship Is The Handmaiden Of A Police State Censorship is the use of force to control what you can say, read, or see. Although occasionally private individuals and groups engage in censorship – for example by stealing…
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NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE by Vincent H. Miller & Jarret B. Wollstein Two hundred years ago our ancestors signed a document which forever changed the course of history: the Declaration of Independence. That document severed the bonds of Colonial America to a tyrannical king and parliament in England, and established for the first time a society based on the principle of the rule of law and limited government. The result was a glorious 200+ years which witnessed the greatest achievements, the highest standard of living, and the greatest levels of individual freedom in human history. But, bit by bit, the principles which made this country great have been forgotten – to the point where the uncontrolled growth of government now threatens to totally destroy our liberty and our prosperity. Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and the other signers of the original Declaration of Independence were well aware of that danger. That's why they made these observations about the nature of man and government, which are as valid today as the day they were written: WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these…
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by Jarret B. Wollstein We live in a world which often seems more violent with every passing day. Terrorist bombings, school-yard massacres, war, and atrocities fill news headlines. At times it even seems that humanity has a collective death wish. Human aggression has been blamed on many things, including broken homes, poverty, racism, inequality, chemical imbalances in the brain, toy guns, TV violence, sexual repression, sexual freedom, overpopulation, alienation, bad genes, and original sin. However, virtually all of these potential causes have one thing in common: Unfulfilled Human Needs and Desires Human needs and desires are endless. Virtually all of us would like to have fancy homes, social status in our community, the ability to eat all we want without getting fat, sex whenever we want it, perpetual health, unconditional love, and the ability to live until we're 200. Most of us will enjoy few of these things. Fortunately, most people are realistic and sane enough not to turn to violence to deal with their frustrations. However, self-control sometimes breaks down - resulting in aggressions ranging from petty theft - to the Columbine massacre - to the mass killing fields of Cambodia. What causes people and societies to turn to aggression?…
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"If a juror accepts as the law that which the judge states, then that juror has accepted the exercise of absolute authority of a government employee and has surrendered a power and right that once was the citizen's safeguard of liberty." (1788) (2 Elliots Debates, 94, Bancroft, History of the Constitution, 267) "Jury nullification of law," as it is sometimes called, is a traditional right that was rigorously defended by America's Founding Fathers. Those great men, Patriots all, intended the jury to serve as a final safeguard – a test that laws must pass before gaining sufficient popular authority for enforcement. Thus the Constitution provides five separate tribunals with veto power – representatives, senate, executive, judges – and finally juries. Each enactment of law must pass all these hurdles before it gains the authority to punish those who may choose to violate it. Thomas Jefferson said, "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." From Magna Carta To Edward Bushell The power of the jury to judge the justice of the law and to hold laws invalid by a finding of "not…
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by Jarret B. Wollstein America is living through a drug nightmare. Up to 80% of street assaults, murders and burglaries are drug-related. Drug gangs have spread their power to every city and town. Many police have been corrupted, courts are overcrowded, and prisons are bursting at the seams. The lure of big drug profits is turning children into pushers and cops into crooks. Every year the War on Drugs escalates. More money is spent, more drugs are seized and penalties for drug use become more severe. Yet illegal drugs are still plentiful. There's a simple reason why America is not winning the War on Drugs. We have been fighting the wrong enemy. We have been told that the cause of our drug nightmare is drug sellers and users. The real cause is drug criminalization. Prohibition Revisited This is not the first time the US government has tried to save Americans from themselves. In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the manufacture of alcoholic beverages. Suddenly honest, responsible Americans who just wanted a drink, were turned into criminals. Respectable bars became underground speakeasies, and legitimate liquor manufacturers were replaced by criminal bootleggers. Gang shoot-outs became common. There was massive…
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by Wendy McElroy Last week I learned that a friend had been passed over for tenure at an ivy-league school. He had been teaching at the university for several years and was immensely popular - not only with the students but also within the department. With a book and several journal articles to his credit, his qualifications were in good order. So what was the problem? He was a white male in a department that needed more visible women and minorities. Never mind that the woman hired had less experience and fewer credentials. Never mind that the university had been grooming him - or that my friend now tells his male students to forget pursuing a degree in the humanities, because "credentials and quality do not matter anymore." Had my friend been a woman, he would have been able to sue the university for unfair employment practices under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Act states that it is unlawful for any employer: "(1) to fail or refuse to hire or discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, or privileges of employment because of such individual's race, color,…
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