Sheldon Richman

Arkansas

Editor and Writer at Freelance

E Claim That Governme at The Libertarian Institute

Father, grandfather, lover of liberty, justice, reason, and pipe tobacco. Freelance editor. Author, What Social Animals Owe to Each Other, Coming to Palestine.

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Articles

TGIF: On "Public Property"

3 weeks ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

A dubious theory held by some libertarians has been knocking about. It goes something like this:The claim that government-controlled land is actually unowned—and thus not properly subject to government rulemaking—would lead to consequences that reasonable people would find abhorrent. Therefore, in the U.S. case, such land should be regarded as owned by Americans with the government as their representative. While privatization is the best course, it is unlikely to occur anytime soon.
Immigration Conversation with Jacob Hornberger

3 weeks ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

Sheldon RichmanSheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other. View all posts
TGIF: The Worst Are Already on Top

4 weeks ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

After Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a fool of herself by defining habeas corpus as “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” Justin Amash, the libertarian former congressman, posted an apt quotation on X:Since it is the supreme leader who alone determines the ends, his instruments [staff] must have no moral convictions of their own.
TGIF: Maestro Trump and Drug Prices

1 month ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

When encountering a public problem, people tend to fall into one of two camps: one camp, the larger one, says, “There oughta be a law.” The other one asks, “How has the government created or aggravated the situation?” We know which camp Maestro Trump belongs to. Take prescription-drug prices.
TGIF: Individuals, Not America, First

1 month ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

Let’s hear no more about America First! It’s a fraud, a cover for collectivist nationalism, and a distraction from what matters. (It also looks like camouflage for Trump Family First, but let’s take it at face value for now.)On foreign policy, America First does not exclusively describe the supposed noninterventionist side of the public debate.
TGIF: On the Importance of Undesigned Order

1 month ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian approach to economics, was not the first or last thinker to see similarities between a society and a living organism, suggesting the existence of undesigned, spontaneous order. The names Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith, before Menger, and Herbert Spencer and F. A. Hayek, after Menger, come to mind.
TGIF: On Value and Freedom

1 month ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

To live is to act. To act is to choose. To choose is to prefer. To prefer is to pursue values—that is, to value. That’s logic-guided observation. Ego sum, ergo aestimo: I am, therefore I value. (HT: Aristotle, Ayn Rand, and Ludwig von Mises.)Next: to think is to act.
The "Ought" World

2 months ago | sheldonrichman.substack.com | Sheldon Richman

To live is to act (because life is conditional). To act is to choose. To choose is to prefer. To prefer is to value or to pursue values. (Being fallible, we can err in thinking something is good when it is in fact bad.)To think is to act. Therefore, to think is to value. (James Ellias of Inductica calls this the "value axiom.")Whether we like it or not, we're immersed in the "ought" world. Hume et al. were wrong.
Paine on War | The Libertarian Institute

2 months ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

“It may with reason be said, that in the manner the English nation is represented, it signifies not where this right resides, whether in the Crown, or in the Parliament. War is the common harvest of all those who participate in the division and expenditure of public money, in all countries. It is the art of conquering at home: the object of it is an increase of revenue; and as revenue cannot be increased without taxes, a pretence must be made for expenditures.
TGIF: More on Menger and Value

2 months ago | libertarianinstitute.org | Sheldon Richman

Consumer goods are also called finished goods. The products we buy at the supermarket and other retail stores have, in less finished form, passed through many stages (including distribution), reaching back to the original factors of production: land and labor. Land includes anything nature-given and not produced.