The Freeman 1999
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Ideas On Liberty July 1999 Vol. 49, No.7 I 8 THOUGHTS on FREEDOM-Outside the Limits by Donald J. Boudreaux 8 Immoral, Unconstitutional War by David N Mayer 1 12 The Kosovo Tangle by Gary Dempsey 16 Remembering and Inventing: A Short History of the Balkans by Peter Mentzel 21 POTOMAC PRINCIPLES-Warmongering for Peace by Doug Bandow 23 Isolationism by Frank Chodorov 26 How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century by Robert Higgs 30 Another Place, Another War by Michael Palmer 32 War's Other Casualty by Wendy McElroy 137 Spontaneous Order by Nigel Ashford 43 Storm Trooping to Equality by James Bovard 48 Croaking Frogs by Brian Doherty 81 Noah Smithwick: Pioneer Texan and Monetary Critic by Joseph R. Stromberg 38 IDEAS and CONSEQUENCES-Clinton versus Cleveland and Coolidge on Taxes by Lawrence W. Reed 41 THE THERAPEUTIC STATE-Suicide as a Moral Issue by Thomas Szasz 148 ECONOMIC NOTIONS-In the Absence ofPrivate Property Rights by Dwight R. Lee 54 ECONOMICS on TRIAL-Dismal Scientists Score Another Win by Mark Skousen 63 THE PURSUIT of HAPPINESS-Ignorance Is Bliss-Maybe by Walter Williams 2 Perspective-Operation Legacy by Sheldon Richman 4 Tax Cuts Are Unfair? It Just Ain't So! by David Kelley 58 Book Reviews Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More from the Poor and Ourselves by James L. Payne, reviewed by Robert Batemarco; Coolidge: An American Enigma by Robert Sobel and The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge by Robert Ferrell, reviewed by Raymond 1. Keating; H. L. Mencken Revisited by William H. A. Williams, reviewed by George C. Leef; Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics by P. J. O'Rourke, reviewed by William H. Peterson; Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age by Mike Godwin, reviewed by Royce Van Tassell. THE FJ\EEMAN Operation Legacy Published by The Foundation for Economic Education The Clinton policy in the Balkans can be Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 criticized at many levels: the apparent lack of Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 forethought, the misapprehension of the con E-mail: [email protected] FEE Home Page: http://www.fee.org flict and the region's history, the likely dishon President: Donald 1. Boudreaux esty about the intention to use ground troops, the law of unintended consequences (the Editor: Sheldon Richman boost to Greater Albania, for example), and Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman so on. That all has been much commented on. Editor Emeritus Paul L. Poirot What's most neglected is the domestic reason Book Review Editor for forswearing such foreign adventurism, George C. Leef no matter how heart-wrenching the CNN Editorial Assistant coverage. Mary Ann Murphy I can do no better than to quote James Columnists Charles W. Baird Madison on this subj ect. Doug Bandow "Of all the enemies to public liberty," he Dwight R. Lee said, "war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, Lawrence W. Reed because it comprises and develops the germ of Russell Roberts every other. War is the parent ofarmies; from Mark Skousen Thomas Szasz these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, Walter Williams and debts, and taxes are the known instru Contributing Editors ments for bringing the many under the domi Peter J. Boettke nation of the few. ... No nation could pre Clarence B. Carson serve its freedom in the midst of continual Thomas J. DiLorenzo warfare." Burton W. Folsom, Jr. Joseph S. Fulda The reader is referred to Robert Higgs's Bettina Bien Greaves Crisis andLeviathan for documentation ofthe Robert Higgs Madisonian principle. John Hospers Mr. Madison proceeded to describe the Raymond J. Keating bloated executive that war produces. Could he Daniel B. Klein have foreseen the day when a president makes Wendy McElroy Tibor R. Machan war without a congressional declaration? Andrew P. Morriss (These days we have "consultation" or, at best, Ronald Nash debate after the president has committed the Edmund A. Opitz country to war.) James L. Payne "War," Madison continued, "is in fact the William H. Peterson true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In Jane S. Shaw Richard H. Timberlake war, a physical force is to be created; and it is Lawrence H. White the executive will, which is to direct it. In The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Eco war, the public treasuries are to be unlocked; nomic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, established in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a non-political, educational and it is the executive hand which is to dis champion of private property, the free market, and limited government. pense them. In war, the honors and emolu FEE is classified as a 26 USC S01(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Copyright © 1999 by The Foundation for Economic Education. Per ments of office are to be multiplied; and it is mission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, except "Isolation ism," provided credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material the executive patronage under which they are are sent to FEE. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through dona to be enjoyed; and it is the executive brow tions, which are invited in any amount. Donors of $30.00 or more they are to encircle. The strongest passions receive a subscription to The Freeman. For delivery outside the United States: $45.00 to Canada; $55.00 to all other countries. Student sub and most dangerous weaknesses of the scriptions are $10.00 for the nine-month academic year; $S.OO per semester. Additional copies ofthis issue ofThe Freeman are $3.00 each. human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the Bound volumes of The Freeman are available from The Foundation for calendar years 1972 to date. The Freeman is available in microform from University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106. 2 Cover: Bombing damage in Kosovo. (APIWIDE WORLD PHOTOS). honorable or venal love of fame, are all in Two of our columnists also focus on the conspiracy against the desire and duty of war. Donald Boudreaux explains that govern peace." ment doesn't have the competence to impose Milosevic takes his place beside a long list itself on other people's conflicts. And Doug of state-wielding butchers. He's caused the Bandow tries heroically to make sense of a burial of thousands of ethnic Albanians. The foreign policy that defies explanation. president of the United States didn't have to No idea is more important to the freedom let that tragedy dump more dirt on the philosophy than that ofunplanned, or sponta gravesite oflimited government here. neous, order. Yet it is counterintuitive and therefore hard for many people to accept. *** Nigel Ashford explores the products of human action but not human design. We devote a major portion of this issue of When the government sets out to create The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty to the U.S.-led equality in any sense other than equality war against Yugoslavia. David Mayer argues before the law, all manner of mischief is pos that the war is an act of aggression that vio sible. James Bovard reports that "tyranny" is lates the U.S. Constitution, not to mention the not too strong a word for what egalitarian offi charters ofthe United Nations and NATO. He cials are capable ofinflicting. also points out that events in Serbia and Koso Why are frog populations declining and vo bear no relation to any vital interest ofthe deformities increasing? Does it portend an American people. environmental cataclysm? Some officials Gary Dempsey outlines the history of would have us believe so. Brian Doherty says Kosovo, beginning about 2000 B.C., and its the real meaning may be less worthy ofhead importance to both the Serbs and Albanians, lines. showing that brutality is not unknown to Americans of the nineteenth century knew either side. something about the nature ofmoney that has Peter Mentzel adds to the historical analysis, long since escaped citizens of today. Joseph emphasizing the modem roots ofthe conflict. Stromberg demonstrates this through the Next we reprint a classic from the autobi memoirs ofan obscure but classic pioneer and ography of Frank Chodorov in which he jack-of-alI-trades. defends isolationism as a sensible human Lawrence Reed's column points out that impulse to mind one's own business and to Bill Clinton could have learned a thing or two avoid far-off conflicts that one likely doesn't about taxes from Grover Cleveland and understand. Calvin Coolidge. Dwight Lee finds it ironic Robert Higgs summarizes America's that property rights are blamed for problems involvement in two world wars and the cold caused by the lack of defined property. war to illustrate how foreign adventurism bol Thomas Szasz says suicide is a moral, not a sters the power ofgovernment and shrinks the medical, issue. Mark Skousen explains "eco sphere ofliberty. nomic value added." Walter Williams wonders Michael Palmer finds himselfthinking back when people will stop blaming others. And to 1969, when he was dispatched to the barren David Kelley examines the claim that tax pol and perilous Ashau Valley in South Vietnam, icy should make "winners" compensate and fears for the young Americans facing "losers," concluding, It Just Ain't So! combat in the Balkans today. In the book review section, volumes on Wendy McElroy takes a close look at Ran welfare, Calvin Coolidge, H.L. Mencken, the dolph Bourne's famous sentence-"War is the rich, and freedom of speech on the Net get a health of the State"-and shows that he had going over. more in mind than taxes and spending.