Ideas On: Liberty ~ June 1999 Vol. 49, No.6 8 The Professionalization of Parenthood by Susan Orr 11 Children's Real Enemy by John Hood 16 The Second Amendment in the Light of American Republicanism by Joseph R. Stromberg 23 The Reserve Requirement Debacle of 1935-1938 by Richard H Timberlake 130 The Great Gold Robbery by James Bovard 125 Market-Share Sophisms by Christopher Mayer 39 The Market and Political Freedom by John Marangos 42 Against the Tide: The Life of Francis W. Hirst by Mark Brady 48 Educational Savior? by Daniel Hager 4 THOUGHTS on FREEDOM-Government Is No God by Donald J. Boudreaux 21 IDEAS and CONSEQUENCES-A Tax Is Not a User Fee! by Lawrence W Reed 33 POTOMAC PRINCIPLES-Balkans Bungling: Why Only Congress Can Declare War by Doug Bandow 37 PERIPATETICS-The Permanent War by Sheldon Richman 146 ECONOMIC NOTIONS-Private Property and Opportunity Costs by Dwight R. Lee 52 ECONOMICS on TRIAL-New Possibilities for Our Grandchildren by Mark Skousen 63 THE PURSUIT of HAPPINESS-Nothing's Free by Russell Roberts 2 Perspective-When Bullies Take Power by Sheldon Richman 6 Workers Exploited? It Just Ain't So! by Donald J. Boudreaux 51 Capital Letters: Does Survival Trump Morality? 54 Book Reviews A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State by David Kelley, reviewed by Ellen Frankel Paul; Mugwumps: Public Moralists of the Gilded Age by David M. Tucker, reviewed by Burton Folsom; Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom by Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath, reviewed by Fred D. Miller, Jr.; Secession, State & Liberty edited by David Gordon, reviewed by George C. Leef; Money and the Nation State: The Financial Revolution, Government and the World Monetary System edited by Kevin Dowd and Richard H. Timberlake, reviewed by Bert Ely; Policy Analysis and Public Choice: Selected Papers by William A. Niskanen, reviewed by Bruce Yandle. THE F'EEMAN When Bullies Take Power Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Life is Beautiful, winner ofAcademy Awards Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 for best foreign language film and best actor Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 (Roberto Benigni), is a remarkable movie. E-mail: [email protected] FEE Home Page: http://www.fee.org This story about a Jewish father's attempt to shield his son from a Nazi concentration camp President: Donald J. Boudreaux is perhaps the most powerful movie ever made Editor: Sheldon Richman about the Holocaust. The movie makes a stun­ Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman ning impression precisely because it focuses Editor Emeritus Paul L. Poirot on one family's ordeal and juxtaposes horror Book Review Editor and humor. George C. Leef I'd like to know what audiences are thinking Editorial Assistant when they leave the theater. I suspect the stan­ Mary Ann Murphy dard reactions are along these lines: The Nazis Columnists Charles W. Baird sure were bad. Or, hate and intolerance are Doug Bandow terrible. That's fine, as far as it goes. But it Dwight R. Lee doesn't go nearly far enough. Lawrence W. Reed I wonder how many people came away Russell Roberts thinking: Government certainly is dangerous. Mark Skousen Thomas Szasz How can we limit its power so it will never Walter Williams engage in systematic mass murder again? Too Contributing Editors few, I fear. Peter J. Boettke Murderous hatred was certainly a necessary Clarence B. Carson condition for the Holocaust. But it was hardly Thomas J. DiLorenzo a sufficient condition. How many Jews could Burton W. Folsom, Jr. Joseph S. Fulda Hitler and his thugs have killed had Germany Bettina Bien Greaves had a strong classical liberal tradition under­ Robert Higgs girding a constitutionally limited government. John Hospers The question answers itself. Raymond J. Keating Murder on the scale perpetrated by Hitler, Daniel B. Klein Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, et al. requires WendyMcElroy Tibor R. Machan a state; that is, a legitimized machinery of Ronald Nash force. Only a state can concentrate the Edmund A. Opitz resources (thanks to taxation) necessary for James L. Payne such a monstrous feat. More important, only a William H. Peterson state has the mystique (thanks to its schools, Jane S. Shaw among other things) to command the sort of Richard H. Timberlake Lawrence H. White allegiance required to induce large numbers of people to cooperate or at least to stand by and The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Eco­ nomic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, let it happen. A dictator is just a bully with a established in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a non-political, educational champion of private property, the free market, and limited government. state at his disposal. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 50l(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Hate and intolerance are likely to be fea­ Copyright © 1999 by The Foundation for Economic Education. Per­ mission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, provided credit is tures of the social landscape for quite some given and two copies ofthe reprinted material are sent to FEE. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through dona­ time to come. Trying to avert future systemat­ tions, which are invited in any amount. Donors of $30.00 or more receive a subscription to The Freeman. For delivery outside the United ic mass murders by abolishing hate and intol­ States: $45.00 to Canada; $55.00 to all other countries. Student sub­ erance is naIve and futile-especially if gov­ scriptions are $10.00 for the nine-month academic year; $5.00 per semester. Additional copies ofthis issue ofThe Freeman are $3.00 each. ernment accumulates new powers in the Bound volumes of The Freeman are available from The Foundation for calendar years 1972 to date. The Freeman is available in microform process. A more efficacious and feasible from University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106. 2 course (albeit still extremely difficult) is to achieves a dominant share of a market. Are institutionalize strict limits on government consumers at risk from a dominant firm? power. When that's achieved, aspiring dicta­ Christopher Mayer ponders the question, tors will have difficulty achieving office high­ showing that "market share" is not the simple er than neighborhood bully. concept that regulators think it is. Is the market order compatible with author­ *** itarianism? Even some champions of capital­ Thanks to a passel of government pro­ ism reluctantly believe so. John Marangos grams, Americans are·increasingly getting the disagrees, arguing that economic freedom message that parenthood can't be left to ama­ holds the seeds ofpolitical freedom. teurs any longer. A century and a half after Francis Hirst is virtually unknown today. responsibility for schooling was lifted from But in his time, he was a prominent advocate parents' shoulders, is the state ready to relieve of individual liberty and opponent of state them-starting with low-income people-of power, both the welfare and warfare variety. the rest of the job of rearing children? Susan Mark Brady introduces us to this forgotten Orr doesn't like what she sees. English champion offreedom. Programs such as Head Start are often A government-controlled education system defended as "investments" in children that that only sought to teach children to read promise to avoid later social problems like would have been bad enough. But what about crime and dependency. John Hood looks at a school system designed to recast society in a the data and isn't impressed. collectivist mold? Daniel Hager profiles an old No matter how the advocates ofgun control proponent ofsuch a system, George Counts. try to evade it, America's founding generation Our columnists once again find provocative was avidly pro-gun and not just for sporting topics to chew on. FEE President Donald purposes. Joseph Stromberg explores the rela­ Boudreaux reminds us government isn't a tionship between firearms and the philosophy god, then looks at a claim that workers are on which the United States was established. being forced to work without pay and The federal government did many things to responds, "It just ain't so!" Lawrence Reed tum what might have been a short recession sees differences between taxes and user fees. into the Great Depression. In his series finale, Doug Bandow explores President Clinton's Richard Timberlake explains that one ofthose Balkans folly. Dwight Lee illustrates that even things was the manipulation of the banking gifts entail opportunity costs. Mark Skousen system's reserve requirements. thinks economic growth could double and go One ofFranklin Roosevelt's first acts was to on indefinitely. Russell Roberts warns that outlaw the possession and monetary use of nothing is free. gold. It was an assertion of executive power Our reviewers render verdicts on books that would have far-reaching consequences, about money, the welfare state, Mugwumps, writes James Bovard. the classics, secession, and the work of a The Department of Justice and the Federal major public choice economist. Trade Commission get upset when a company -SHELDON RICHMAN The apple icon _ identifies Freeman articles that are appropriate for teaching high­ school· students several major subjects-including economics, history, government, phi­ losophy, and current issues. We also provide sample lesson plans for these articles on our Web site www.fee.org and in written form. Teachers and homeschooling parents need only to visit our Web site or request written lesson plans to take advantage ofthis unique service. 3 e>rl by Donald J. Boudreaux Government Is No God ssume you need surgery to remove a possess near-godlike capacities for mastering Abrain tumor.