John Stossel from Creators Syndicate

Government Can't Make Us Happy for 02/08/2012

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called the pursuit of happiness an unalienable right. This was a radical idea. For most of history, most people didn't think much about pursuing happiness. They were too busy just trying to survive.

Then came the liberal revolution based on the idea of individual freedom. Only then did they start thinking that happiness might be possib ...

Updated: Wed Feb 08, 2012

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Policing the World for 02/01/2012

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

With an election approaching and at least some Americans upset about irresponsible spending, the president has finally expressed a political interest in cutting something. He says the Pentagon will spend "only" $525 billion next year. That's slightly less than the current $531 billion.

A cut is good, but this will barely dent the deficit. We could save much more if America assu ...

Updated: Wed Feb 01, 2012

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The Real State of the Union for 01/25/2012

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Has Barack Obama learned nothing in three years? During his State of the Union address, he promised "a blueprint for an economy." But economies are crushed by blueprints. An economy is really nothing more than people participating in an unfathomably complex spontaneous network of exchanges aimed at improving their material circumstances. It can't even be diagrammed, much less planned. ...

Updated: Wed Jan 25, 2012

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Don't Trust Your Instincts for 01/18/2012

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Simple answers are so satisfying: Green jobs will fix the economy. Stimulus will create jobs. Charity helps people more than commerce. Everyone should vote.

Well, all those instinctive solutions are wrong. As Friedrich Hayek pointed out in "The Fatal Conceit," it's a problem that in our complex, extended economy, we rely on instincts developed during our ancestors' existence in ...

Updated: Wed Jan 18, 2012

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Champions of Freedom for 01/11/2012

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

It's election season, and so once again people look for heroes. Is Ron Paul one? Maybe. He's fought a long, lonely battle to limit the power of government. As government grows, I yearn for champions of freedom who fight back. Rep. Paul has done that.

But it's a mistake to look for heroes in politics. It's too ugly a business. My heroes are people like Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek and Ayn ...

Updated: Wed Jan 11, 2012

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Ideas Have Sex, and We're Better for It for 01/04/2012

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

An idea walks into a bar. She meets another idea. They get together, and nine months later (or maybe it's nine minutes or seconds? It's not clear how it works with ideas), a new idea is born. A baby idea with the best traits of both parents.

When this happens a lot, everyone gets smarter and the world gets better.

Did you know that ideas have sex?

It's a weird concept, but ...

Updated: Wed Jan 04, 2012

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A Libertarian Year Ahead? for 12/28/2011

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

As 2011 draws to a close, I wonder: Is freedom winning? Did America become freer this year? Less free? How about the rest of the world?

I'm a pessimist. I fear Thomas Jefferson was right when he said, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." That's what's happened. Bush and Obama doubled spending and increased regulation. Governmen ...

Updated: Wed Dec 28, 2011

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Obamacare Abominations for 12/21/2011

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

President Obama says his health care "reform" will be good for business.

Business has learned the truth.

Three successful businessmen explained to me how Obamacare is a reason that unemployment stays high. Its length and complexity make businessmen wary of expanding.

Mike Whalen, CEO of Heart of America Group, which runs hotels and restaurants, said that when he a ...

Updated: Wed Dec 21, 2011

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Job Creators Fighting Back for 12/14/2011

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Some politicians claim that politicians create jobs.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says, "My job is to create jobs."

What hubris! Government has no money of its own. All it does is take from some people and give to others. That may create some jobs, but only by leaving less money in the private sector for job creation.

Actually, it's worse than that. Since gov ...

Updated: Wed Dec 14, 2011

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Ten Years to Greece for 12/07/2011

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

America moves steadily toward the cliff.

When Greece blew up, its government debt was 126 percent of gross domestic product. Ours is on track to exceed that in about 10 years.

If we haven't learned from Greece, might we learn when other countries blow up? That may be about to happen, says Daniel Hannan, author of "The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America."

Ha ...

Updated: Wed Dec 07, 2011

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Blocking the Paths Out of Poverty for 11/30/2011

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Have you noticed how often government takes sides against the little guy?

Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why? Because entrenched interests don't like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high hurdles to upstarts. It's an old story.

N ...

Updated: Wed Nov 30, 2011

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America: Land of Free Speech -- Sometimes for 11/23/2011

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

We're proud that America is the land of free speech. That right is recognized in the First Amendment, and we usually take it seriously. It wasn't always the case.

In John Adams' administration, the Sedition Act made it a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment, "to write, print, utter or publish ... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government ... or to ex ...

Updated: Wed Nov 23, 2011

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FDA Kills Smokers for 11/16/2011

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

"The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health."

That's what the Food and Drug Administration tells us on its website.

My intuition makes me grateful that the FDA is there to protect me — to make sure that every drug is proven both safe and effective — but "protection" kills people.

Last week, I discussed how the FDA kills by keepi ...

Updated: Wed Nov 16, 2011

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The FDA Kills for 11/09/2011

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

It would be nice if politicians and regulators left us alone. But they don't. They always want to do more. Recently, there have been shortages of some medicines. Cancer patients can't get drugs they need. Why not?

One reason is that a big drugmaker shut down for a year in part to meet Food and Drug Administration rules. The FDA makes it so expensive and difficult to sell drugs that ther ...

Updated: Wed Nov 09, 2011

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The Stupidity of "Buy American" for 11/02/2011

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

One sign of economic ignorance is the faith that "Buy American" is the path to prosperity. My former employer, ABC News, did a week's worth of stories claiming that "buying American" would put Americans back to work.

I'm glad I don't work there anymore.

"Buy American" is a dumb idea. It would not only not create prosperity, it would cost jobs and ma ...

Updated: Wed Nov 02, 2011

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School Competition Rescues Kids for 10/26/2011

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

For years, American education from kindergarten through high school has been a virtual government monopoly.

Conventional wisdom is that government must run the schools. But government monopolies don't do anything well. They fail because they have no real competition. Yet competition is what gives us better phones, movies, cars — everything that's good.

If governments produ ...

Updated: Wed Oct 26, 2011

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Wall Street Protesters Half Right for 10/19/2011

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

What's there to say about Occupy Wall Street? The answer isn't so simple. Some complain about taxpayer bailouts of businesses. Good for them. In a true free market, failing firms would go out of business. They couldn't turn to Washington for help.

But many protesters say they're against capitalism. Now things get confusing. What do they mean? If by "capitalism" they mean crony ...

Updated: Wed Oct 19, 2011

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Government the Job Killer for 10/12/2011

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

President Obama says government will have to build the nation out of the economic trough.

"We're the country that built the intercontinental railroad," Obama says. "So how can we now sit back and let China build the best railroads?"

Ironic that he mentions the Chinese. Progressives used to complain that to build the railroad, bosses abused Chinese workers &mda ...

Updated: Wed Oct 12, 2011

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Government Makes Us Poor for 10/05/2011

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Here's my fantasy: Libertarians are elected to the presidency and to majorities in Congress. What would happen next? Well, if libertarians were "in charge," you'd have more freedom and prosperity.

Freedom frightens some people. They say if no one is in charge there would be chaos. That is intuitive, but think about a skating rink. Before rinks were invented, if you proposed an ...

Updated: Wed Oct 05, 2011

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Governments Don't Create Prosperity for 09/28/2011

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Politicians say they create jobs, but they really don't. Or rather, they rarely create productive jobs. Government has no money of its own. All it does is take resources from one group and give them to another. The pharaohs might have claimed they created work when they ordered that pyramids be built, but think how much richer (and freer) the Egyptians would have been if they'd been allowed to ...

Updated: Wed Sep 28, 2011

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