October

392 A New Space Policy: Free Enterprise J. Brian Phillips How private companies are challenging NASA's monopoly. 394 The Unemployment Act of 1946 John Semmens and Dianne Kresich Government attempts to promote employment inevitably result in waste. 399 A Reviewer's Notebook John Chamberlain A review of Vladimir Bukovsky's To Choose Freedom. CONTENTS OCTOBER 1987 VOL. 37 NO. 10 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 President of the Board: Robert D. Love Vice-President of Operations: Robert G. Anderson Senior Editors: Beth A. Hoffman Brian Summers Book Review Editor: Edmund A. Opitz Contributing Editors: Howard Baetjer Jr. Bettina Bien Greaves Jacob G. Hornberger Paul L. Poirot Gregory F. Rehmke The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 (914) 591-7230.

FEE, founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a nonpolitical educational champion of private property, the free market, and limited govern ment. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization. Other officers of FEE's Board of Trustees are: Bruce M. Evans, chairman; Thomas C. Stevens, vice-chairman; Joseph E. Coberly, Jr., vice-president; Don L. Foote, secretary; Lovett C. Peters, treasurer. The costs of Foundation projects and services are· met through donations. Donations are invited in any amount. Subscriptions to The Freeman are available to any interested person in the United States for the asking. Single copies $1.00; 10 or more, 50 cents each. For foreign delivery, a do nation of $10.00 a year is required to cover direct mailing costs. Copyright © 1987 by The Foundation for Eco nomic Education, Inc. Printed in U.S.A. Permis sion is granted to reprint any artiCle in this issue, except "The Impracticality of Zoning, " provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to The Foundation.

Bound volumes of The Freeman are available from the Foundation for calendar years 1969 to date. Earlier volumes as well as current issues are available on microfilm from University Micro films, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. The Freeman considers unsolicited editorial sub missions, but they must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Our author's guide is available on request. PERSPECTIVE On Creativity The philosopher A. N. Whitehead once noted that creativity, throughout the ages, has been depicted in two radically different ways. On the one hand, creativity frequently is de picted in terms of the ordering of chaos. A drive to order seemingly characterizes the cosmos and human life, and that drive is what often is meant by "creativity." On the other hand, creativity also is depicted in terms of that which disturbs what is static and unchanging-and therefore what is per fectly "ordered" -by the novel, the new, the unpredicted. A drive to originality seemingly characterizes the cosmos and human life, and that drive is what sometimes is meant by "cre ativity.' , Whitehead insisted that creativity involves both dimensions. The cosmos is characterized both by a drive to order and a drive to novelty.

Human life likewise is informed by both drives. These two forms of creativity find expression in the market economy. The market process si multaneously coordinates and liberates, unifies and diversifies, orders and innovates. Diverse activities and attempts to realize very different visions of the "good life" are coordinated and linked, order conquering chaos. At the same time, old and established ways of doing things yield to new and more efficient ways, the market making possible the benign process that Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruc tion. " A drive to order without a drive to novelty leads to what is static, unchanging, and dead. A drive to novelty without a drive to order leads to what is chaotic, random, and incapable of sustaining rational activity. The world dis plays both drives. So does the free market in the free society. Which, I submit, is significant. -John K. Williams Land of the Free?

In this year of the bicentennial of the United States Constitution, when Americans celebrate our most cherished freedoms, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press, we might pause to consider the full implica tions of a recent decision by the United States District Court in Richmond, Virginia (reported in The Wall Street Journal, May 14, 1987). The court ruled that an apartment manage ment firm in Richmond violated Federal fair housing laws by almost exclusively using white models in an advertising brochure. The court fined the firm $12,800. It is easy to get caught up in questions of race, fairness, and discrimination in consid ering this decision. But there are other ques tions to consider: Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Whatever happened to freedom of the press? Whatever happened to the basic right to go about our peaceful affairs without being intimidated and coerced by gov ernment officials?

For a penetrating analysis of the unkept promise of the United States Constitution, and the means to reclaim that promise, see Ridgway Foley's article on page 364. -BJS Time Will Tell Much concern has been expressed in this century about the semantic piracy that has left us, who are advocates of human liberty, the private ownership of property, and govern mental responsibility abridged to the functions of maintaining peace, without a formal name. I, too, have worried over this problem and have come to the conclusion that, at this time, no solution may be the best solution. By becoming obsessed with the notion that we "need" a label, we in effect have admitted PERSPECTIVE that our philosophy is deficient and that, without a moniker, our opinions are left unde fended and exposed to contrary suppositions which will strip naked our ideas and leave them wounded and dying on the road to intellectual purgatory; as if a popular name is the only weapon able to resist the force of argument.

I do not think, however, that this is true. The tenets of classical liberalism and free market economics are the strongest, most viable alter natives for the betterment of human society ever propounded. The problem lies primarily in this illusion of weakness-the belief that our ideas are not as powerful as tools of debate as those of the opposition. So I offer here a temporary remedy to our dilemma. We should, each of us, school our selves in the philosophy of freedom, so that we can defend and explicate our view in ways that reveal their innate cogency. To borrow from the fundamental principles of Austrian eco nomics, we must manufacture a product that is so consistent with human wants that people de mand it above all others. Let us not despair at the glib catchwords, slogans, and epithets of our opponents' rhetoric, but strengthen our own defense with the strongest offense-reason.

For in reason there is wisdom, and in wisdom, truth. In time, I believe we will recover the proper name and definition of "liberalism," but only when, by our thoughts and actions, we deserve that prize. --Carl Helstrom Mugged by Reality "The very high level of progressive taxation just doesn't work." -Kjell Olof Feldt, Sweden's Finance Minister, who has proposed a major tax overhaul. (The New York Times, May 12, 1987) 364 The Unkept Promise by Ridgway K. Foley, Jr. A s the weary delegates emerged from convention on that stifling September day now two centuries past, a woman approached the elder statesman of the time and inquired, "Pray, and what have you given us, Dr. Franklin?" He replied, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it!" This essay posits the Constitution as a promise made but unful filled; it proposes to describe that promise, to delineate its breach, and to assess the possi bility for future atonement.