June

THEFREE IDEAS ON LIBERTY 212 The Commonwealthof Independent States:Land of Opportunity PeterJ. Hill Economicproblemspresent tremendousopportunitiesfor entrepreneurs who can solvethem. 214 The Separationof Churchand State Ralph A. Raimi Somethoughtson freedom,tradition, and toleration. 216 Freedom of EducationWill SolveOur Education Crisis Jack D. Douglas How individualeducationcan help us to achievemore real learningand more creativity. 226 A Schoolwith a Money-BackGuarantee ScottPayne HOPE Academy'sunique approachtoward schooling. 228 Private Treasuresat Antietam Jo Ann Frobouck A group of faithfulstewardsmay lose both their land and their heritage. 230 The Case of the SighingMechanics TiborR. Machan Of auto parts, entitlements,and decliningexcellence. 231 Saying"Yes" Robert Zimmerman We can chooseto work well and responsibly. 234 Microcosm:The Declineof U. S. Competitiveness Donald G. Smith How increasedgovernmentinterventionhas hampered Americanproductivity.

236 Are We OnlyGood at WagingWar? Evelyn Pyburn Observationson the U. S. war machine. 237 The Searchfor ExtraterrestrialIntelligence John R Finneran Modern-day"cultivatorsof divineastronomy." 239 The Home-BirthControversy Hannah Lapp Freedom of choicein childbirth. 243 The Defense of Our CivilizationAgainstInteUectualError FriedrichA. Hayek Enduringwordsfrom one of the intellectualgiantsof this century. 245 Book Reviews CultureWars: The Struggleto DefineAmerica by James DavisonHunter; Rationalismin Politicsand OtherEssaysby MichaelOakeshott; The Macroeconomicsof Populismin Latin America,edited by RudigerDornbusch and SebastianEdwards. CONTENTS JUNE 1992 VOL. 42 NO.6 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 President of The Board: HansF. Sennholz Senior Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Contributing Editors: Bettina Bien Greaves Edmund A. Opitz Editor Emeritus: Paul L. Poirot Copy Editor: Deane M. Brasfield The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, established 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: Gregg C.

MacDonald, chairman; Lovett C. Peters, vice chairman; Don L. Foote, treasurer. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through donations. Donations are in vited in any amount. A subscription to The Freeman is available to any interested person in the United States for the asking. Addition al single copies $1.00; 10 or more, 50 cents each. For foreign delivery, a donation of $20.00 a year is required to cover direct mail ing costs. Copyright © 1992 by The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue except "The Case of the Sighing Mechanics," and "Saying 'Yes'," 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 1971 to date. Earlier volumes as well as current is sues are available on microfilm from Univer sity Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106.

The Freeman considers unsolicited editorial submissions, but they must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Our author's guide is available on request. Phone: (914) 591-7230 FAX: (914) 591-8910 Cover illustration: Isaac M. Wise Temple K. K. Benai Jeshurun (designed after the Alhambra), Plum Street, Cincinnati, c. 1876. © Dover Books. PERSPECTIVE The New Statism While the ordering of economic resources un der a socialist structure is failing throughout the world today, a more insidious successor to state so cialism has developed. A form of statism has evolved whose adherents are less concerned with outcome and more concerned with controlling the processes of society. These new statists are inter ested in a social order which can be manipulated politically to interfere with private property own ership without completely repudiating the market order framework. While state socialism seized all claims of private ownership to property, this new form of statism captures only the economic own ership of private· property, achieving its political objectives by imposing mandates and injunctions upon the legal owners of the property. It has be come a system of social organization which can best be described as a pragmatic, neo-fascist state.

-ROBERT G. ANDERSON,writing in A Man ofPrinciple: Essaysin Honor of Hans R Sennholz Who Benefitsfrom PropertyRights? People who own no property at all benefit from property rights, because they benefit from livingin an economy with a higher standard of living,made possible by having innumerable self-interested guardians of the economy's resources. In this sense, property rights are very similar to free speech rights, which do not exist just for the benefit of that 1 percent (or less) of the population who are writers or lecturers. -THOMAS SOWELL,writing in the March 2,1992, issue of Forbes Crimein the BlackCommunity I think that making excuses for criminals be trays our black tradition. In the days when every hand was against us in this country, when the laws were against us, when employers openly discrimi nated and were supported in law, fathers and grandfathers didn't use this as an excuse to destroy their own community, to prey on their own peo ple. And the people who did were ostracized and 210 put down for what they were. And that's the way we understood things ought to be. In those times, we had a strong sense of religious values and moral standards, where people were bound to take care of each other, not slaughter one another.

And if in those days of oppression we didn't use that oppression as an excuse, howcan we say today that there is any excuse for this kind of behavior? Doors are open, and people have worked to open those doors, and we need to move forward now with the same sense of discipline possessed by the people who suffered during Jim Crow and slavery. -ALAN KEYES, quoted in the summer 1991 issue of Issues& Views The Role of Rules Today, much of the economic game is in the po litical arena. It is played by getting rules on your side, or making sure that somebody else doesn't get the rules on their side against you. The action is in Washington, D.C. It's interesting to look at the statistics of many large companies and see how much of their time goes into lobbying, where their business headquar ters are, who the big players are, etc. It turns out that it's just as important to try to make sure that the rules favor you as it is to produce better prod ucts. Any society in which the rules are not clearly defined, whatever they are, is at risk. Youneed a so ciety of stable, legitimate and just rules in order to have people productively engaged.

-PETER J. HILL, from an interview in the NovemberlDecember 1991 issue of Religion& Liberty Man'sPlacein Nature An environmentalism that began from the prin ciples of American liberal democracy would recog nize that the worst form of tyranny is not the tyran ny of man over nature, bad as that might sometimes be, but the tyranny of man over man. In order to prevent the latter tyranny, it is necessary to recog nize that it is not proper for men to treat other men as though they were but another species of animal. Men are worth more than animals. To sacrifice their freedom and the quality of their lives in the PERSPECTIVE name of species equality is both unethical and shortsighted. This is the proper starting point for environmental policy. But from that recognition, it is not proper to draw the conclusion that we should be uncon cerned with the protection of other species. It is wrong for humans to be cruel to animals, but the true evil cannot be grasped without seeing the evil this cruelty does to human beings. It is the corrup tion of the human soul revealed in cruelty to ani mals that is the most shocking aspect of this cruelty.

For the same cruelty practiced by a hawk upon its prey would not be the same evil-indeed it would be no evil at all. Hawks are not interested in pro tecting kangaroo rats and cannot be blamed for their indifference. Human beings should care for the earth, but more for their own sake than for the sake of the earth. Earth is glorious among planets above all because it is the home for men. It would be unworthy of our human dignity,as well as being shortsighted, to foul our own nest. -GLEN E. THUROW, "Endangered Species and Endangered Humanity," published by The Claremont Institute On Bureaucracy Bureaucrats, like private business people, act to further their self-interest. Instead of financial gain, their reward is the perquisites resulting from ad vancement. Because they do not "profit" from their decisions, they do not necessarily manage their bureau in a manner designed to generate the most satisfaction or benefits for the users of the bu reau's services.

Decisions by the bureaucrat do not result in more or less profit as the customers or users react by purchasing more or fewer goods or services. People in private business, seeking profit, consider their customers. If their business decisions produce more satisfaction, they gain more income. A suc cessful bureaucrat, in contrast, would gain salary, rank, and prestige. The bureaucrat's most advanta geous policy, therefore, is one that increases the size of the bureau, the size of its budget, and the number of people the bureaucrat supervises. -MICHAEL D. COPELAND, writing in The YellowstonePrimer 211 212 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY The Commonwealth of Independent States: Land of Opportunity by Peter J. Hill C onditions are dire in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the confed eration of former Soviet republics. The economy is paralyzed. Agricultural products rot in the fields, while store shelves are empty. Workers make shoddy goods for which there is no market, and even if there were a market, the products couldn't be delivered because there is almost no distribution system.