June

THEmEE IDEASON LIBERTY 276 Things Are Better Than We Think (And Could Be Better Yet) by Jane S. Shaw America's biggest secret: Capitalism is good for the environment. 279 How Government Makes Natural Disasters Worse by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. When natural disasters strike, bureaucrats should just stay home. 282 Ideas and Consequences by Lawrence W. Reed 284 The Fascist Epithet by Mack Tanner We ought to recognize American liberalism for what it is. 288 Economic Fascism by Thomas J. DiLorenzo Government control of nominally private property was always a favorite tool of totalitarians. 294 The Failure of Antitrust Policy by D. T. Armentano Antitrust regulation is based on strange theory and incorrect history. 297 Losing Touch by Donald Boudreaux Politicians, like long-distance bombers, seldom see their "victims." 299 A Tax Deduction for Education by Roy E. Cordata and Sheldon Richman A plan for genuine freedom of choice in education.

302 Now for Some Serious Educational Reform by Tibor R. Machan Compulsory schooling is the root of higher education's problems. 304 By Any Means Necessary? by Robert Zimmerman Political correctness as "justification" for tyranny. 307 The Moral Hazard of Government by Michael R. Duff To government officials, policy failure means political success. 312 What's Wrong with Democracy? by L. Hatzilambrou Democracy only works when government's powers are strictly limited. 316 Is Individualism Dead? by Nelson Hultberg America's greatness depends on freedom and individualism. 320 Correction Please! by Mark Skousen 323 Book Reviews John Chamberlain reviews Reclaiming The American Dream by Richard Cornuelle; Commager on Tocqueville by Henry Steele Commager, reviewed by David M. Brown; Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement by Justin Raimondo, reviewed by Jim Christie; Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas by Thomas Sowell, reviewed by Patrick Groff.

CONTENTS JUNE 1994 VOL. 44 NO.6 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERlY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 President: Hans F. Sennholz Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Guest Editor: Thomas J. DiLorenzo Editor Emeritus Paul L. Poirot Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Book Review Editor Robert Batemarco Marymount College, Tarrytown, New York AssociateEditors John Chamberlain Cheshire, Connecticut Bettina Bien Greaves Resident Scholar, FEE Edmund A. Opitz Chatham, Massachusetts Columnists Lawrence W. Reed Mackinac Center for Public Policy Midland, Michigan Mark Skousen Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida ContributingEditors Charles W. Baird California State University, Hayward Doug Bandow Cato Institute, Washington, D.C. E. Calvin Beisner Covenant College, Chattanooga, Tennessee Peter J. Boettke New York University Clarence B. Carson American Textbook Committee Wadley, Alabama Thomas J. DiLorenzo Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland Joseph S. Fulda New York, New York Roger W. Garrison Auburn University Robert Higgs Seattle University John Hospers University of Southern California Los Angeles, California Tibor R. Machan Auburn University Ronald Nash Reformed Theological Seminary Maitland, Florida James L. Payne Sandpoint, Idaho William H. Peterson Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Jane S. Shaw Political Economy Research Center (PERC) Bozeman, Montana Richard H. Timberlake University of Georgia Lawrence H. White University of Georgia 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 non-political, educa tional champion of private property, the free market, and limited government. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Copyright © 1994 by The Foundation for Economic Education. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, except "By Any Means Necessary?" provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to The Foundation. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through donations, which are invited in any amount. Donors of$25.oo or more receive a subscription to The Freeman. Student subscriptions are $10.00 for the nine-month academic year; $5.00 per semester.

Additional copies of single issues of The Freeman are $2.00. For foreign delivery, a donation of $40.00 a year is suggested to cover mailing costs. 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 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. PERSPECTIVE The Power of Paternalism Opium and morphine are certainly dan gerous, habit-forming drugs. But once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroach ments. A good case could be made out in favor of the prohibition of alcohol and nic otine. And why limit the government's be nevolent providence to the protection of the individual's body only? Is not the harm a man can inflict on his mind and soul even more disastrous than any bodily evils? Why not prevent him from reading bad books and seeing bad plays, from looking at bad paint ings and statues and from hearing bad mu sic? The mischief done by bad ideologies, surely, is much more pernicious, both for the individual and for the whole society, than that done by narcotic drugs. . . .

It is a fact that no paternal government, whether ancient or modern, ever shrank from regimenting its subjects' minds, be liefs, and opinions. If one abolishes man's freedom to determine his own consumption, one takes all freedoms away. -LUDWIG VON MISES Human Action Insidious Monopolists It has been suggested that, because the nominal price of first-class postage is about where it was in the late eighteenth century, Americans who complain about the pro posal to increase postal rates are merely whining wimps who are lacking in historical perspective. However, the real price of transportation (a key input in postal service) has plum meted over the last 200 years. In 1799it took 53 days for an Army courier to travel from Detroit to Pittsburgh. Today the same trip can conveniently be made in minutes. Likewise, the productive efficiency of the United States is vastly greater now than it was even a few decades ago. Given the plunge in transportation costs, joined with 274 other technological improvements and a large increase in the scale of postal activity, the price of postage should have fallen dramatically.

Americans do not oppose postal-rate in creases because of their ignorance of his tory. Rather, opposition to these increases grows from the correct perception that a legally protected monopolist such as the United States Postal Service can keep prices higher, and service inferior, to what they would be under competition. Regardless of how today's postal rates compare with rates in the past, opening the delivery of first-class mail to competition would lower rates still further while improv ing service. -DON BOUDREAUXand GEORGESELGIN in a letter to The New York Times Ortega's Mass Man Redux In his 1932 book, The Revolt of the Masses, the Spanish philosopher Jose Or tega y Gasset defined the average or mass man as one who' 'in face of any problem, is satisfied with thinking the first thing he finds in his head." Ortega's Mass Man is with us today in the person of the average man who believes what he reads in the latest headlines or sees on the network news.

He doesn't want to be bothered with the details or further analysis of the facts. The Mass Man, according to Ortega y Gasset, "will tend to consider. and affirm as good everything he findswithin himself: opinions, appetites, preferences, tastes. . . . He has no wish to find the truth; he is intellectually a barbarian. " This man accepts no personal PERSPECTIVE responsibility or punishment for what he does. He claims he cannot control his de sires; he is a victim, so it is perfectly permissible to finaglefood stamps, welfare, a job, or a corporate subsidy. The Mass Man, Ortega y Gasset states, "does not want to give reasons or to be right, but simply shows himself resolved to impose his opinions. . . ." He has" decided to rule society without the capacity for doing so.... He wishes to have opinions, but is unwilling to accept the conditions and pre suppositions that underlie all opinion." The Mass Man of 1994 sees no connection be tween the rising crime rate and the teaching of relative morality.

Ortega y Gasset' s Mass Man's ideas "hardly reflect in any way the reality to which they appear to refer and.... there is not even an attempt to adjust the ideas to this reality. [He] is trying to cut off any personal vision of reality. It does not worry him that his ideas are not true." Such a man considers humans as ants or creatures that exist for the state without any inherent value. According to Ortega y Gasset, "There is not to be found . . . a single group whose attitude to life is not limited to believing that it has all the rights and none of the obliga tions." That perfectly describes the Mass Man of 1994. The superficial, non-thinking Mass Man seems to be present and threatening not only in Ortega's day and our own, but throughout recorded history. He appears whenever thinking man abdicates his responsibilities and relies on someone else to perform his duties. -CHARLES RODA 275 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY THINGS ARE BEITER THAN WE THINK (AND COULD BE BETTER YET) by Jane S. Shaw T o an objective observer, Americans' attitudes toward the environment must be puzzling. Many Americans think that our forests are being destroyed by logging, that the world's natural resources are disappear ing, that hundreds of species are going extinct each year, and that the future, with a depleting ozone layer and imminent global warming, is bleak. But when Americans look outside their window or travel on vacation, they in fact find clean air and clean streams, and miles and miles of open space and forestland.