November

Socialized Health-Care Nightmare by Yuri Maltsev and Louise Omdahl A firsthand account of the horrors of Russian health care. The Immorality of Government-Mandated Health Care by Paul A. Cleveland Government-mandated health care will have a devastating effect on the quality of medical care. What NBC Didn't Tell You About Health-Care Reform by Jane M. Orient NBC's disingenuous promotion of the Clinton Health Plan is unmasked. Ideas and Consequences-Of Meat and Myth by Lawrence W. Reed The truth about Upton Sinclair's attack on America's meatpacking industry. Four Myths About America's Great Depression by Ronald H. Nash Liberals continue to distort the truth about America's Great Depression. Interest Rates and the Business Cycle by Glen Tenney Changes in a nation's money supply have a strongly negative effect on economic activity. The Discouraged Employer by Murray Weidenbaum Governmental regulation costs jobs-lots of them!

Data Manipulation as Crisis by Robert W. Pulsinelli Information about how demagogues manipulate data to further their statist objectives. The Piper Will Be Paid by Charles D. Van Eaton Even in economics, we reap what we sow. What Is a Dollar? by Edwin Vieira, Jr. Does the U.S. Government have any idea what a "dollar" is? A Profit Without Honor by R. C. Sproul, Jr. "Profit" is not a four-letter word. 635 Hoarders, Speculators, and Other Scapegoats by Roger Clites Hoarders, speculators, and savers perform a useful service for society. 637 Correction, Ple~e!-The Perversity of Wall Street by Mark Skousen Why is it that good news on Main Street is bad nevvs on Wall Street? And vice versa? 639 Book Reviews David M. Brown reviews Are There Too Many Lawyers? And Other Vexatious Questions, by Joseph S. Fulda; The Economics and Ethics of Private Property: Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, reviewed by N. Stephan Kinsella; The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties Legacy to the Under~lass by Myron Magnet, reviewed by Lawrence Person; Telecompetition: The Free Market Road to the Information Highway by Lawrence Gasman, reviewed by Raymond J. Keating.

THEFREEMAN IDEASON UBERTY 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 GuestEditor: Ronald H. Nash EditorEmeritus Paul L. Poirot Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Book ReviewEditor 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 The Independent Institute, Oakland, California 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 "Health Care and the Chronically Ill" and "What Is a Dollar?" 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$25.00 or more receive a subscription to TheFreeman. Student subscriptionsare $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 $40.00a year is suggested to cover mailingcosts.

Bound volumes of The Freeman are available from The Foundation for calendar years 1972to date. The Freeman is available in microform from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. PERSPECTIVE Our ContinuingDuty Editor's note: November 28, 1994, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Henry Hazlitt, renowned author of Economics in One Lesson and Founding Trustee ofFEE. In responding to the tributes of friends who had gathered for his 70th birthday celebration, Mr. Hazlitt issued a stirring challenge to defenders of freedom. Thirty years later, his words are even more appro priate: I suppose most of you in this room have read that powerful book, George Orwell's 1984. On the surface it is a profoundly depressing novel, but I was surprised to find myself strangely encouraged by it. I finally decided that this encouragement arose from one of the final scenes in it. The hero, Winston Smith, is presented as a rather ordinary man, an intelligent but not a bril liant man, and certainly not a courageous one. Winston Smith has been keeping a secret diary, in which he wrote: "Freedom is the freedom to say that two and two makes four. " Now this diary has been discovered by the Party. O'Brien, his inquisitor, is asking him questions. Winston Smith is strapped to a board or a wheel, in such a way that O'Brien, by merely moving a lever, can inflictany amount of excruciating pain upon him (and explains to himjust how much pain he can inflict upon him and just how easy it would be to break Smith's backbone).

O'Brien first inflicts a certain amount of not quite intolerable pain on Winston Smith. Then he holds up the four fingers of his left hand, and says, "How many fingers am I holding up?" Winston knows that the re quired answer is five. That's the Party answer. But Winston can't say anything else but four. So O'Brien moves the lever again, and inflicts still more agonizing pain upon him, and says, "Think again. How many fingers am I holding up?" Winston Smith says, "Four. Four. Four fingers." Well, he finally capitulates, as you know, but not until he has put up a magnificent battle. None of us is yet on the torture rack; we are not yet in jail; we're getting various 586 harassments and annoyances, but what we mainly risk is merely our popularity, the danger that we will be called nasty names. So, before we are in the position of Winston Smith, we can surely have enough courage to keep saying that two plus two equals four.

This is the duty that is laid upon us. We have a duty to speak even more clearly and courageously, to work harder, and to keep fighting this battle while the strength is still in us. But I can't do better than to read the words of the great economist, the great thinker, the great writer, who honors me more than I can say by his presence here tonight, Ludwig von Mises. This is what he wrote in the finalparagraph of his great book on socialism 40 years ago: "Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual bat tle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us."

Those words-uncannily prophetic words-were written in the early 1920s. Well, I haven't any new message, any better message than that. Even those of us who have reached and passed our 70th birthdays cannot afford to rest on our oars and spend the rest of our lives dozing in the Florida sun. The times PERSPECTIVE call for courage. The times call for hard work. But if the demands are high, it is because the stakes are even higher. They are nothing less than the future of human lib erty, which means the future of civilization. -HENRY HAZLITT (1894-1993) To commemorate Mr. Hazlitt's life and work, FEE has brought out new editions of several of his books. For further infor mation, see this month's Notes from FEE. A Beacon For what I suppose are millions of read ers, Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Les son continues to shine like a beacon in the dark night of liberal and statist nonsense. If the bureaucrats and politicians in Washing ton would just once ask Hazlitt' s basic question, "What will be the long-range con sequences of this action?", we might once again begin to have some hope for our nation's future. Alas, we continue to learn that economic wisdom is the last thing-or one of the last things-we can expect from those who worship at the shrine of big government and bad economics. Whenever we chance upon a graduate of America's schools who can read, we ought to consider placing in that youngster's hands a copy of Hazlitt's book. At least, this will give that student a fightingchance when he goes to do battle with the statists who reign supreme in what we still choose to call our colleges and universities.

-RONALD H. NASH 587 THEFREEMAN IDEASON UBERTY Health Care and the Chronically m by Hope Hodson T he health plans currently floating through Congress, which would finan cially coerce our poorest and sickest chron ically ill into HMOs, will prove an unmiti gated disaster. I have been a lupus patient for 27 years; for six years I served as a certified Lupusline counselor at the Hospi tal for Special Surgery in New York City. My own personal experience, as well as that of my many clients, has convinced me that HMO medical care causes unnecessary suf fering and physical harm to the incurably ill. Lupus is characterized by a totally unpre dictable course which will vary greatly from one individual to another. Therefore, each patient's treatment must be individualized to their specific needs and symptoms. Our physicians are constantly on alert and re spond whether it is 2:00 in the morning or during a Sunday football game. We develop close, long-term doctor/patient relation ships, with an arsenal of specialists woven into a tight-knit care group. This care team must be specially trained in their specific disease area and be aware of all the numer ous medications their patient is receiving. It takes years of trial and error to bring this team together.