Book Reviews

Case in point is U.S. farm policy. The apt Armey Axiom here: "One bad government program creates the need for a worse one. " The U.S. Agriculture Department starts out by benevolently guaranteeing the farmer "client" ample price supports on his crops and thus a high return on his investment. The unsurprising upshot is overproduction or vast farm surpluses that become unman ageable, that cram government storage bins. This leads to an even more bizarre con sequence. The bureaucrats then pay farmers not to farm. Literally. And the amount of land taken out of production is prodigious. In a typical year, reports Representative Armey, Uncle Sam idles 60 millionacres, an amount equal to the entire land area of Ohio, Indiana, and half of Illinois combined. The above Armey Axiom also helps ex plain the bizarreness of America's mass transit system. Over the last 25 years, Uncle Sam has pumped in more than $100billion in mass transit subsidies, and now accounts for two-thirds of the operating cost of mass transit. With fewer skills than the average U.S. worker, the average transit worker is still paid 70 percent more. Yet ridership sinks and is lower today than in the 1960s..

Nothing succeeds like a failed government program (a Peterson maxim). Other targets of Armey Axioms include the Small Business Administration (with a 119 20 percent default rate on SBA loans), U.S. job training programs (the Job Corps pro gram nips taxpayers for $30,000per trainee), Rural Electrication Administration (its mis sion was over in the 1950s but it keeps on draining taxpayers), Legal Services Corpo ration (its tax-financed lawyers sue state and local governments on behalf of violent crim inals evicted from public housing), and so forth. More Armey Axioms: "The politics of greed always comes wrapped in the lan guage of love." "When you're weaned from the milkof sacred cows, you're bound to get heartburn." "If you love peace more than freedom, you lose." "Social responsibility is a euphemism for personal irresponsibili ty. " "There is nothing more arrogant than a self-righteous income redistributor."

Freedom works, says Dick Armey. That's his working title of this cutting yet beaming book. He holds America has only begun to grasp the meaning of great events in recent years-the revolution that sank Eurocom munism, for example, or the computer rev olution, or the free-market revolution. These are but steps in the larger Freedom Revolution. At the heart of this drama is Congressman Armey's simple idea that people should be trusted to spend their own earnings and decide their own futures. The most just and compassionate societies, he says, are also the most free. What welcome heresy! D Dr. Peterson, an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation, is Distinguished Lundy Professor Emeritus of Business Philosophy at Campbell University in North Carolina. Bioethics-Opportunities, Risks, and Ethics: The Privatization of Cancer Research by Robert K. Oldham, M.D. Franklin, Tennessee: Media America, Inc.• 1995 • 416 pages. $14.95 paperback Reviewed by Jeffrey A. Singer B ioethics burst onto the scene last de cade. Its mission: to analyze and judge the moral aspects of clinical and research 120 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1996 medicine. Dr. Robert K. Oldhamargues that ethical conduct' 'is simply a matter of doing that which is right." In Bioe thies, he sets out to challenge the legitimacy of his most vocal critics: medicine's "mainstream" bioethi cists.

Oldham's ongoing "war" with main stream bioethicists stems from his challenge to the government-academia monopoly controlling therapeutic research that has evolved since World War II. The current generation of researchers and academics ignorant of the entrepreneurial paradigm that guided research in the United States prior to World War II-find Dr. Oldham's statements and actions outrageous and trou bling. And they should, for Oldham seeks to overthrow them. Dr. Oldham is a highly respected cancer therapist specializing in the exciting new field of biotherapy. Biotherapy research is presently studying and developing ways to launch a coordinated attack on the tumor using the cancer patient's own immune system. Biotherapy rests on the premise that although each cancer has characteris tics held in common with all other tumors of the same cell type, it also has certain indi vidualizing characteristics distinguishing it from all other cancers of the same type.

With this insight, biotherapy has devel oped immune-enhancing therapies that are specific to an individual tumor and are less toxic and more effective than generalized immunologictherapies. These agents, either singularly or in combination "cocktails" are tailored for unique application to the specific patient. Much of this research is done by private medical technology compa nies. Dr. Oldham founded the Oncology Pro gram at Vanderbilt University College of Medicine. Later, he headed the Biotherapy Research Division at the National Cancer Institute, where he discovered an inherent flaw in the current drug development pro cess. The current process involves research largely funded by the taxpayer or the pharmaceutical industry. Strict protocols established by the Food and Drug Admin istration must be followed, under penalty of law. This is not costless. The average length of time it takes to bring a new drug to market is ten years. The average cost runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Bad as this is, it is worse for cancer patients.

Oldham focuses on a particular problem that arises when a breakthrough occurs in therapeutic research. The anticipated tumor cure will not be made available, even on an experimental basis, to that patient until a few more years of FDA-required trials are completed. Such patients, the large majority of whom will be dead before the FDA finishes its trials, are denied access to a therapy despite having subsidized its re search, and even despite their potential willingnessto pay more to have this therapy, regardless of its experimental status. This is unethical. Research allegedly driven by the needs of patients is instead driven by the abstract needs of the experiment. Patients dying of cancer find the delay unacceptable, and the bureaucratic concern for their wel fare ludicrous. Their time is running out. Dr. Oldham left the National Cancer In stitute in 1984and founded Biotherapeutics, Inc., a for-profit, patient-funded cancer re search company. Patients contracted for specific biotherapeutic regimens produced in this private lab and administered experi mentally in Oldham's Biological Therapy Institute. The Institute reports the results of its research, both the promising and the unsuccessful. Since most biotherapies are produced on-site there is no interstate trans port, and these agents are therefore exempt from FDA regulation.

The idea of patients engagingin voluntary contractual treatment was too much for the "medical-academic-governmental com plex." Dr. Oldham came under forceful attack from bioethicists who charged that it was unscrupulous to ask patients to pay for their research. Dr. Oldham countered that the current scenario is worse-forcing them to pay for research they are then denied. Bioethicists also asserted the appearance of a conflict of interest when the research is performed by a for-profit institution. Dr. Oldham cited work by Nobel laureate econ omist James Buchanan-founder of the publie choice school of economics that applies economic theory to analyze political ac tors-and argued that nonprofit and gov ernmental institutions are at a greater risk for conflicts of interest, conflicts more easily hidden from the public given the lack of competitive forces. Unfortunately, bad publicity resulting from his critics and bad business manage ment decisions led to the demise of Biother apeutics, Inc., in 1989.The BiologicalTher apy Institute remains, still directed by Dr.

Oldham, but the prospects for speeding up available cancer therapy options for patients have been dealt a blow. In Bioethics, Dr. Oldham exposes the reader to the fascinating prospects for med ical research privatization. He makes the case that the current government-academic monopoly has come to regard the patient's interest as secondary to the interests of "science. " The reader is also introduced to the new field of bioethics, and exposed to debates on its legitimacy, both pro and con. Ethical arguments for and against patient-funded andfor-profitresearch are presented at length. Bioethics also contains an excellent dis cussion on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Oldham advocates a consensual rela tionship, in which the patient contracts with the doctor for a service and actively partic ipates in all significant decisions with re spect to his treatment. Oldham here creates (unknowingly) a medical analogy to the psychiatric relationship advocated by icon oclastic libertarian psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, M.D., in The Ethics of Psychoanal ysis and other writings. Szasz called his approach "autonomous psychotherapy."

We could call Oldham's approach "auton omous cancer therapy." Bioethics is a series of reprinted articles and essays by Dr. Oldham and others, arranged to lead the reader through the story of Dr. Oldham's project and various impli cations of his thesis. The drawback of this format is that there is a tendency towards redundancy, as articles intended for differ ent audiences repeat points already made. Author commentary tying together the isBOOKS 121 sues and arguments made by these essays would have been appreciated, but is not included. Despite these shortcomings, Bioethics is an extremely important work that deserves wide attention. It deals with issues rarely raised, but issues that are literally matters of life and death. D Dr. Singer practices medicine in Phoenix, Ari zona. Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Development State by Chalmers Johnson w. W. Norton & Company. 1995 .384 pages • $25.00 Reviewed by Russell Shannon , 'Trade between the United States and Japan can be fair only ifwe level the playing field." So say countless politicians and others who decry the obstacles Japan erects to sales of American products in Japanese markets. Threats last year to im pose 100 percent tariffs on Japanese luxury car imports are just one of many efforts by our government aimed at leveling.

Traditional trade theory holds that free trade will prompt nations to specialize on the basis of comparative advantage. Follow ing this path means consumers in both countries will benefit from lower prices and producers will find new opportunities for profit. But the author of these essays argues that the Japanese system has a totally different orientation. Job security for workers takes precedence over satisfaction for consumers. Similarly, because many stocks are rarely traded on the exchange and many large industries are essentially creatures of the government, Japanese managers are more powerful than shareholders and profits take a back seat to market share. And, perhaps most important of all, the power of bureau crats in the various government ministries far exceeds that of politicians. When Johnson suggests that our country 122 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1996 should emulate Japan by developing more extensive industrial policies designed to fa vor selected industries, his presentation fal ters. He has fallen into the trap of presuming that policies which may be successful there would survive a transplant. Even were that permissible, the case for the premise that those policies were successful in Japan is far from airtight.

Moreover, Johnson ignores the implica tions of the evidence he presents. Surely, Japan's rapid economic growth is one of the wonders of the second half of the twentieth century. But the cost has certainly been high. Two examples from Johnson's book are particularly revealing. One study revealed that in 1989 "a U.S. made sedan selling for $13,507 in Chicago cost about $25,613in Tokyo." This illustra tion shows how Japanese consumers are at a considerable disadvantage relative to Americans. When one asks why the cost of consumer goods is still so high in Japan, one does not have to look far for the answer. The cost of government in Japan is also high. Johnson notes that fully 10 percent of Japan's annual GNP goes for infrastructure. By itself, that may not necessarily be a bad thing, but Johnson also points out that the construc tion industry is the most powerful lobbying agency and that Japan's politicians typically get a bonus of 3 percent of the value of construction projects that they arrange.

One is compelled, then, to ask, with such high costs, how have the Japanese managed to do so well? Surely, the strong work ethic is one reason. Another, which Johnson discusses in detail, is the fact that Japan was prevented, by the constitution adopted fol lowing World War II, from spending more than one percent of its annual GNP on defense. Some readers will surely conclude that Japan's success may have come more in spite of, rather than due to, extensive bu reaucratic manipulation. Putting Johnson's own myopia aside, however, one can findmuch to admire in this book. From his knowledge of the Japanese language, Johnson provides an engaging demonstration of the pitfalls of translation. His detailed discussion of the .Lockheed bribery scandal provides a deeply disturbing picture of international economic relation ships. He also makes it distressingly clear that we must shoulder some of the blame for the conflicts we have with Japan, as some of General Douglas MacArthur's policies dur ing the occupation after World War II in advertently augmented the power of the Japanese bureaucracy.

The Japanese have much to which they can point with pride, but we need not envy them. Similarly, there is much to learn from Johnson's book, though we need not always agree with him. Most likely, we have more to gain from looking at the positive side of our relationship with Japan and admiring the wisdom of this writer than we do from derogating their weaknesses. D Dr. Shannon is Professor ofEconomics at Clem son University. Guns, Crime, and Freedom by Wayne LaPierre Regnery. 1994.408 pages. $22.95 Reviewed by Bowen H. Greenwood W ayne LaPierre's book Guns, Crime, and Freedom has a good many flaws. But in spite of them all, LaPierre has ren dered a valuable service to the defenders of the Second Amendment. The primary virtue of Guns is that it collects nearly all of the arguments and evidence against gun control into one tidy volume, and makes them easily accessible to all. This book deals with both the moral and the practical aspects of gun control. It pre sents the evidence for why it is wrong to oppress those who want to own guns; it argues that ownership of firearms is, in fact, a right. But LaPierre has also presented the evidence on the practical side of the gun control argument, showing how crime is not reduced by gun control.

LaPierre has collected a tremendous vol ume of evidence about what the framers of the Constitution really intended the Second Amendment to mean. From Thomas Jefferson's "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms," through John Adams, James Madison, and a whole litany of the revolutionary leadership in America, La Pierre demonstrates the desire of the fram ers that the American people should have the right to own weapons. Few can read this book and still deny that the framers intended the Second Amendment to give us all the right to arms. Not stopping at the framers, though, LaPierre invokes an overwhelming weight of current legal scholarship. Citing one law review article after another, he reveals that those who sit down and actually study the Second Amendment all come to the same conclusion: it applies to everyone, not just the National Guard. This book contains a wealth of statistics on the failure of gun control laws. LaPierre discusses the crime rates in countries with and without gun control, and destroys the liberal argument that Canada or Great Brit ain's lower crime rates are attributable to their strict control of firearms. He also provides similar statistics for various states in this country, and shows that those with the strictest gun control are also usually those with the highest crime rates.

Accompanying those figures are a set of powerful arguments, explaining why gun control fails. LaPierre repeats and expounds on the traditional "Criminals don't obey the current laws, so why should they obey gun control laws" argument. He also shows why less gun control can also equal less crime. From waiting periods to concealed weap ons, LaPierre has compiled all the best defenses of the right to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately, compiling is really all he has done. Although there is a wealth of information in this book, it is presented in such lackluster fashion that its value is diminished. There are enough typos and misspellings to make one wonder about the editing effort put into Guns. And the prose is labored and repetitive: the same argu ments appear over and over again at seem ingly random places in the text. In the modem political climate, where those who resist gun control are portrayed BOOKS 123 as either fanatics or unlettered bumpkins, a smoother, more professional presentation would have aided opponents of gun control.

The poor writing in this book will give the media establishment all the excuse it needs to ignore what is otherwise an overwhelm ing weight of evidence. Despite its shortcomings, Guns, Crime, and Freedom is a comprehensive, well researched reference work. All the facts necessary to refute those who call for the banning of guns are right at hand and fully indexed. Those who defend Americans' right to keep and bear arms will find this a valuable weapon in their fight. D Mr. Greenwood is ajournalist in Billings, Mon tana. Risk by John Adams Bristol, Pennsylvania: Taylor & Francis. 1995 .228 pages. $21.95 paperback Reviewed by John Semmens W ho should decide how much risk you should take? Proponents of govern ment safety regulation think that the gov ernment has the expertise to decide this issue for you. Professor John Adams of UniversityCollege London presents a case for more individual autonomy.

While the government may have the man power and the budget to commission nu merous· studies, tests, and experiments aimed at discovering what is safe, the fact is, it lacks the information most crucial to making an appropriate choice of risks. The information it lacks is each individual's highly subjective assessment of the risk! reward tradeoff. Life cannot be made risk-free. Every action bears some element of risk. Even inaction carries some risk. Whether any particular course of action is worth the risk that must be incurred to carry it out can only be determined by the individual who must bear the consequences, good or bad, of the action.

124 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1996 That not everyone places the same weight on the prospective risks and rewards of a given action should be obvious. Consider some examples. The U.S. Navy, for in stance, offers a "hazardous duty" bonus for those recruits willing to take flying assign ments. Not all recruits choose to pursue flying. On the other hand, skydivers volun tarily incur expenses to pay for the privilege of experiencing the danger ofjumping out of an airplane. Others fear to fly on even the safest of commercial airlines. Given the varied preferences people have for the amount of risk they are willing to tolerate, it would seem that government mandated safety devices are bound to vio late the wishes of many individuals. Propo nents of government safety mandates pre sume that "erring on the side of greater safety" excuses the inability to satisfy the varied preferences of different individuals.

However, erring on the side ofgreater safety is easier said than done. Because people are not automatons, they cannot be counted on to passively accept government decisions on safety issues. The idea that individuals attempt to bal ance risks and rewards is the foundation of the theory of "risk compensation." Risk compensation theory says that each individ ual has his own internal risk "thermostat." When perceived risk is higher than what 'the individual finds comfortable, he is apt to take risk-reducing actions. When perceived risk is lower than what the individual finds comfortable, he is apt to take more chances in pursuit of other objectives. If government attempts to force more safety onto individuals than they would freely choose for themselves, some of them will try to convert the unneeded safety margin into an increased performance level. In the field of traffic safety, where govern ment has been actively working to compel drivers to purchase and use more safety devices (for example, air bags and seat belts), there is a danger that some better protected drivers will try to convert this intended safety enhancement into a perfor mance gain by driving faster or more ag gressively. Dr. Adams presents evidence from a Dutch study in which·it was found that persons who did not normally wear seat belts tended to drive faster and follow the vehicles ahead of them more closely in traffic when required to wear a seat belt.

More aggressive driving effectively shifts risk from protected drivers to others who mayor may not be protected. The net result may be no reduction in traffic fatality rates, but merely a different assortment of victims. Dr. Adams presents evidence to indicate that despite predictions of dramatic declines in traffic fatalities that were supposed to follow the imposition of mandatory seat belt laws, there is no convincing proof that there has been any reduction. In a comparison of nations with and without mandatory seat belt laws, Dr. Adams discovered that those without these laws had a slightly larger decline in trafficfatality rates over the same time period. It is apparent that risk compensating be haviors are offsetting the intended safety benefits that the government is trying to force on society. This is especially troubling when one considers how the risk may be redistributed. Dr. Adams has found data indicating that the decline in driver deaths is being offset by increases in deaths among non-driving vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The driver is the one person with the most influenceon whether a vehicle will crash. Making this person feel safer does not make the trafficenvironment safer.

The fact that some of the non-driving vic tims of a government-induced shift of risk are children is a perverse unintended con sequence. A more humble role for government may be in order. Enforcing laws against crimes and holding people responsible for the dam age they do to others may be enough of a burden for the government to undertake in the pursuit of public safety. In most re spects, individuals would seem to be best served by being left free to make their own choices on how to balance the risks and rewards of everyday life. D Mr. Semmens is-aneconomist with LaissezFaire Institute in Chandler, Arizona.

From Here to Economy: A Shortcut to Economic Literacy by Todd G. Buchholz Dutton. 1995 • 278 pages. $21.95 Reviewed by Raymond J. Keating T he echoes of John Maynard Keynes still re'sonate across the intellectual and pol icy terrain traveled by economists. Thank fully, though, these echoes seem to be growing fainter with each passing year. From Here to Economy serves as an example of such developments. Author Todd Buchholzprovides an interestingoverviewof the economics world, though his book is oc casionally marred with Keynesian fallacies. First, let's deal with the downside of Buchholz's book. He lends some credence to such myths as the "overheated econo- , my" and Keynesian pump-priming-giving them more serious treatment than war ranted. Buchholz is, at times, a little too generous in his description and application of "macroeconomics." In addition, one would have hoped for greater substance when describing free market schools of thought, such as Austrian and supply-side economics. Though gener ally fair in his limited discussions of these two schools, the author is too dismissive of the Austrian influence in the study of eco nomics.

Despite these negatives, there remain many positive aspects of From Here to Economy. Buchholz often manages to com bine sound economics with an entertaining writing style. Most important, Buchholz generally ac knowledges the efficacy of markets and the many problems ofgovernment intervention. He sees the limits of government power and knowledge. Buchholz recognizes Friedrich von Hayek's important contribution in this area: "Hayek's most damning criticism of government intervention in the economy rests on [his] 'ignorance argument'-gov ernments cannot possibly gather enough information from throughout the world to intelligently choose whether the price of tin BOOKS 125 should be X or Y dollars. In contrast, market players do not need to know anything other than prices in order to make their choices. " On other subjects, Buchholz hits the mark as well. He understands the woes plaguing the healthcare market: "The basic problem is that most people who receive medical treat ment are using someone else's money."

The author also provides some fairly good entries on the evils of protectionism. He even offers a clear description of David Ricardo's concept of comparative advantage. Buchholz concludes From Here to Econ omy with recognition of the entrepreneur as the driving force in the economy. To his credit, he also acknowledges the limitations of economists in this world of entrepre neurs: "While these almost mystical forces are hard to analyze with the economist's standard toolbox, we do know that [entre preneurs] thrive in basically free environ ments. Too many rules, regulations, and taxes can snuff the entrepreneurial spark." As is the case with the economics disci pline in general, Buchholz excels when using the tools of microeconomics and fal ters when applying macroeconomics. With each turn of the page, Buchholz emerges as a market-oriented microeconomist strug glingto shed years of Keynesian macroeco nomic indoctrination. The time has arrived to sentence Keynes to the same irrelevancy of one of his forerunners-Thomas Malthus.

From Here to Economy symbolizes the entire economics discipline's struggle to recover from its self-inflicted Keynesian wounds. In this sense, it makes for inter esting reading. However, for its intended purpose as an introduction to economics, it falls a bit short due to the aforementioned lingering Keynesian scars. I recommended Buchholz's previous book a few years ago in a review-New Ideas From Dead Econo mists: An Introduction o/Modern Economic Thought-and I do the same with From Here to Economy, but with some serious reservations. Mr. Keating is chief economist at the Small Business Survival Foundation.

126 THE FREEMAN • FEBRUARY 1996 PrivateRights and Public Illusions by Tibor Machan Foreword by Nicholas Rescher Transaction Publishers. 1995 • 379 pages. $34.95 Reviewed by Doug Den Uyl I n many quarters these days it is fashion able to debunk the so-called "myth of the individual." Tibor Machan's book might be seen as a refreshing debunking of the' 'myth of the public." I say refreshing, partly because those who debunk the first myth are often victims of the second. In addition, although his is not the first book to call into question the value of attributing all good ness to the public, it is one of the few to question the public as the repository of all that is morally good. Machan contrasts his approach directly with the more usual economic criticisms of public endeavors by focusing on the moral defects of thinking in terms of the "public welfare." The problem of the public welfare is not primarily one of having to choose between economic efficiencyon the one hand and moral propriety on the other. Rather, it is one ofjustice, dignity, and well-beingversus their opposites. The critical chapter in this regard is the third, where Machan discusses humandignityand the welfarestate. Contrary to most of the rhetoric we hear, the welfare state neither reflects nor promotes human dignity. Human dignity for Machan is based upon personal responsibility, which he labels the "individualist tradition." The welfare state-with the "welfarist" ideas that sur round it-is, by contrast, committed to sub stituting "collective judgment" or goals for that of the individual.The degree to whichthe trend toward the collective is carried through is thus the degree to which one departs from human dignity.

We may be tempted to claim that Machan's is simply one moral perspective combatting another, with the solution com ing from outside the realm of morality alto gether (e.g., from social science or law). One of the valuable aspects of this book is that the reader soon discovers how unstated moral principles are influentialin guidingthe methodologies and conclusions of both so cial science and law. There are, then, no "value neutral" platforms, so we mightjust as well come to terms with the moral issues directly. Machan's third chapter sets the tone by letting us know that since the welfare state is no purveyor of human dig nity, the many aspects of life it is involved with are also tainted with moral problems, if not blatant injustices. The layout of the book, therefore, is based on discussion of where the tentacles of the welfare state have caught hold in various aspects of the market: labor, safety, the professions, pollution, advertising, and the like. In each of these areas the illusions of the public are brought forth. Despite Machan's vigorous defense of individual rights, his tone is not angry or polemical. He makes an effort to present the case for a position before offering his ac count of its problematic character, because he is aware that our political traditions are complex and sometimes ambiguous.

From the general welfare clause of the Constitution to various sequences of court decisions, certain ambiguities, tensions, and ultimately illusions are easily created and reinforced. The blend of elements that can lead to confusion is perhaps most strikingly presented in the chapter on national. labor policy, also the longest in the book. Through a combination of court postures and a cer tain sort of economic reasoning, we see clearly how a policy often inimical to indi vidual responsibility could arise. This book is part of series of works on political economy sponsored by the Inde pendent Institute. If political economy is an integration of knowledge from different dis ciplines of relevance to social and political life, then it is not simply the conclusions of this book that should interest us, but its approach as well. Moral issues and theories are not of theoretical interest alone, but embedded in the bowels of our social, po litical, and economic institutions. D Professor Den Uyl is a visiting scholar at Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Land Rights: The 1990s Property Rights Rebellion edited by Bruce Yandle Rowman & Littlefield. 1995 • 333 pages. $22.95 Reviewed by Jonathan H. Adler R ichard and Nancy Delene intended to create their own little wildlifereserve in Michigan' s Upper Peninsula. They pur chased over 100 acres of duck ponds and wildlife habitat and sought to improve upon it, making it a more attractive home for indigenous species. The Michigan Depart ment of Natural Resources had other ideas. The Delenes were ordered to cease their activities and were threatened with well over $1 million in fines for not having the proper government permits to shift dirt on their own land. The Delenes are not alone. Indeed, across the nation individuals and families are dis covering that the lands they thought were their own are only theirs in trust. To make use of the land requires obtaining permis sion from federal, state, or local authorities, and sometimes all three. The right to make private use of private land can be taken by the government, and rarely does the state have to make the owner whole. It is as if the land is actually owned by the state, and not those who possess it. It is the modern equivalent of feudalism.

Americans are increasingly unhappy with this state of affairs, and hence this book. There is a growing rebellion against the wanton violation of property rights, and Bruce Yandle has put together a valuable volume to chronicle its development and explain its roots. Land Rights is the first reference book for the property rights move ment. The book has nine chapters, each by a different author. The contributions cover the legal history of property rights litigation, important Supreme Court cases, and polit ical developments at the state and local level. A chapter each is devoted to the BOOKS 127 Endangered Species Act and the wetlands provisions of the Clean Water Act-the two laws under which the greatest property rights violations occur. There is even a chapter that explains how current environ mental laws have come to approximate federal land-use planning of the sort explic itly rejected in the 1970s. Land Rights cov ers the gamut of issues relating to _the property rights rebellion, and explains why property rights have become such an im portant political issue.

Most federal affronts to private property are the result of environmental legislation. Environmental laws, such as the two men tioned above, are premised on the idea that only government agencies can act in defense of environmental quality. Fortunately Yan dle has included a chapter by Roger Meiners that spells out a property-based alternative that is grounded in the common law tradi tion. As Meiners points out, what is now often considered environmental protection was once considered the protection of pri vate property from outside assaults. Rights were vindicated not due to the watchful eye of agency bureaucrats. Rather property rights enable individuals, families, and com munities to vindicate their cases in court. So long as courts upheld this approach, poten tial polluters were forewarned about the economic repercussions of violating the property rights of others. It was a superior system that has fallen out of favor.

Americans believe in private property; majorities polled want them to receive far more protection. Land Rights helps one understand why property rights are an issue, and why they are so important. In the words of Noah Webster, "Let the people have property and they will have power that will forever be exerted to prevent the restriction of the press, the abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgement of any other privilege." D Jonathan Adler is director of environmental studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and the author of Environ mentalism at the Crossroads: Green Activism in America (Capital Research Center).

Private Cures for Public Ills: The Promise of Privatization edited by Lawrence W. Reed The Crisis: •Soaring government deficits •Crushing tax burdens •Bloated bureaucracies and regulatory red tape •Public sector waste, fraud, inefficiency The Solution: Private government services! #Privatization is an idea whose time is to come....No one who fan cies himself a ~public servant' should dismiss it out of hand. I urge students of economics and public policy to read this collection." -John Engler, Governor of Michigan (from the Foreword) F rom garbage collection to policing, services once considered the province of the public sector are moving to the private sector. Americans are quickly learning the value of privatization in terms of cost and efficiency. Unlike many public departments and agencies, private firms respond to market forces and thus to the wishes of the people. Services are delivered not begrudgingly, but promptly and economically.

The essays in this important new book from FEE examine the history of privatization, its successes, and prospects for the future. The contributors prominent scholars, professors, and policy analysts-provide an in-depth look at this wave of the future. Private Curesfor Public Ills is the definitive examination of the promise of privatization. 200 pages, indexed $14.95 paperback Please add $3 per order of $25 or less, $4 per order of $26-$50. Send your order with the accompanying check or money order to FEE, 30 South Broadwa)T,Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. Visa and MasterCard tele phone and fax orders are welcomed: (800) 452-3518; fax (914) 591-8910.