November

THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY FEATURES 716 719 721 726 731 734 739 742 747 749 754 755 757 Center 724 736 767 714 769 SimEconomics by Lawrence H. White Computer simulations that let you run a whole society misrepresent how real societies work. Salvation Through the Internet? by Donald J. Boudreaux A communications network even more amazing than the Internet: the price system. Home, Home on the Internet by Thomas Boustead Good fences make good markets. Liberty and the Domain of Self-Interest by Steven Horwitz Does society work better or worse when self-interest is given freer reign? The Social Function of Mr. Henry Ford by Spencer Heath The role of the business owner explained, in a 1937 letter to journalist Dorothy Thompson. Red-Lining the Federal Government Budget by Richard H. Timberlake A different strategy for fiscal control. Law Enforcement by Deceit?: Entrapment and Due Process by Jennifer Johnson Dubious investigative tactics threaten individual rights.

Why Not Slavery? by Bertel M Sparks Why shouldn't people be permitted to own people? Ending Tax Socialism by James A. Dorn Progressive taxation is unfair and unsafe. For Appearance's Sake by James D. Saltzman Private property versus "beautification" busybodies. Our Most Precious Resource by Earl Zarbin Children are individuals-not the "resource" of either the parents or the state. Externalities and the Environment by Andrea Santoriello and Walter Block Trash, trees, and trade. Raoul Wallenberg, Great Angel of Rescue by Jim Powell The man who defied Hitler and Stalin, and saved almost 100,000 lives. COLUMNS NOTES from FEE-Sweatshops for the New World Order by Hans E Sennholz IDEAS and CONSEQUENCES-The Electric Car Seduction by Lawrence W Reed POTOMAC PRINCIPLES-Killing Enterprise by Doug Bandow ECONOMICS on TRIAL-Single Policy Change-Double Economic Growth? by Mark Skousen DEPARTMENTS Perspective-William Leggett, Dave Ross, J. Gordon Lamb III Book Reviews •The Return of Thrift: How the Collapse ofthe Middle Class Welfare State Will Reawaken Values in America by Phillip Longman, reviewed by Chris Weinkopf; Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture ofPuritan New England by Stephen Innes, reviewed by Russell Shannon; The Road Ahead by Bill Gates, reviewed by Raymond J. Keating; Private Means, Public Ends: Voluntarism vs. Coercion by J. William Mixon, Jr., reviewed by Fred Foldvary; Learn to Earn by Peter Lynch and John Rothchild, reviewed by Philip R. Murray; Global Bondage by Cliff Kincaid, reviewed by Laurence M. Vance; Command Science and the War on AIDS: Inventing the AIDS Virus by Peter H. Duesberg, reviewed by Neil DeRosa; The Failure ofAmerica's Foreign Wars edited by Richard M. Ebeling and Jacob G. Hornberger, reviewed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 E-mail: freeman@westnet.com President: Hans F. Sennholz ManagingEditor: Beth A. Hoffman Guest Editor: Lawrence H. White Editor Emeritus Paul L. Poirot Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Book Review Editor Robert Batemarco Marymount College, Tanytown, New York Editorial Assistant Mary Ann Murphy Columnists Doug Bandow Cato Institute, Washington, D.C. Lawrence W. Reed Mackinac Center for Public Policy Midland, Michigan Mark Skousen Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida Contributing Editors Charles W. Baird California State University, Hayward 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 Bettina Bien Greaves Resident Scholar, FEE Robert Higgs The Independent Institute, Oakland, California John Hospers University of Southern California Tibor R. Machan Auburn University Ronald Nash Reformed Theological Seminary Edmund A. Opitz Chatham, Massachusetts James L. Payne Sandpoint, Idaho Jim Powell Westport, Connecticut William H. Peterson Adjunct Scholar, HeritageFoundation, Washington, D.C.

Jane S. Shaw 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 nonpolitical, educational champion of private property, the free market, and limited government. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Copyright © 1996 by The Foundation for Economic Education. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, except "Raoul Wallenberg," provided credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to FEE. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through dona tions, which are invited in any amount. Donors of $30.00 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 this issue of The Freeman are $3.00 each. For foreign delivery, a donation of $45.00 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 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Cover: Raoul Wallenberg PERSPECTIVE We Should Welcome Immigrant Workers The people who are daily landing here are not paupers, if the capacity and disposition to labour may exempt a man from that appella tion. They are, for the most part, the sons and daughters of useful toil. They are men and women of hardy frames, accustomed to earn their living by the sweat of their brows. They are a class of which, in truth, we stand much in need .... These men are not paupers, and if they become so, it is the fault of our own laws. Let us not lay our sins, then, at their doors. We have perfect control over the matter. We are not obliged to open our poorhouses to those who are able to work; and, indeed, we believe it would be far better for the community, if we did not open them to any classof indigence or misfortune. The care of those really dis qualified by nature or accident from taking care of themselves should be left to voluntary charity, not to that wretched system of com pulsory charity which poor-laws enjoin. We are too reluctant, in this country, to trust the voluntary principle. We are for doing every thing by law; and the consequence is that hardly anything is done well.

But with regard to these poor creatures who are flocking to our country as the boasted asylum of the oppressed of all the world, we ought to welcome them hither, not meet them with scowls, and raise a deafening clamour to excite unkindly prejudices against them, and drive them back from our inhos pitable shores. For our part, we open our arms to them, and embrace them as brothers; for are they not a part of the great family of man? It is a violation of the plainest principles of morals, it is a sin against the most universal precepts of religion, to harden our hearts against these men, and seek to expel them from a land, which they have as much right to tread as we who assume such a lofty port. The earth is the heritage of man, and these are a portion of the heritors. We are not bound to support them; they must support themselves. If they are idle, let them starve; if they are vicious, let them be punished; but, 714 in God's name, as they bear God's image, let us not turn them away from a portion of that earth, which was given by its maker to all mankind, with no natural marks to designate the limits beyond which they may not freely pass.

The glorious principles of democracy, which recognize the equal rights of all who bear the human form, forbid the intolerant spirit which is displaying itself to these friend less, homeless exiles. -WILLIAM LEGGETI (1837) Democratick Editorials Opting Out Libertarians ... tend to concentrate on, "How can we change society in directions that increase human options and increase free dom, on a more global scale?" I'm increas ingly coming to the conclusion that, at least within a reasonable amount of time, that isn't the way to go about it. We can't reform society. You're not going to get the govern ment to go away, or get smaller, by making the government get smaller; you're going to make the government go away or get smaller by ignoring it, which is essentially the Soviet model. The state withered away when no one paid any further attention to it. -DAVE Ross (Excerpt from an interview in Extropy #12, 1994) Capitalism for Punk Rockers Capitalism, when we get down to it, is merely the buying and selling of goods and services with the freedom to make a profit by doing so. Simple as that. Every one of us, like it or not, plays a part in the game. Most folks spend their time as a consumer and seller (i.e., selling your labor to an employer for financial gain). Very few people, in the grand scope of things, ever fill the shoes of producer. This is where most misconceptions of true capitalism come into play.

. . . If [I] were to adhere to the beliefs of PERSPECTIVE your average anarcho-punk or any other of the multitude of folks that believe punk records should be put out as a public service, then I couldn't endorse one single record reviewed in the back of this 'zine. Why? Because every single person who put those records out hopes to make a profit from it. If you don't understand that, then you have never produced a record and tried to sell it. ... Why do people start to express disdain for [record] labels that start to do well finan cially? Do they "owe" the punk scene any thing? Should they "give something back"? No, because they've already given something ... RECORDS. That is the job of a record label, to produce records. Keep in mind that I am in no way running [down] folks ... who feel the need and responsibility to donate all their time to their projects for free. That is their choice. But if someone chooses to try to earn a living from something they create, that is their choice also. One of the biggest problems the punk scene has is people trying to live by someone else's rules.

In order for any capitalist venture to sur vive, people must consume what is produced. If there are no consumers, there is no capi talism. In short, question yourself on your buying. If you think a record (or anything) is priced too high, don't worry yourself to death questioning what you don't know, just don't buy it. If a show costs more than you think it's worth, don't go. The consumer determines the value of anything (in a monetary sense). Folks cannot charge what nobody is willing to pay. Use your power. ... [M]ost folks con tinue to complain about prices, etc., but buy them anyway. Just stop it. Don't let anyone tell you that you are powerless. Communism makes you power less, in that no matter how hard you work, you will never rise above the status of anyone else. True capitalism makes that possible from the onset by granting consumer power. -J. GORDON LAMB III (Writing in his self-published punk-rock fanzine The Atomic Ballroom, Athens, Ga.) 715 THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY SimEconomics by Lawrence H. White M y daughter, at 13, has built a railroad across Europe. She has planned and governed a large metropolitan area. Recently she began a successful farm. Oh, and she's conquered the world. She has done it all at our home computer-sometimes while I was waiting for my turn to play.