To me it boils down to this: A lack of unsupervised free time is a mental and physical HEALTH CRISIS — and also a potential democratic crisis. If kids never learn that they are safe when they’re unsupervised, they will always expect and even demand supervision. With that, they’re abdicating their own role in shaping their lives and society, and trusting authority to tell them what to do, how to act, what to believe.
Category: Editor’s Picks
Estonian Civilians Voluntarily Trained in Insurgency
One of the new chapters for the third edition of The Machinery of Freedom discusses the question of how a stateless society might defend against a state, which I regard as the hardest problem for such a society. One of the possibilities I raise is having people voluntarily train and equip themselves for warfare for the fun (and patriotism) of it, as people now engage in paintball, medieval combat in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and various other military hobbies.
12 Articles Every Aspiring Economist Should Read
Nothing stirs up controversy in the digital age quite like a list. But lists, especially ones that provide an easily accessible way to learn essential information, have their purposes. Below, I offer 12 articles that I think every aspiring economist should read. Before we get to the list, let me say a few things about how I created it.
Save the Elephants! … by Owning Them
Were I presented with the opportunity to become the Al Capone of the ivory trade, never would the temptation be as strong as now. Governments are immensely successful at making products under prohibition enormously valuable.
These 2 Habits Will Make You Rich
Editor’s Pick. Video of Tony Robbins.
Cultural Appropriation Is Love
Editor’s Pick. Written by TJ Brown. I’ve never been able to get into the Halloween spirit. Maybe that’s because most of my childhood’s trick-or-treating consisted of candy corn. But as I’ve grown, I’ve gained a new appreciation for this holiday. It’s an exhibition and embrace of cultural diversity through costumes and tog. Honoring the Other…
Learning: It’s Not About Education
For the very youngest children, learning is constant. Their wondrous progress from helpless newborn to sophisticated five-year-old happens without explicit teaching. They explore, challenge themselves, make mistakes, and try again with an insatiable eagerness to learn. Young children seem to recognize that knowledge is an essential shared resource, like air or water. They demand a fair share. They actively espouse the right to gain skills and understanding in a way that’s useful to them at the time.
Government is Not Abstract
Editor’s Pick. Guest post by Connor Boyack. Government is not abstract. I find that many people treat it like it is. This is evident in how they discuss a political issue. Here’s an example. “Marijuana should not be legalized.” This sounds so benign, yet it masks a number of disastrous consequences such a position requires.…
Ship-Jumping Libertarians
Editor’s Pick. Guest post by Robert Higgs. A message to former libertarians who jumped ship because of a perceived crisis (e.g., Islamist terrorism, immigrant “invasion,” Chinese driving the U.S. economy to ruin by flooding the country with cheap imports): You have forgotten, among other things, what you used to understand about the injustice and destructiveness…
We Are Ungovernable
Editor’s Pick. Written by Trevor Hultner. Listen. I’m genuinely afraid of a Trump presidency, and I’m really not looking forward to a Clinton presidency either. Do I think one is more-or-less “preferable” to the other? Yeah I do. Ultimately, though: the next president will have just as much blood on their hands as, if not…