Blog posts
What If We Had No FDA?
Because the Food and Drug Administration forbids even terminally ill people from taking unauthorized drugs that could save their lives, twenty-four states have now passed laws to deal with the problem. They have enacted “right-to-try” legislation, which allows patients with fatal illnesses to take experimental drugs that have not received FDA approval. Commendable as these
The Collectivist Mentality
China’s mandatory limit on the number of children a couple may have, which the communist government recently announced is being changed from one to two, attracts little support in the West. Apart from the most ardent environmentalists, people generally recognize the evil of such a policy. But do they understand what, at root, makes it
Unsoaking the Rich
The most distressing aspect of soak-the-rich schemes is not that the left keeps pushing them—but that the right regularly fails to offers a convincing refutation. When Democrats declare that the rich are not paying their “fair share” of taxes, the Republicans’ typical response is: “Oh yes, they are; look at how much more they pay,
A Rational Case for Gun Ownership
The fundamental error of gun-control advocates is philosophical: they do not really believe that we have free will. If the goal is to reduce gun murders, the obvious means is to establish stronger punishment for criminals. Since the overwhelming majority of shooting deaths are by people with prior felony arrests, and since only about 1
Trump and the Meaning of Egoism
Here’s an observation that may surprise people: Donald Trump is not an egoist. And I say that not as praise, but as criticism. An egoist is someone whose self-interest is his highest value. But our genuine self-interest is not achieved by doing whatever we happen to feel like doing. Life is conditional. Since some actions
Review of In Defense of Selfishness
A very favorable review of In Defense of Selfishness was written for Forbes.com by John Tamny. Titled “Ayn Rand and Henry Hazlitt Made the Same Point in Different Ways,” this edifying review can be found here.