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Lawrence W. Reed

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compassion.jpg

It's not "Giving" if it's Compulsory →

December 22, 2019

The apostle Paul says in II Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

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Help from the Heart: Private, Voluntary and Effective →

December 18, 2019

Once, a very wise American president warned that dependence on politicians would sap the natural desire to assist our fellows in need and would cost far more than if we pitched in and helped directly ourselves.

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TIME Gets Capitalism Wrong--Again →

December 11, 2019

The case for capitalism rests on something far more important than material wealth. It is not refuted by the occasional bad eggs who misbehave.

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The Courage of a Nurse →

December 4, 2019

If ever I found myself in circumstances similar to those of Edith Cavell’s in 1915, I would hope I could muster even half the courage that she did.

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The Pilgrims' Famous Lesson →

November 25, 2019

The “people over profits” mentality produced fewer people until profit—earned as a result of one’s care for his own property and his desire for improvement—saved the people.

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Paul Polak, R.I.P. →

November 7, 2019

This man helped far more poor people than most alleged poverty-fighters. He knew the long-term answer to poverty was wealth creation, not wealth confiscation and redistribution, and he never taxed anybody to do the job.

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Donald Smith, R.I.P. →

November 1, 2019

Don Smith chose to join the FEE board because he believed in the importance of building the movement’s educational outreach, he thought FEE should be an important part of that, and he thought that he could help us figure out how to make it happen.

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Iraq's Economic Crisis is Self-Inflicted →

October 22, 2019

Iraq is a disaster of big government, central planning, and “leaders” with sticky fingers. Yes, yet another socialist basket case among so many that it’s hard to keep up with their number.

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About That Che T-Shirt →

October 8, 2019

If you found out that the guy on your T-shirt was a mass murderer, you might ask your oppression studies professor why she left out a few important details.

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Horrors of Collectivism →

October 3, 2019

Pol Pot, Maximilien Robespierre, Che Guevara and other collectivist thugs are the subject of this half-hour October 3, 2019 interview.

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I, Individual →

October 2, 2019

I’m not a replica, an appendage, or a cog. I’m a completely specific, utterly unique, self-winding, and inner-motivated one-of-a-kind. And so are you.

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Climate Change: Are We Looking to the Wrong People for the Right Answers? →

September 30, 2019

If our minds were more open—if we mustered more confidence in what free people can accomplish and learned to be more skeptical of bungling big government—we might take notice of some remarkable things already happening.

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The Constitution of the Killing Fields →

September 26, 2019

The contents of a nation’s constitution, its most supreme law, ought to be composed with care and precision and implemented with scrupulous fidelity. The constitution of the Khmer Rouge communists read as though the author’s orders were “Slap something together quickly and get it over with.”

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Don't Call Scandinavian Countries "Socialist" →

September 26, 2019

The claim that socialism “has succeeded greatly” in Scandinavian countries is just shameless propaganda, hopelessly wrong and out of date. Those who make such ridiculous claims betray their real agenda of government control by never telling you these facts.

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Envy is the Root of Many Modern Evils →

September 21, 2019

Envy is a form of income bigotry. Search your conscience. If you find envy within it, expunge it before it does its awful work.

 

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If Torture Builds Character... →

September 12, 2019

Politics is the last place from which I would expect wisdom to flow. Comedian Groucho Marx advised, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”

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This Man Can Still Liberate Mexico →

September 11, 2019

It’s never too late for new generations of Mexicans to get acquainted with one of the 20th Century’s greatest defenders of capitalism and freedom.

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Put More Bliss in Your Life →

August 30, 2019

As always, a week in the glorious wilds of Montana will be the calmest, most relaxing and rejuvenating seven days of my year.

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Guns Prevent Thousands of Deaths Every Day →

August 23, 2019

Liberty isn’t the only thing likely to be lost when gun laws are passed to appease emotions over reason, evidence, logic, and rights. Lives will most assuredly be lost, too. Lots of them.

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If Bastiat Ran For President →

August 21, 2019

Bastiat on the debate stage with presidential candidates: "You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don’t you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."

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Recent “Best of Web”

Featured
The End of the Climate Cult
Dec 4, 2025
The End of the Climate Cult
Dec 4, 2025

The climatastrophe has been a terrible mistake. It diverted attention from real environmental problems, cost a fortune, impoverished consumers, perpetuated poverty, frightened young people into infertility, wasted years of our time, undermined democracy and corrupted science. Time to bury the parrot — Matt Ridley.


Dec 4, 2025
Government Shutdown Exposed the Biggest Lie in Education
Oct 31, 2025
Government Shutdown Exposed the Biggest Lie in Education
Oct 31, 2025

“For decades, teachers unions and the liberal allies they bankroll in D.C. have told the American people that without the federal bureaucracy, education would crumble,” writes Ryan Walters.

Oct 31, 2025
Millions Gather to Express Total Ignorance
Oct 18, 2025
Millions Gather to Express Total Ignorance
Oct 18, 2025

“We're going to join our voices together and let the message ring loud and clear that we are uneducated rubes in desperate need of a middle-school social studies class,” said one man. Problem is, they DID have middle-school social studies, at great expense to the taxpayer, and still turned out to be rubes. Maybe there’s a connection??

Oct 18, 2025

Recent Quotes

Featured
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025

“The true meaning of America, you ask? It’s in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman’s badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. ... In all these things, and many more, you’ll find America. In all these things, you’ll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me” — Actor, poet, and the most decorated American of World War II, Audie Murphy.

Feb 11, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

Feb 1, 2025
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023

“There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it — from his book, Musashi.

Mar 20, 2023

Recent Blogs

Featured
The Constitution of Liberty: Hayek's Lessons for Today and Tomorrow
Dec 4, 2025
The Constitution of Liberty: Hayek's Lessons for Today and Tomorrow
Dec 4, 2025

Hayek firmly rejected the modern leftist obsession with “social justice.” Redistribution schemes based on outcome-focused equality ignore the process by which outcomes arise. Inequality, per se, is not a problem. The focus should not be on the outcome, but on the process. Photo: Hayek (left) and Mises (right).

Dec 4, 2025
Grateful Thanks to the Founding Generation
Dec 3, 2025
Grateful Thanks to the Founding Generation
Dec 3, 2025

I wish I could go back in a time machine to that emotional moment at Fraunces Tavern on December 4, 1783.

Dec 3, 2025
Socialists Blame Capitalism for Everything, Especially When a Disaster is the Fault of Socialism
Dec 3, 2025
Socialists Blame Capitalism for Everything, Especially When a Disaster is the Fault of Socialism
Dec 3, 2025

The idea that politicians are supposed to provide solutions to problems is usually stupid, because politicians are not magicians. They can't do things any better than people who actually create wealth. They don't create wealth, they just redistribute it. We shouldn't think of the state as a very generous uncle who only thinks about us. A very good English translation of an interview with Kristina Votrubova in the publication Postroj. Conducted November 27, 2025.

Dec 3, 2025