Archives: March 2025

Excerpts from Reason's vaults

30 years ago
March 1995

"The new Republican-led Congress promises major changes in 'welfare'—giveaways to the relatively destitute. But the federal government is equally adept at throwing other people's money at those who haven't even a surface excuse for needing it. The recent 'Mexican bailout,' $25 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to help keep Mexico solvent so it can eventually pay off its debt, is a good example. In essence, that move aided American banks improvident enough to toss good money after bad at the Mexican government. If the new congressional regime wants to prove that they mean an end to business-as-usual, they must cut off federal cash flow to the influential as well as the marginal. But contrary to [Labor Secretary] Robert Reich, who has taken to railing against 'corporate welfare,' letting corporations keep their earnings isn't 'welfare'; giving them other taxpayers' money is."
Brian Doherty
"Bad Influence"

35 years ago
March 1990

"Too many of freedom's defenders are uncomfortable with earthbound humanity. They are afraid the stuff that dreams are made of can be had too easily at K Mart or Bloomingdale's. They find those dreams banal. But human life and human longings are precious. And, contrary to the caricature of liberal capitalism retailed on the nation's opinion pages, those longings include more than the desire for blue jeans and consumer electronics. Man does not, in fact, live by bread alone—at least when allowed to choose how to live. Religion, art, and science flourish best in a free society."
Virginia Postrel
"The Banality of Freedom?"

"One of the hottest ideas in Washington is that we should retaliate against protectionist countries by raising our own import barriers against them. We will remove our restrictions only when they remove theirs, the theory goes, forcing these countries to negotiate with us to eliminate all trade barriers. 'Retaliation' is the rallying cry of a new economic nationalism that has gained support from powerful Republicans and Democrats alike. But it doesn't work."
Jim Powell
"Forget the Crowbar"

"There is little doubt that Marxism-Leninism has long been discredited. The challenge before us is to rescue from under the rubble of its fatal misconceptions a philosophical base strong enough to see the long-mutilated nations of Central Europe emerge into Western civilization once again. For the logical leap from repudiating Marxism to defending capitalism is not apodictic."
Juliana Geran Pilon
"After the Fall"

40 years ago
March 1985

"Getting a wider range of opinion and a more-informative range of facts across the airwaves to American TV and radio audiences would be worthwhile for that audience and gratifying for those who have felt excluded from access to those media. A liberal bias does prevail, but, from an insider's standpoint, there are ways to get other viewpoints heard or seen. The most important consideration is the nature of the broadcast media bias: it is not primarily political. Instead, it is a bias in favor of action, hubbub, noise controversy, and familiarity in ideas. Kinetic excitement coupled with familiar slogans and premises warm the hearts of those who decide what does and what does not get air time. There's no point in offering ideas at a soporific press conference, when across the street a 'welfare rights' organization is demonstrating on behalf of another handout."
David Brudnoy
"How to Use the Media Before the Media Use You"

45 years ago
March 1980

"The decade has dawned with a brutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. With planes, tanks, 90,000 troops, and a hand-picked dictator, the Soviets are proceeding to occupy and subdue the country, despite the valiant resistance of 'rebel' groups who had been on the verge of ousting the previous Communist regime. Whatever else the invasion does, it should put to rest the naive notion of the USSR as a basically peaceful State whose foreign policy is characterized by defense of its territory and traditional sphere of interest."
Robert Poole Jr.
"Post-Afghanistan Foreign Policy"