FROM THE ARCHIVES
15
YEARS AGOOc tober 20 03“Elections turn on a wide array
of forces, including econom-
ics, demographics, and sheer
chance. Amid all of these
variables, a well-executed cam-
paign can lose, just as a trou-
bled one can win. As soon as
the outcome is clear, however,
pundits credit the winners with
brilliance and blame the losers
for incompetence.”
JOHN J. PITNEY JR.
“Accidental Genius”
“If the conservative paradigm
is that liberals are unpatriotic,
if not downright un-American
(and possibly also godless and
libertine), then the liberal para-
digm is that conservatives are
at best uncompassionate and
at worst bigots and fascists.
Hannity has a point when he
says that people who are out-
raged by Coulter’s crude stereo-
typing of Democrats often don’t
Photo: Joyce Truehesitate to suggest that ‘the
Republicans want to poison the
air, water, kill children and throw
children on the streets.’ Not to
mention abuse the elderly and
burn down black churches.”
CATHY YOUNG
“Bipartisan Coulterism”35
YEARS AGOOctober 1983“How ubiquitous is the mobile
phone going to become? No one
can say. So much depends on its
cost and how well it works in the
hands of ordinary, nontechni-
cal people. Herschel Shosteck,
of HS Associates in Silver
Spring, Maryland, has surveyed
various people’s interest in cel-
lular phones at different prices.
Shosteck finds price the key. For
example, less than 10 percent of
businesses, Shosteck has found,
are interested in cellular at total
costs of $100 a month or more
per phone....At $75 a month,
Shosteck could find no measur-able demand from household-
ers, but substantial demand
developed at $50.”
PETER SAMUEL
“Hanging Up on Your Phone
Company”“For champions of waste, mis-
management, and inefficiency,
the Postal Service must be a
source of comfort. Despite
extensive unpopularity, the
Postal Service manages year
after almost every year to lose
money, provide lousy service,
and stave off virtually all chal-
lenges to its legal monopoly
status.”
“Delivering Reform?”“Politicians pander to the old
because they tend not to work
and therefore have a discover-
able interest as recipients of
benefits from the government.
There are tens of thousands of
occupations in America. Those
of working age who fill those
jobs tend to vote in ways that
narrowly promote the interest of
the groups to which they belong.
Farmers vote for price supports,
auto workers for import quotas,
doctors for restraint of trade in
the medical industry, and so on.
But retired farmers, auto work-
ers, and doctors all want more
benefits for retired people. In old
age, they are united in greed,
as they were once divided by it.
The politicians sense this, which
is why the oldest segment in
our population will continue to
exploit the rest of us; why we
see the absurd spectacle of gov-
ernment investing more in the
old than in the young.”
JAMES DALE DAVIDSON
“Weep Not for the Wizened”45
YEARS AGOOc tober 1973“Collectivism is based on a
denial of individual choice. Such
a denial can be justified only by
claiming that there is no such
thing as individual free choice
in the first place. For this reason
every collectivist ideology, from
Marx to Skinner, has been based
on a firm belief in determinism.”
ADAM V. REED
“An Obituary for Machines of
Loving Grace”“A wise old capitalist once told
me that the secret of successful
investing was not to lose your
money. A corollary of this sound
rule would undoubtedly be not
to waste your money on get-
rich-quick books.”
MURRAY ROTHBARD
“How I Made $5 Million Speculating
in Radish Futures”50
YEARS AGOOctober 1968“In the most fundamental
sense, the concept of property
is the retaining wall between
a civilized society and one of
savages. In pre-Nazi Germany,
for example, the whole idea
of property had to be damned
again before Hitler and his Youth
Corp[s] could succeed in taking
over the nation.”
LANNY FRIEDLANDER
“Student Power: By What Right?”70 OCTOBER 2018