Category:Justice
Is Fixing Inequality A Matter of Justice?
February 18, 2014 | Video
The question of how to address poverty in the United States is complicated. Steven Horwitz, chair of the department of economics at St. Lawrence University, and Jeffrey Reiman, professor of philosophy and religion at American University, debate the level of government assistance that should be given to help the poor. In this clip, Prof. Horwitz […]
Debate: What To Do About Poverty
January 20, 2014 | Video
This Learn Liberty debate presents arguments for and against more government assistance to help the poor in the United States. Prof. Steven Horwitz argues that the government has created too many problems and that lifting government-imposed barriers to the poor will go a long way toward solving the problems of inequality in the United States. […]
Is Katniss a Modern-Day Spartacus?
December 13, 2013 | Video
Literature and legend often reflect their culture. Some themes, like that of rulers imposing coercive power, or of individuals rising up against tyrants, are as relevant today as they were in antiquity. Suzanne Collins drew on Greek mythology’s story of the Minotaur and on the legend of Spartacus in ancient Rome as she created the Hunger […]
Why Are Illegal Drugs Stronger Than They Used to Be?
November 5, 2013 | Video
Is it possible the war on drugs is to blame for increased potency in marijuana and for how crack ravaged inner cities in the 1980s? Prof. Adam Martin explains how the drug war has altered incentives for both drug buyers and sellers, leading them to favor higher potency drugs. This is what economists call the […]
The Marriage Cases: Legal Challenges to Prop 8 and DOMA
June 3, 2013 | Video
The 14th Amendment guarantees liberty and equal protection to every American. Do state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage violate that amendment? Is the federal government’s refusal to recognize a marriage that is legal in a state federal overreach? The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide the answers to these questions by the end of June […]
Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System
January 14, 2013 | Video
Fewer than half of 1 percent of Americans are in state and federal prisons. That sounds like a small number. But when the U.S. prison population is examined by race, we find that the effects of the criminal justice system in the United States are unequally distributed in society. While whites make up 64 percent […]
What’s Right about Social Justice?
December 14, 2012 | Video
What if libertarians and classical liberals were wrong and the free-market system actually did make the rich richer and the poor poorer? Would that change their support of those ideas? Professor Matt Zwolinski expects that it would. This implies that most proponents view how the poor fare under free-markets as more than just an attractive […]
Social Justice and Its Critics
November 30, 2012 | Video
Many argue that we should do more for the poor as a matter of social justice. In some cases, they mean we should use our own time and resources to assist those in need, but more often they mean the government should enact policies that try to help the poor in various ways. Meanwhile, many […]
Should Majorities Decide Everything?
September 12, 2012 | Video
In this video, Professor Munger reminds us of the difference between democracy and majority rule. Democratic constitutions establish not only the process by which decisions will be made, but also the limits on kind of things can be voted on. This prevents the majority from deciding everything. He warns, however, that these limits on what […]
Should the Government Track Your Political Activity?
September 12, 2012 | Video
Professor Brad Smith asks you to imagine the following scenario: at the height of the War on Terror, the government passes a second PATRIOT Act. This law would require you to report all your political activity to the government, including the campaigns you support. The government would then put that information into a database available […]
US Prison Population: The Largest in the World
August 21, 2012 | Video
The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world—more even than China or Russia. In fact, more people are in prisons in the United States than in all other developed countries combined. Professor Daniel J. D’Amico explains that as of 2010 over 1.6 million people were serving jail sentences in America. […]
Justice and Private Property
February 22, 2011 | Video
From the IHS Vault: Philosophy professor Chris Freiman discusses the concept of private property, addressing both its critics and its advocates, and how it relates to justice.