A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 9 “Solution #2: Voracious Readers and Independent Thinkers” DeMille called for “a small but committed few” to adopt his solutions to undo the damage to freedom by the 1913 turning points. (p. 89) While he called for an increase in entrepreneurship in the…
1913
Entrepreneurship as a Solution
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 8 “Solution: #1 Entrepreneurship” DeMille notes the entrepreneurial spirit is a part of the American culture, but it can be threatened by an ever-growing federal government. He says the founders were considering what type of national character the new country was going to…
1913
We Only Need a Few to Restore Freedom
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 7 “Wanted: A Small Group of Committed Citizens” Oliver DeMille began laying out his case for what it will take to undo the 1913 turning points away from freedom the last chapter. And as I went through his suggestions, I said I was worried because…
1913
We Need to be the People The Founders Expected
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 6 “The Founding of Freedom in Modern Times” Oliver DeMille shifts his focus from the first five chapters where he laid out how we broke the founders’ design to an exploration of how we can fix things. He cites economist Murray Rothbard’s observation that you…
1913
Supreme Court 1936 Decision Delivered a Killing Blow to Federalism
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 5 “World-Shifting Event #4: United States v. Butler in 1936” The first three world-shifting events that weakened federalism and expanded the power of the federal government occurred in 1913, but Oliver DeMille says the 1936 case United States v. Butler structurally altered how our government works. He starts the…
1913
The Architects of the Constitution Knew Unsound Money Threatened Limited Government
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 4 “World-Shifting Event #3: The Federal Reserve” Few people today know any way the banking system could be run other than by having a privately owned central bank like the Federal Reserve we have in the U.S. In fact, the Fed is really the Third National…
1913
The Seventeenth Amendment Shifted Our Republic Towards Democracy
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 3 “World-Shifting Event #2: The Seventeenth Amendment” In this chapter we are introduced to the second major change to the U.S. Constitution noted by Oliver DeMille, the Seventeenth Amendment beginning the direct election of US senators. This may surprise many that senators have not always been elected…
1913
Our Founders Knew the Federal Income Tax Would Lead to Government Overreach and Abuse
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 2 “World-Shifting Event #1: The Sixteenth Amendment” Yes, there once was a time when you did not have to pay federal income taxes! But the Sixteenth Amendment passed in 1913 changed that. This is Oliver DeMille’s second chapter on the dramatic changes to the US system in…
1913
It All Went Wrong in 1913
A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 1 “The Turning Point of Freedom” We know we have a much larger federal government than was originally designed by the framers of the U.S. Constitution, but how did that happen? Is it a natural result of growth in population or technology? Oliver DeMille offers…
Bourgeois Equality
Equality of Genuine Comfort is Under Threat
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 66 “What Matters Ethically is not Equality of Outcome, but the Condition of the Working Class” In this penultimate chapter, Dr. McCloskey tackles the idea of equality as a goal. The rising standard of living in the countries that have participated in the Great…