This issue of The Freeman examines the dangers inherent in expanding state power, showing how collectivist thinking elevates groups over individuals and leads to coercion, economic disorder, and diminished freedom. It highlights the linguistic roots of “danger” to illustrate how power itself becomes a threat, and it critiques wage controls and rigid union practices that depress productivity, destroy jobs, and hasten industrial decline. Additional essays expose the hidden costs of protectionist policies, recount how government ventures crowd out private enterprise, and trace constitutional crises to deviations from limited-government principles. The issue also explores how envy distorts notions of justice and argues that reindustrialization depends on sound money and free markets. Book reviews consider works on political stagnation and the history of railroad labor.
