The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781935308331)

America's founders thought the right to earn a living was so basic and obvious that it didn't need to be mentioned in the Bill of Rights. Yet today that right is burdened by a wide array of government rules and regulations that play favorites, rewrite contracts, encourage frivolous lawsuits, seize private property, and manipulate economic choices to achieve outcomes that bureaucrats favor. The Right to Earn a Living charts the history of this fundamental human right, from the constitutional system that was designed to protect it by limiting government's powers, to the Civil War Amendments that expanded protection to all Americans, regardless of race. It then focuses on the Progressive-era judges who began to erode those protections, and concludes with today's controversies over abusive occupational licensing laws, freedom of speech in advertising, regulatory takings, and much more.

Author: Timothy Sandefur
ISBN-10: 1935308335
ISBN-13: 9781935308331
Publisher: Cato Institute
Language: English
Published: 08/16/2010
Pages: 359
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.68lbs
Size: 9.16h x 6.18w x 1.25d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/01/2010 pg. 81
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2010 pg. 178