This morning, after a little reflection, I’m more optimistic than ever about the future of liberty. There are so many great companies, organizations, and technologies that enable us to throw off the shackles of the state and its allied institutions.
Category: Free Markets
Spontaneous Order is Not an Engineered Outcome
I’m convinced that the kind of laws, customs, and government that reign at any time in a society largely reflect that society’s ideologies. If I am correct about this matter, then libertarianism – just like “Progressivism,” Nazism, Talibanism, or any other ism – cannot be imposed in a way that lasts for any length of time.
23 Ways Big Government Is Hurting the Poor
Advocates for big government often equate expanding government with concern for the poor. But reality speaks to the contrary: Expanding government often has very harmful effects on the poor.
Markets and Politics Are Both about Scarcity
People succeed in markets by reducing scarcity–that is, by easing scarcity’s grip on their fellow humans. And the more they ease scarcity’s grip, the greater their success. Profits are earned in competitive markets only by successfully making desired goods and services less scarce than they would otherwise be.
The Tangled Web of Anti-immigration Argumentation
So, which is it, anti-immigrationist: is the government too incompetent to exclude ineligible recipients from getting benefits, or is it too incompetent to keep illegal immigrants out the the country—or is it both?
There’s Nothing Special about International Trade
“One of the important applications of the principle of comparative advantage is international trade. To an economist there is nothing really special about international trade; individuals make trades when both of them expect to benefit, whether they live across the street, in different states, or in different countries.”
Liberty and Community Go Together
There is a form of community that is the whole basis of the market economy. It is an extended network of human relationships worked out in peace and mutual agreement. So far as we know, the capacity to form such cooperative relationships is distinct to the human experience.
Why Can’t You Pay For Sex?
Consensual sex is legal. But as soon as one party offers cash to another in exchange for sex and that money is voluntarily accepted, it’s considered prostitution, and that is illegal. This is hypocritical, illogical, and wasteful — and it needs to stop.
In Praise of Immigrants
Three new technologies of the last 20 years made America’s economy great again: the iPhone, Google search, and horizontal drilling and fracturing. All came from first-generation immigrants.
Is a National Government Necessary for National Defense?
Gordon Tullock used to taunt anarchists by asserting that if the USA abolished its government, people would not have to worry about the Russians taking over the country because “the Mexicans would get here first.”