Written by Murray Rothbard, as published at Mises.org. In truth, there is only one way to regard a minimum wage law: it is compulsory unemployment, period. The law says: it is illegal, and therefore criminal, for anyone to hire anyone else below the level of X dollars an hour. This means, plainly and simply, that…
Category: Free Markets
Initiation of Force
Written by Harry Hoiles, as published in The Voluntaryist, October 1992. The initiation of force against peaceful people is always wrong. Yet most citizens of our country support this initiation of force when it is used to collect taxes. Why do they do so? Is it because they can’t visualize a government which is voluntarily…
The Everyday Marvels of the Market
Written by Steven Horwitz for The Future of Freedom Foundation. Those of us who live in largely market-based economies can too easily take for granted what we might call the everyday marvels of the market. We find ourselves with things that would have amazed and mystified people just a couple of generations ago. If we…
Pro-business or Pro-market?
Written by wheylous for The Voluntaryist Reader. One of the main concerns curious people have about libertarianism is that it is pro-business and pro-Big Business. If it ain’t multinational, it ain’t capitalism! But is being pro-market inherently the same as being pro-business? Do libertarians really love large corporations? These are questions that are often ignored,…
Anonymous, Wikileaks and –archy
Written by Sebastian A.B. for the Center for a Stateless Society. As government and industry collude, the interests of the powerful trample the rights of the multitude. Technology has granted invasive new eyes and ears to government agencies, spurning the right to privacy. Felicitously, the individual has also been empowered with two new tools to…
What Makes the Workplace Safe
Written by Chris Bassil for Duke’s The Chronicle. Less than a month ago, Bloomberg BNA published a man named David Michaels as saying that “employers recognize that managing safety is useful not only to prevent injuries and fatalities, but in fact leads to a more profitable company.” Although all of this is true, the implication…
Why Economics Should Matter To You
Written by Riley Risto for LibertasUtah.org. This may be a difficult article for many to read. We like our news spoon-fed and interpreted for us, broken down to the “nitty gritty” of what we think really matters. Rather than take the time to understand the causes of our present state, most simply want to know…
Waging War on Work
Written by Nicholas Freiling for Mises.org. Employment law is a mainstay of state economic policy. Few question its efficacy as a means to correct “market failures”—like unlivable wages for meaningful work—that would leave society in shambles. In fact, no serious debate exists among American policymakers about the benefits of such laws. Their utility is simply…
The Gas Price Story of Hurricane Sandy
Written by Jeffrey Tucker for Laissez Faire Today. For those schooled in economics, the gasoline shortage during Hurricane Sandy last November was no surprise. Demand for gas goes up. Supply lines are disrupted. It’s the old supply-and-demand thing. The price goes up. Higher prices attract new supplies from unconventional paths. Prices respond and fall back…
The Austrians Were Right
Written by Harry Veryser, as published at Mises.org. The global economic meltdown that began in 2007 has brought suffering to countless millions. We have all witnessed—and in many cases experienced—the devastation. But it didn’t have to be this way. This kind of financial devastation has been predicted again and again—decade after decade—by proponents of the Austrian School…