Guest post by Stephen Gross. Have you ever wondered who regulates the Universal Product Code (UPC) and barcode industry? Probably not. Because of its complexity, there must be a central authority that administers these product identification numbers and the zebra-looking line segments on almost every product sold around the world. Even products imported from tiny…
Category: Free Markets
The Case for Abolishing Patents (Yes, All of Them)
Guest post by Jordan Weissman. Our patent system is a mess. It’s a fount of expensive litigation that allows aging companies to linger around by bullying their more innovative competitors in court. Critics have suggested plenty of reasonable reforms, from eliminating software patents to clamping down on “trolls” who buy up patent portfolios only so…
What Doctors Don’t Know About Their Drugs
Guest post by Ben Goldacre.
8 Reasons To End Prohibition
Guest post by J.G. Vibes. The drug war is one of the most misunderstood subjects in the mainstream political dialogue, even among people who are sympathetic to the plight of responsible drug users. It is rare for someone to come out and say that all drugs should be legal, but in all honesty this is…
Do We Overestimate Our Intelligence?
Guest post by KantLockeMeIn. I’ve always been in love with nature. Growing up I spent my time in the woods and as I have grown older, I choose to spend my vacations in the mountains rather than at resorts. I’m the unapologetic conservationist who values raw nature. But that statement would lead most people to…
Government in Violation of Antitrust Laws
Guest post by Chris Brown. Government antitrust laws have caused significant damage to consumers and businesses, all in the name of “consumer protection” and “promoting competition.” Unfortunately, government views on antitrust come from a fundamentally flawed understanding of economics – neoclassical economics, the view that is taught in most university economics courses today. In this…
Libertarians for Redistribution
Guest post by Gary Chartier. Libertarianism is a redistributive project. That’s another way in which radical market anarchism is rightly seen as part of the socialist tradition. Statists on both the left and the right favor the redistribution of wealth. Libertarians, by contrast, are often assumed to be dead-set against all varieties of redistribution. But…
The Voluntary Good
Guest post by Lou. A question came up in the comments section of a previous article. “Do businesses always have the best interests of the nation in mind when making business investments or do they have the best interests in their business?” My answer came quickly, “No. Businesses do not always have the best interest…
Markets Make Us Smarter and Better
Guest post by Isaac Morehouse. Airlines are loaded with passengers who surf the Internet while soaring through the air, chatting in real-time to anyone else on the globe, posting in social media, shopping, and downloading and reading books on a wide variety of readers. Such a scene would have astonished a person living 50 years…
Spontaneous Order
Guest post by Kevin Lancaster.