The Washington Post ran a beautiful photo montage of children at work from 100 years ago. I get it. It’s not supposed to be beautiful. It’s supposed to be horrifying. I’m looking at these kids. They are scruffy, dirty, and tired. No question. But I also think about their inner lives. They are working in the adult world, surrounded by cool bustling things and new technology. They are on the streets, in the factories, in the mines, with adults and with peers, learning and doing. They are being valued for what they do, which is to say being valued as people. They are earning money.
Category: Free Markets
12 Articles Every Aspiring Economist Should Read
Nothing stirs up controversy in the digital age quite like a list. But lists, especially ones that provide an easily accessible way to learn essential information, have their purposes. Below, I offer 12 articles that I think every aspiring economist should read. Before we get to the list, let me say a few things about how I created it.
Save the Elephants! … by Owning Them
Were I presented with the opportunity to become the Al Capone of the ivory trade, never would the temptation be as strong as now. Governments are immensely successful at making products under prohibition enormously valuable.
New Zealand’s Remarkable Economic Transformation
When writing a few days ago about the newly updated numbers from Economic Freedom of the World, I mentioned in passing that New Zealand deserves praise “for big reforms in the right direction.” And when I say big reforms, this isn’t exaggeration or puffery.
The Elemental Case for Free Trade
The positive economic case for free trade is straightforward. Here I distill it into ten – well, as you’ll see, really eleven – elemental points.
Chapter 5 – Agorism
Table of ContentsPrevious – Chapter 4, Radical Unschooling Chapter 5 – Agorism “Agorism is a libertarian social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, thus engaging in a manner with aspects of peaceful revolution.” So says Wikipedia.(44) What is counter-economics? According to the…
Anarchism Without Adjectives
Editor’s Pick. Written by Kevin Carson. What can we say about the general outlines of a stateless society? First, it will emerge as a result of the ongoing exhaustion, hollowing out and retreat of large hierarchical institutions like state, corporation, large bureaucratic university, etc. It will generally be based on some kind of horizontalism (prefigured…
Property vs. Intellectual Monopoly
Editor’s Pick. Written by Dan Sanchez. Property must be distinguished from monopoly. They are often conflated because they both involve exclusive rights. But they are importantly different. Property is an exclusive right to use a particular means. Monopoly is the exclusive right to use any means in a certain way. Property is the exclusive right…
Slavery Could Not Last in an (Otherwise) Free Market
Editor’s Pick. Written by Robert P. Murphy. With all of the hubbub recently over slavery and its (alleged) ties to Austro-libertarianism, I thought it important to point out that the very nature of a market economy is incompatible with the institution of slavery. Note, I am NOT relying on a definitional tautology; I’m not arguing,…
What Is Polycentric Law?
Editor’s Pick. Written by Tom Bell. Do you like having options when you look for a new bank, dry cleaner, or veterinarian? Of course you do. You want to find the service that will best satisfy your particular demands, after all, and you know that when banks, cleaners, and vets have to compete they have…