I have a bit of a vendetta against recycling. Maybe not against all recycling. If you are homeless and you wish to collect the state taxed redemption value … Okay, I get it. But for us people who value our time, space, and resources … recycling is a waste of time.
Tag: economics
The Economics of Law, Order, and Action
My book The Economics of Law, Order, and Action: The Logic of Public Goods is now available for purchase. Its primary purpose is to provide a comprehensive challenge to the standard position of the economic and political mainstream, according to which efficient production of so-called public goods, including law and defense, requires the use of territorial monopolies of coercive force.
Words Poorly Used #129 — Specialization
There is no single task in making a pencil that requires rocket science, but there are lots of tasks that require the opportunity to do something in an optimum return situation. A lone pencil maker would have to switch jobs and be proficient in each. But in the real world it is not practical for the person who harvests the wood to also fashion the lead and to formulate the paint and affix the eraser.
There is No “Third Way” Between Cooperation and Destruction
Every such “third way” turns out to be at best a dead end of stagnation, and at worst a highway to social disintegration, and sound economic knowledge is the most reliable means of avoiding both.
No One Stole Your Job
People who have chosen to trade with you in the past can decide to trade with someone else instead. While this may be inconvenient for you, this is not an act of aggression against you. It doesn’t make you a victim of anything. You have no right to a “job,” any more than the local convenience store has some right to have you buy lunch from them.
How Much Do Ideas Matter, Really?
I know many libertarians who have claimed to value liberty as a primary value. They don’t. None of them. If they did, they would move to the place that affords them maximum liberty no matter the cost. They don’t do this because they are creatures of incentives not creatures of ideas.
Protectionism: Trump’s Tariff-ic Attack on Your Wallet
On January 22, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer fired the first shots of the Trump administration’s 2018 trade agenda: Tariffs of 30% on imported solar panels, and tariffs starting at 20% on imported residential washing machines. In the name of “protecting” jobs — “America First!” — the administration is dead-set on making you poorer.
Chimera
What will be the outcomes of putting tariffs on solar energy collectors and washing machines, other than another wink and nudge for cronyism?
Unschooling Dads with Skyler Collins, an Interview
“Skyler is an unschooling dad of three children and is the editor of the book Unschooling Dads: Twenty-two Testimonials on Their Unconventional Approach to Education. It’s not often that we get to hear about unschooling from the dad’s perspective and I really love that you took the time and effort to pull this book together. I really enjoyed reading their perspectives.”
If You Want To Learn the Value of a Dollar, Don’t Get a Job
You’d think that when you become an adult, taking good care of your money becomes easier. It doesn’t. And, to the contrary of what we expect, getting a job somewhere does a bad job of teaching us the value of our dollars.