I am a seeker. I just want to see the truth. Whatever it is. Wherever it leads. And the truth I have discovered includes this: Any society based on anything other than zero archation will degrade over time.
Tag: markets
Human Smuggling: What If Philanthropists Were in Charge?
Suppose smugglers were pure philanthropists who only wanted to help people reach Europe alive. There’s a clear trade-off between the two goals – the safest routes will also be the most patrolled. So you have to wonder: If philanthropists ran the human smuggling industry, how much lower could fatality rates even fall?
What’s Wrong with the Thrive/Survive Theory of Left and Right
Many people in my circles now seem to take Thrive/Survive Theory as the default position; if it’s not true, it’s still the story to beat. But to be blunt, I find essentially no value in it. It’s not always wrong, but it’s about as right as you’d expect from chance.
The Back Story 025 – Price Gouging Saves Lives (3m)
The Back Story 025 looks at the life saving nature of so-called “price gouging.”
Quit Bitching about “Price Gouging”
Which of the following is morally and economically preferable?
Must Be Absolute
We can have cheap prices for a scarce commodity and its sudden disappearance as everyone uses it up, or we can have higher prices that make it available to those willing to pay for it. There is nothing in between.
First, Do Not Destroy Scarce Resources
If there is one lesson that everyone should learn from studying even the most elementary economics, and if there is one major intellectual gift that sound economists gave humanity, then it is precisely this vaccine against Orwellian superstition, according to which destruction contains any productive value.
Why We Need Markets for Justice
Richard Ebeling once told me, “Government makes criminals of us all.” Government sets up society so that no person can live a life without using some sort of government service, paid for through coerced taxes. I later came to realize that government needs to make moral cowards of us all, in order to keep us dependent on it for the dispensation of justice.
Why Flexible Disaster Pricing is Necessary
This lady is able and willing to purchase so much water because the price is being held down by government. What happens when the next person arrives, in arguably more desperate need than her for water, and its all gone?
Incentives or Imposed Instruction?
On the one hand, you believe it’s not from the benevolence of the butcher that we get our meat, but by his regard to his self-interest in a market context. On the other hand, you believe that children have no regard for their self-interest and do not respond to market incentives so must be forced and directed to do what’s good for them and by extension society.