I’m a fan of dystopian fiction, but I overlooked Henry Hazlitt’s The Great Idea (subsequently republished as Time Will Run Back) until last December. I feared a long-winded, clunky version of Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, but I gave it a chance, and my gamble paid off. I read the whole thing (almost 400 pages) on a red-eye flight – feeling wide awake the whole way.
Tag: property
Tucker Carlson Needs Love from His Leaders
Timothy Sandefur has exposed Carlson’s failure to grasp that individual freedom and its spontaneously emergent arena for peaceful voluntary exchange — the marketplace — make possible what Carlson insists he values most: “Dignity. Purpose. Self-control. Independence,” which Carlson correctly identifies as “ingredients in being happy.”
Immoral Walls and Dishonest Manipulation
I listen to Scott Adams’ “periscopes” to keep an eye on what some of those on the pro-government side are thinking. He’s right about half the time– when he isn’t in his pro-government box, unable to see beyond its horizon. But sometimes it amazes me how dishonestly he frames an issue. I wonder if others notice.
Corporatism, Social Media Dangers, Self-Enslavement, Back Talk, Forced Egalitarianism (27m) – Episode 265
Episode 265 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the effects of corporatism on growing businesses and industries; the dangers of social media to schooled preteens, particular girls; how property is a form of self-enslavement; why he doesn’t punish his children for talking back to him; how egalitarians are like the Communists and Fascists in their creation of a “New Man”; and more.
On Income Inequality II
Those who fight for economic egalitarianism and against income inequality are attempting to do the impossible by government force. Not only do they want income levels coercively flattened, but they also hope that more and more of their fellow human beings will share their ideals.
On Property
In a sick and twisted way, property is a form of slavery. No, I do not mean that claiming property rights is enslaving to other people. What I mean is that claiming property rights in something means that you must either hold fast to or abandon it when it’s being threatened.
On Intellectual Property V
The United States has a “first-to-file” patent system, which means the first person or company to file for a patent on a novel invention gets the monopoly protection. This is obviously a violation of so-called intellectual property rights.
Rhetorical Hocus Pocus
You and I owe society and nation nothing, and neither of these abstractions owes, or can owe, us anything. When national political leaders purport to place obligations on us, they are attempting to sucker us into doing what they want us to do by claiming that we have a legitimate obligation to do it.
Go Go GoFund.gov!
Unlike most Americans, Kolfage did something above and beyond voting and complaining to assuage his dissatisfaction: He started a campaign to raise $1 billion in voluntary funding for the wall, using “crowdfunding” site GoFundMe. As of December 23, the campaign had raised more than $16 million.
On Government Parasitism II
Government supporters will tell you that without the state making it possible for markets to function safely, we would all be worse off. One must wonder where the the state gets the resources it requires to effectively “regulate” markets.