Learn Liberty Blog
We tackle big questions about what makes society free or prosperous and how we can improve the world we live in.
Blog Posts in Focus
Free trade lets us turn corn into cars.
January 25, 2018 | Bryan Caplan
From the American point of view, technology and trade are the same. From the human point of view, trade is better.
Legends of Liberty: Lysander Spooner
November 18, 2021 | Learn Liberty Team
The organic industry is a case study in rent-seeking.
February 5, 2018 | Henry I. Miller
If businesses get government subsidies to make their products cheaper, or “capture” regulation to hurt their competitors, that’s rent seeking.
Blog Posts
Legends of Liberty: Edward Jenner
January 9, 2022 |
One thing everyone seemingly can agree on is that Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and other pharmaceutical companies developed their Covid-19 vaccines in world-record time. Less than a year passed from the outbreak of the virus in January 2020 until a British woman received the first dose in December 2020. (And they could have been […]
Legends of Liberty: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
December 27, 2021 |
In recent history, too many Latin American politicians have fallen victim to a Marxist view of the world — and they have dragged their countries into poverty. Of course, Latin America has also been home to some of the world’s most powerful pro-liberty voices — including Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican nun […]
Legends of Liberty: Carl Menger
December 20, 2021 |
Here’s a brainbuster for you: The product on the left will help keep you alive for 6-8 weeks. It costs $4.49. The other is nothing more than pretty to look at. It costs $161. Why? This paradox — the water-diamond paradox — troubled some of the world’s greatest minds. Plato wondered about it; Copernicus and […]
Legends of Liberty: Ed O’Bannon
December 9, 2021 |
Ask any Millennial who liked sports growing up: EA Sports video games were a big part of our fandom. On PlayStation 2s, for hours on end, we could manage our own virtual teams, simulating seasons deep into the 2030s and beyond. Even now, hearing the games’ soundtracks and seeing the games’ covers is a hit […]
Legends of Liberty: Lenny Bruce
December 3, 2021 |
E.M. Forster once said, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” He was observing that, in our brains, thoughts often bounce and jump around frenetically; for many of us, we have to verbalize — or write down — our thoughts before they gain clarity. So, in a sense, the […]
Legends of Liberty: Arlo Guthrie
November 24, 2021 | Learn Liberty Team
Over the past 4 Thursdays, we’ve highlighted some of the most original and prolific writers in the history of economic and political thought. Ayn Rand, Frederic Bastiat, Thomas Sowell, and Lysander Spooner inspired us all and helped lay the foundation for the modern liberty movement. But today is not an ordinary Thursday. In the United […]
Legends of Liberty: Lysander Spooner
November 18, 2021 | Learn Liberty Team
As we witnessed during the 2020 election season, and as we are sure to witness during the upcoming holiday season, the United States Postal Service doesn’t exactly instill confidence. That’s not surprising, given that most of what the government provides or funds is inefficient. Think about it: do you take better care of your home […]
Legends of Liberty: Thomas Sowell
November 11, 2021 | Learn Liberty Team
Last week, we wrote about Frederic Bastiat, the king of communicating economic and philosophical ideas in simple, direct (and often funny) ways. Of course, in the 19th century, Bastiat’s medium was the printed word. But if you had to find an heir to his throne in the social media era, Thomas Sowell would be a […]
Legends of Liberty: Frederic Bastiat
November 4, 2021 | Learn Liberty Team
This is the second of Learn Liberty’s “Legends” series. Read our first, on Ayn Rand, HERE. He never won a Nobel Prize. He never wrote a New York Times bestseller. In the history books, he doesn’t sit alongside Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek as all-time great economists. He doesn’t even have an […]
Legends of Liberty: Ayn Rand
October 28, 2021 | Learn Liberty Team
This is the first of Learn Liberty’s “Legends” series. See our second, on Frederic Bastiat, HERE. Few names elicit a stronger emotional response than Ayn (eye-n) Rand. Look no further than the replies to this tweet: Much of the hatred comes from people (usually on the political left) who, as you can see in that […]
Congestion tax in Manhattan: Readers speak!
March 9, 2018 | Michael Munger
Last month, I wrote a post that asked whether Manhattan should tax ride-shares, tax all vehicles, do something else, or do nothing at all. And you had some ideas about that. Below, I have tried to combine your answers (I got nearly 30) into a manageable set of categories. Responses were about evenly split among […]
Learn Liberty Turns 7
February 11, 2018 | Learn Liberty Team
Since our inaugural videos in 2011, Learn Liberty has sought to advance the ideas of classical liberalism with the help of the scholars and professors who champion them. We’re proud to say that seven years running, the legacy of our early videos lives on in the work we do today. At the core of the […]
The organic industry is a case study in rent-seeking.
February 5, 2018 | Henry I. Miller
If businesses get government subsidies to make their products cheaper, or “capture” regulation to hurt their competitors, that’s rent seeking.
Free trade lets us turn corn into cars.
January 25, 2018 | Bryan Caplan
From the American point of view, technology and trade are the same. From the human point of view, trade is better.
The Sweet Cakes case: Let the market give discrimination its just desserts.
January 18, 2018 | Ninos Malek
The Oregon-based Sweet Cakes bakery has been ordered to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple for their ceremony. In December of 2017, the Oregon State Court of Appeals upheld the decision to force the bakery to pay the couple for damages.
Does Manhattan need a congestion tax on Uber?
January 10, 2018 | Michael Munger
Charging “prices” does not a market make.
What’s wrong with making money?
January 4, 2018 | Ninos Malek
Social justice advocates argue that it is “society’s” duty to eliminate pain and inequality wherever and whenever it exists. What is interesting is that I have never met Mr. Society.
The politics of "The Last Jedi"
December 20, 2017 | Ilya Somin
One Resistance fighter says that the movement will win “not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love.” But what do they love?
Tear down those statues
December 14, 2017 | Michael Munger
I have tried to avoid saying much about the “Confederate statues” kerfuffle. That’s partly because the issue is more complicated than it’s often made out to be.
How the government ruined health care for those who need it most
December 8, 2017 | Howard Baetjer
If you develop an expensive chronic illness, you might think the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will protect you. Instead, you’re likely to end up with subpar coverage or no coverage at all for your condition.
The real effects of good intentions
November 28, 2017 | Ninos Malek
On the first day of my economics classes, I tell my students that if they saw my paychecks that they would realize the school is exploiting me.
Truthiness and the origins of "fake news"
November 15, 2017 | Michael Munger
If I have my news, and you have yours, and both of us rely on truthiness — the uncontestable “essential” truth of our beliefs, regardless of facts — it’s impossible to have a conversation.
Life isn’t fair, but can government help that?
October 25, 2017 | Chris Freiman
Luck egalitarianism is, roughly, the view that inequalities in life prospects resulting from luck are unjust. If Amy has better job opportunities than Bob because she happened to have parents who could afford to send her to a fancy private school, that’s unfair.
The dirty word that gives us our freedom
October 18, 2017 | Lauren Hall
Competition is often considered a dirty word, with many critics of free market ideas emphasizing the cutthroat competition of Wall Street as an example of how competition brings out the worst in people, encourages us to cut corners, and undermines our altruistic tendencies.