Tag: Art Carden
This Christmas, blame supply and demand for your expensive gifts
December 13, 2023 | Post
Even Santa’s elves can’t repeal the laws of supply and demand.
F.A. Hayek accomplished several careers’ worth of economic achievements in one lifetime
May 8, 2023 | Post
Each of his separate bodies of work would constitute a monumental achievement. Hayek did it all over the course of a single career that established him as one of the most important social thinkers of the 20th century.
How capitalists can create value by reducing waste
July 31, 2017 | Post
To see the sharing economy as merely “cheaper taxis and cheaper hotels” is to miss the point entirely.
Innovation in healthcare could be dangerous, but the alternative is worse.
July 26, 2017 | Post
The relevant alternative to a cheap healthcare provider for a lot of people isn’t a medical doctor — it’s Google.
Why I deserve what you created: word count welfare
June 16, 2017 | Post
I am furious. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and learned that my friend Steve Horwitz had written almost 3,000 words in a single day in his new book chapter on inequality.
Confront, slander, reject: The anti-intellectual legacy of Karl Marx
May 5, 2017 | Post
Marx espoused confrontation and slander over careful and critical intellectual debate.
Nintendo's Rebooted NES Console a Nostalgic Reminder of Our Economic Progress
September 8, 2016 | Post
Adjusting for inflation, that a regular NES and 30 games would be about $2450 in 2015 dollars. And we can get all that today for $70. That’s a 97 percent price decrease without adjusting for quality
Yes, We Can Get Richer by Doing One Another’s Laundry
May 2, 2016 | Post
Maybe you’ve heard this slogan: “we can’t get rich doing one another’s laundry.” It’s a sneer at low-skill jobs in the service sector and it is sometimes used to persuade governments to give special privileges to those who practice macho arts like manufacturing lest we be reduced to a nation of shopkeepers, or worse, dry […]
All McDonald's Hamburgers Taste the Same, But You'll Need a Crash Course in Economics to Know Why
March 28, 2016 | Post
Markets can be regulated by the figurative force of competition or by the literal force of government. Which better protects buyers and sellers? Contrary to popular belief, regulation by competition usually renders regulation by government either unnecessary or counterproductive. Regulations are usually presented to the public as a matter of guarding the public interest and […]
Your City Probably Doesn’t Need a Government-Financed Stadium or Convention Center
February 22, 2016 | Post
The first time I ever voted, I voted badly: I voted for a plan to use government money to build a soccer stadium and hockey arena in Columbus, Ohio, where I grew up. A few months later, I moved to Tuscaloosa to start college. Along the way, I stopped in Birmingham for a few days […]
Will You Vote Well?
January 4, 2016 | Post
What should you read between now and Election Day? If you’re only going to read one political book, you should make it Jason Brennan’s The Ethics of Voting. If you’re going to read a second, I nominate Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter. If you’re going to read a third, you should read […]
Wait: Why Would a Liquor Store Want to be Forced to Close on Sundays?
December 21, 2015 | Post
Alcohol laws are some of the most headache-inducing rules on the planet. Recently, AL.com ran an article about Sunday alcohol sales in Alabama with notes about how you can buy alcohol in some places on Sundays, but only (say) for on-premises consumption. Or only if you’re a restaurant or a hotel. Or only for off-premises […]
Bureaucratic vs business management in health care
October 19, 2015 | Post
The health care debate has been long on hysterics and short on useful analysis. Incendiary and counterproductive rhetoric about socialism, Nazis, and death panels from some corners notwithstanding, critics of socialized medicine raise an important question with uncomfortable answers: in the absence of profits, losses, and prices, how will decisions about the production and allocation […]