Tag: innovation
Animal-loving entrepreneur succeeds despite anti-cat regulators
December 4, 2016 | Post
The petty tyrants that occupy county zoning offices or health departments are exactly why we can’t have nice things.
Defending privilege in a world of disruptive innovation
December 3, 2016 | Post
Two front-page stories in the Metro section of Monday’s Washington Post depict protected service providers desperately trying to fight off innovations that might serve customers better and threaten the comfortable incomes of the established providers.
The co-bots are coming to fast food factories
October 16, 2016 | Post
“We’re going to need to see your birth certificate,” the manager said, making a notation on my employment application, “But you’re hired. Show up a 10 a.m. on Thursday for training.” I was too young and dumb to realize he was calling my bluff. I had to be 16 to take the job and I […]
Let’s tax the iPhone to save BlackBerry
October 13, 2016 | Post
It’s not BlackBerry’s fault the Apple iPhone has become the go-to smartphone for consumers worldwide.
Are Silicon Valley's Chaos Makers Smart or Insane?
September 23, 2016 | Post
Entrepreneurs pitch an endless stream of Ideas. Everyone argues over which can work. A few attract funding. Most fail. This competitive market process ensures only the best survive.
The iPhone 7 of Healthcare
September 10, 2016 | Post
This week Apple released its iPhone 7, the latest tech marvel from Silicon Valley, which has enjoyed relative freedom from government regulation. In contrast, the healthcare industry, which is controlled by countless regulations and edicts, is floundering. Premiums are expected to rise by double-digits again next year, a problem that was supposed to be solved by […]
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
Minimum-Grade Legislation, Revised Edition
August 27, 2016 | Post
The real minimum wage is zero, despite the best efforts of the economically illiterate public sector do-gooder.
Self-Driving Ubers on a Collision Course With Regulators
August 23, 2016 | Post
Outdated regulations prove to be a roadblock to ride-sharing innovation.
The Shared Experiences of the Sharing Economy
July 30, 2016 | Post
The English poet John Donne once wrote that “no man is an island.” It often feels quite the opposite what with the ever increasing technological advances made and the preoccupied-with-our-phone age we find ourselves in. Yet, the same technology that sometimes feels divisive is actually one of the best ways to stay connected. (Think Pokémon Go). The […]
Government Launched the First Rocket, but Private Companies Made It Affordable
May 14, 2016 | Post
Fans of increased government intervention in the economy often like to justify their position by pointing to the success of the moon landing. “If we can put a man on the moon,” the refrain goes, “we can surely rebuild our crumbling infrastructure (or provide everyone with healthcare, etc.).” There’s no question the moon landing was […]
How Amazon Turns Trash Into Treasure
April 11, 2016 | Post
I use a lot of books in my line of work. I can get a lot of them from the library. I use Amazon’s Kindle app to download a lot of books and organize my notes on them. Some books—like F.A. Hayek’s Individualism and Economic Order—are available for $0 download or on a website like […]
The Rise of Digital Humanitarians
April 4, 2016 | Post
Technology is putting humanitarianism on steroids. In the video below, digital humanitarians show how e-Nable, a global community of individuals who are using their 3D printers to create free 3D-printed hands and arms for those in need, is transforming the humanitarian community. Dr. Jon Schull, a professor at the University of Rochester and founder of […]
How Entrepreneurship Provides a Helping Hand
April 1, 2016 | Post
For many, a “helping hand” is supposed to come from the government, especially when it comes to things related to health care. But innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship are proving that this is not always the case. In the video below, University of Rochester Professor and e-Nable founder Dr. Jon Schull shows how invention and crowdsourcing […]
Frontier Mentality Necessary to Fix Health Care
March 25, 2016 | Post
For decades, the debate around health care has centered on access. No question access to health care is important. But this focus has ignored — and come at the expense of — topics that are much more important, namely quality and price. In the video below, Robert Graboyes, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, […]
What If Seeing a Doctor Was as Easy as Ordering an Uber?
March 16, 2016 | Post
Wouldn’t it be great if seeing a doctor was as quick and as easy as calling an Uber? That’s the question that Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Adam Thierer asks in the new Learn Liberty video on Permissionless Innovation. This concept states that people should be allowed to innovate and make products that improve our […]
On Demand Program: America’s Health Care System
March 7, 2016 | Post
Another election year, another debate over the future America’s health care system. Though some of us may have thought we put this debate behind us with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, it has reared its ugly head again. For good reason. Health care costs in America are ballooning much faster than inflation, and […]
Is the Cost of Living Really Rising?
December 29, 2015 | Post
Bernie Sanders sure gets a lot of air time out of his class warfare rhetoric. Common arguments from him and his supports lead less knowledgeable people to believe that the middle class is at risk of an ever more exploitative wealthy elite. But is that true? Let’s take a look at just one of those […]
Douglass North and Ridesharing
December 8, 2015 | Post
In the wake of his passing, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the contributions of my mentor Douglass C. North (Nobel Prize winner in 1993). In the last few months, I have been thinking especially about how we can understand debates about innovations like “Big Box” retail and ridesharing in light of some […]
Hydraulic Fracturing and the Ultimate Resource
November 14, 2015 | Post
One of the most valuable economic insights is that human creativity is The Ultimate Resource. (The great economist Julian Simon wrote a book by that name.) It follows that as long as we are free to use our creativity, we don’t have to worry about running out of resources. Truly, human creativity makes resources of […]
On Creative Destruction and Self-Driving Cars
October 30, 2015 | Post
The capabilities of self-driving cars are growing rapidly, and some sources predict they will become the primary means of transportation by 2040. However, “Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people—truckers, cabbies, delivery people—drive for a living in the USA”, and these drivers are likely to lose their jobs if they could be replaced by self-driving […]
Uber and the sharing economy: a new way of living
October 12, 2015 | Post
Earlier this year, I was making travel arrangements for a trip to Charleston. I booked my flight and hotel, and was about to book a rental car when I thought “wait a second. Charleston has Uber, doesn’t it?” It does, and I took UberX—the service that allows anyone who meets Uber’s requirements to drive for […]