“I learned in economics that in ‘perfect competition’ profits are zero, so any actual profits come from some kind of monopoly power. So how could profits be good?”
Are you one of those people who like raisins in cookies? Too bad.
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.
Have you ever stopped and looked around the grocery store? There are thousands of products neatly arranged and conveniently located just for you.
If you ask most people what classical liberalism is, they’ll say that it’s essentially free-market economics. But that’s a rather impoverished and narrow idea.
If we want the market order to survive, we will have to continue to treat it both in theory and practice as a realm of moral and virtuous behavior.
Airbnb is now facing greater opposition in New York thanks to a recent bill signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo which bans advertising of short-term rentals.
A good part of the ethics of enterprise is reflected in the integrity, discipline, and quality of character that must enter into those individuals who choose the role of entrepreneurial leadership.
Donald Trump is a protectionist like many other politicians, save that he unfurls his vast economic ignorance more fully and more proudly than do more seasoned politicians. I’ve more questions for Trump and his fans, and, indeed, for protectionists of all stripes, colors, and temperaments. Such as…. – If you buy your tomatoes and okra […]
Solar power can only survive with an army of lobbyists dedicated to securing millions in taxpayer dollars.
Whether it’s music, art, or commerce, it’s competition that makes the world beautiful.
The right of humans to freely cooperate on an open market is the surest way to bring about not only economic, but human harmony.
It’s a useful illustration of the logic of political action when the state is in a position to dispense favors, whether those favors be subsidies or mandates or barriers to entry that protect special interests’ profits.
Another day, another hilariously awful straw man argument against libertarianism.
Can you really blame universities for charging high prices for football tickets when so many people are willing to pay for them?
Musk brings to the conversation a vision of changing how we get around, how we power what gets us around, and where we live. In so doing, he is working to address some of the most important challenges facing our species.
NPR’s Goats and Soda recently covered a debate in India over surrogacy. In India, there is a thriving industry of women who are paid to be surrogate mothers, carrying another couple’s children. Many surrogates are impoverished women, and there are growing concerns that paying poor women to be surrogates amounts to exploitation. Some are calling […]
When it comes to trade, the best US policy, or that of any country, is the elimination of all barriers to imports. This can be done unilaterally. Abundance should always be preferred to scarcity.
The introduction of low-skilled immigrants frees up time for native workers to improve their skills and move on to higher paying jobs. This is a desirable economic development from the migrant, as well as the native, laborers perspective.
Each consumer is free, on his or her own, to visit farms and factories and processing plants in order to purchase items directly from producers. But, of course, such visits would be enormously time consuming and would cost quite a lot in airfare and other travel expenses. We know that retailers and other middlemen perform valuable services because we observe consumers, everyday, voluntarily paying for these services.
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.
Limits to the homo economicus version of rationality are also limits to the explanatory power of some aspects of introductory-level economics. They do not, however, compromise the case for laissez-faire. If anything, they strengthen it.
UberX produces daily social value of about $18 million. That is comparable to having an excellent French impressionist painter produce a beautiful work each day and give it away for free.
Saturday, September 17th will be the five year anniversary of the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protests. This week’s links cover the protests and what they did (or didn’t) accomplish. The Lasting Effects of Occupy Wall Street, Five Years Later Throwback: What Reason Saw at Occupy Wall Street Protests What Occupy Wall Street Got […]