THE POLITICAL & ECONOMIC DEBATE - 3
Capitalism Is the Moral High Road | Richard M. Ebeling
Higher education in the United States is engulfed in an ideological campaign against the American political and economic traditions of individual liberty, free competitive markets, and constitutionally limited government. In its place is the "progressive" agenda of collectivist identity politics, the interventionist economy, and political plunder.
Progressive Labor Policies Stymie Growth and Exacerbate Inequality | Kevin Villani
In FX's Fargo Season 3 , the opening scene is set in 1988 East Germany during the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In a prison camp, viewers see an interrogator questioning a prisoner obviously arrested due to mistaken identity. Angrily the state agent asks, "Are you saying that the state is wrong ?"
Prosperity and Income Aren't the Same Thing | Marian L. Tupy
In recent years, income inequality has become a major political and economic issue in America. It is true that, adjusted for inflation, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector have barely changed between 1979 and 2015. But wages do not provide the full picture of workers' earnings.
What If Everyone Could Control Their Own Wealth? | Brian Armstrong
If digital currencies can improve security, reduce volatility, and become more compelling to a mainstream audience, they could usher in an era in which the control of one's own wealth is viewed as a basic human right for anyone in the world.
How Econ Textbooks Sanitize the Horrors of Communism | Bryan Caplan
Far too many economics textbooks sanitize the flawed, corrosive ideas and practice of communism. They leave students with the impression that corruption was communism's chief defect. Let's be clear, no communist regime has ever tried to "divide wealth for equal advantage."
Capitalism Is the Moral High Road | Richard M. Ebeling
Higher education in the United States is engulfed in an ideological campaign against the American political and economic traditions of individual liberty, free competitive markets, and constitutionally limited government. In its place is the "progressive" agenda of collectivist identity politics, the interventionist economy, and political plunder.
Free Trade As a General Rule | David R. Henderson
According to most trade economists, tariffs could benefit a country only in rare circumstances, but governments are unlikely to have the information they would need to set tariffs at the "right" level, and governments with the power to set tariffs would almost certainly abuse it.
Negative Balance of Trade? So What? | Robert Higgs
Each international transaction, whether it be buying, selling, borrowing, or lending across a national border involves a willing party on each side. Each party to the transactions expects to benefit by entering into it. In a sane and just world, that would be the end of the matter.
No Representation without Consent - Not Even from Unions | Charles W. Baird
Should anyone be forced to accept representation from a private entity against his or her will? In the US, if a union gets at least 50 percent plus one of the workers in an enterprise to vote in favor of the union's representation, then all workers must be represented by the union - even those who abstained and who voted against being represented by the union.
Occupational Licensing Doesn't Protect Who You Think It Protects | Jason Sorens
Do occupational licensing laws protect you from unscrupulous and unqualified practitioners? Or do they just protect the current practitioners against new competition? These laws ban ordinary people from practicing a certain trade or profession - be it dentistry or hair-styling - until they have paid fees, undergone a certain number of hours of schooling, and usually passed certain examinations in order to get a license.
We Need Short-Term Trading For Long-Term Health | John Tamny
For many of us, our futures, and especially our retirement funds, are wrapped up in the stock market. Unfortunately, the country's overly burdensome tax system prevents short-term investors from signaling to long-term investors how healthy the market is or isn't.
Economic Liberty and the Rise and Fall of Nations | Daniel J. Mitchell
The OECD published data on "Average Individual Consumption," and we can use those data to take a look at how countries have changed over time. The conclusion? If nations want faster growth and more prosperity, there's no substitute for free markets and limited government.
The Poor Don't Need Handouts, They Need Microcredit | Syed Kamall
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Retail Stores Are Dying and We Should Let Them | Dwyer Gunn
Last week, the discount shoe retailer Payless ShoeSource filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced it will close 400 brick-and-mortar stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The announcement comes on the heels of a seemingly unending parade of bad news from traditional retailers in recent months.
Capitalism Is the Moral High Road | Richard M. Ebeling
Higher education in the United States is engulfed in an ideological campaign against the American political and economic traditions of individual liberty, free competitive markets, and constitutionally limited government. In its place is the "progressive" agenda of collectivist identity politics, the interventionist economy, and political plunder.
Robots Substitute for Jobs, Not Human Creativity | Donald J. Boudreaux
Here's a letter to a new reader of Cafe Hayek: Thanks for your e-mail. I don't share your fear of robots, and I'm skeptical of empirical findings that the introduction of robots is lately responsible for permanently ratcheting down the number of jobs in the economy.
Our Grandparents Didn't Want Us to Work in Factories | John Tamny
"Memory need not deceive, but it is mercifully selective"- C.J. Maloney, Back to the Land In 1983 All the Right Moves, a film about a high school football team within a dying steel town (the fictional Ampipe, PA) was released. The movie didn't receive great reviews, but its cast (including Tom Cruise and Craig T.
A Tale of Two (Sim) Cities | Gerardo Garibay Camarena
It's an international issue that politicians don't listen to the people. But one of the first things a statist will say in response is that "the same thing happens in business. Many big companies don't listen to their customers, either." They're right.
America's Brazilian Future | Daniel J. Mitchell
When I write about poorly designed entitlement programs, I will warn about America's Greek future. Simply stated, we will suffer the same chaos and disarray now plaguing Greece if we don't engage in serious reform. Ideally sooner rather than later. But when I write about state governments, perhaps it would be more appropriate to warn about a Brazilian future.
Americans Work Almost 4 Months Just to Pay Taxes | Jared Labell
Tax Day 2017 has passed for individual taxpayers, but America's tax bill is still due, and it's a big one. Americans will collectively pay close to $1 trillion more on taxes than will be spent on essentials like food, clothing, and housing combined.
Jimmy Carter and the Energy Crisis that Never Happened | Thomas A. Firey
Forty years ago tonight, President Jimmy Carter delivered an address making dark predictions of an imminent shortage of natural energy resources. But instead of ridiculing Carter's speech, we should learn from it. It shows the power of markets to deal with resource constraints.
How High Corporate Taxes Drive Business Away | Diana Furchtgott-Roth
During the 1970s and 1980s, many other countries had rates in that range, or higher. However, over the past 15 years all other major countries have lowered their rates, leaving the United States with the highest in the world after the United Arab Emirates.
The U.N. Has Absolutely No Idea How Economic Growth Works | Daniel J. Mitchell
I've been at the United Nations this week for both the 14th Session of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters as well as the Special Meeting of ECOSOC on International Cooperation in Tax Matters. As you might suspect, it would be an understatement to say this puts me in the belly of the beast (for the second time!).
Your Socialism Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad | Daniel J. Mitchell
So long as the Socialist zealots don't burn me at the stake for my heretical views, I guess I won't get too agitated by their bizarre fetish for statism. But I will periodically mock them. And that's the purpose of today's column.
Consumers Win in the Sharing Economy | Brittany Hunter
Rent-seeking attacks on Uber and Airbnb are attacks on you, the consumer.
Why Africa Should Worry Less About Income Inequality | Stacy Ndlovu
While crony capitalism continues to be a scourge in Africa, it should not be seen as evidence against capitalism itself. For impoverished Africans, a lack of income is not the only factor, a different kind of inequality is what traps people in poverty.
Fascism and Communism Were Two Peas in a Pod | Michael de Sapio
Popular wisdom holds that Fascism and Communism were diametrical opposites. Not so.
Taxes Are Worse than You Thought | Mark J. Perry
We are quickly approaching the deadline for filing (and paying) our federal and state income taxes, and that means it's time for an annual post to help put things in perspective. Let's start with some historical perspective: when income tax began in 1913, the maximum marginal income was only 7% on incomes above what would be more than $12 million in today's dollars.
The Israeli Experiments in Voluntary Communism | Idan Eretz
When Zionism rose to prominence in the Jewish world, many thought voluntary socialism and Zionism were a perfect match. The mass immigration to Palestine would create an opportunity to build a utopian socialist society from scratch. By the 1980s, however, the "Kubbitzim" had devolved into financially insolvent, privilege-weilding special interest groups relying on state power for their continued existence.
An Ode to Onion Rings | Tyler Groenendal
I have become fascinated by the deceptively simple beauty of the onion ring. In a tasty, fried shell, it illustrates the essence of a free and prosperous society: the division of labor and exchange, resource allocation through the market process, and the power of the consumer.
The U.N. Has Absolutely No Idea How Economic Growth Works | Daniel J. Mitchell
I've been at the United Nations this week for both the 14th Session of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters as well as the Special Meeting of ECOSOC on International Cooperation in Tax Matters. As you might suspect, it would be an understatement to say this puts me in the belly of the beast (for the second time!).
How to Turn a Poor Country into a Rich Country the Easy Way | Daniel J. Mitchell
The recipe for growth and prosperity isn't very complicated. Adam Smith provided a very simple formula back in the 1700s. For folks who prefer a more quantitative approach, the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World uses dozens of variables to rank nations based on key indices such as rule of law, size of government, regulatory burden, trade openness, and stable money.
Even Economists Can't Do Their Own Taxes | Antony Davies
If you've been working hard this past year and have either joined the ranks of the middle class or otherwise moved yourself up the ladder, the government is about to penalize you for your hard work with its progressive tax system.
Tariffs Make Being Cozy More Expensive |
Snuggies wants to be sure that you think it is a blanket. The reason takes us to U.S. trade policy. The Snuggie: A Blanket Rule When Snuggies were first imported from China, U.S. customs officials called it a garment. Disagreeing, Snuggies said it was bringing blankets into the country.
Everything You Need to Know about Global Poverty | Luis Pablo de la Horra
In 2015, YouGov, an international market research firm, conducted a poll on the state of the world, in which 71 percent of respondents said they were convinced that the world was becoming a worse place, and only 5 percent thought that living standards were improving across the world.
The Capital Gains Tax Is Risky Business | Daniel J. Mitchell
The double tax on equity makes debt a relatively more attractive way for businesses to finance themselves, all else equal. As a result, businesses will take on more debt than they otherwise might. ...This is a serious problem because carrying significant amounts of debt can make businesses less stable during periods when profitability declines.
There Is No Such Thing as a "Resource Curse" | Tyler Bonin
The world's newest country, South Sudan, is suffering one of the worst famines in history, with nearly a million South Sudanese on the verge of starvation , after having suffered through two years of civil war. South Sudan falls within the bottom quartile of countries in per capita GDP , despite having the third largest oil reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa.
How High Corporate Taxes Drive Business Away | Diana Furchtgott-Roth
During the 1970s and 1980s, many other countries had rates in that range, or higher. However, over the past 15 years all other major countries have lowered their rates, leaving the United States with the highest in the world after the United Arab Emirates.
What the Fight Over Capital Gains Is Really About | Daniel J. Mitchell
Why would the economy grow faster if we got fundamental reform such as the flat tax? In part, because there would be one low tax rate instead of the discriminatory and punitive "progressive" system that exists today. As such, the penalty on productive behavior would be reduced.
Free Trade Puts America First | Tico Moreno
I would venture to say that in the USA there is a consensus for making "America First." Nothing wrong with that objective, we want to win the Olympics, have the best-educated population, the best standard of living, the best health care, etc. However, discord arises on how best to achieve that objective.
Only Markets Can Win the War on Poverty | Jeffrey A. Tucker
In short, capitalism made huge progress toward the conquest of poverty. This is the title of a great book by Henry Hazlitt, and the newest free epub release by the Foundation for Economic Education. It should be downloaded and read by anyone who cares about a society of flourishing lives.
American Workers Aren't Helpless Children Who Need Protection | Donald J. Boudreaux
Joe works in a Pennsylvania steel mill. Many of Joe's fellow Americans start buying more imported steel and, hence, less American-made steel. Because of this change in trade patterns, Joe - a good, hard-working, honest, play-by-the-rules, middle-aged family man who toiled in the steel mill all of his adult life - loses his job.
Exports Only Matter Because They Let Us Import | T. Norman Van Cott
In the marketplace we produce goods and services which we sell (export) to buyers. This is the source of our incomes which we use to buy goods and services from others-that is, import. Those who choose to export while importing as little as possible will find themselves ill-clad, ill-housed, ill-fed, and possibly dead in short order.
Which Country Punishes Productive People the Most? | Daniel J. Mitchell
Back in 2014, I shared some data from the Tax Foundation that measured the degree to which various developed nations punished high-income earners. This measure of relative "progressivity" focused on personal income taxes. And that's important because that levy often is the most onerous for highly productive residents of a nation.
Analog Age Laws Could Crush Digital Trade | Daniel Dalton
It's been ten years since the iPhone was launched. At that time, the digital revolution was in its infancy, and the iPad, Kindle, 4G, Airbnb, Twitter, Android, Oculus, Spotify, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp & Uber were the unknown future. These are now the dominant technologies of our time.
Think of All the Jobs Central Heating Destroyed | Donald J. Boudreaux
The 'simple life' wasn't so simple - and, compared to modern life with all of its 'complexities,' the 'simple' life was also sure as hell difficult, dirty, dreary, and dangerous.
Leftists Understand Economics When it Suits Them | Daniel J. Mitchell
What's the right way to define good tax policy? There are several possible answers to that question, including the all-important observation that the goal should be to only collect the amount of revenue needed to finance the legitimate functions of government and not one penny above that amount.
Unleash the Market's Creative Destruction | Iain Murray
Whether jobs are lost to trade or innovation, the best policy response is deregulation. The economy will not improve as long as Americans see financial regulations as rules that keep bankers in line rather than barriers to regular people who could be opening small businesses.
The Utter Irrelevance of the "Balance of Trade" | Donald J. Boudreaux
Assume, if it amuses you, that foreigners flood our shores with all kinds of useful goods, without asking anything from us; even if our imports are infinite and our exports nothing, I defy you to prove to me that we should be the poorer for it.
Do Two Wrong Taxes Make a Right? | Donald J. Boudreaux
In Chapter 5 of Frédéric Bastiat's indispensable collection entitled Economic Sophisms makes the following argument regarding protectionism and taxation: You argue that, since France is overburdened with taxes, it is necessary to protect this or that industry. But we have to pay these taxes in any case, whether or not there is protection.
More and More Americans Need a License to Make a Living | Daniel J. Mitchell
A 2013 study found that 25% of today's workforce is in an occupation licensed by a state entity, up from just 5% in 1950. And the number of licensed professionals is not growing because everyone is suddenly becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Instead, it is the number of professions requiring licenses that is growing.
How Free Trade Triumphed and Made Europe Great | Richard M. Ebeling
The Napoleonic Wars were over, but Europe's political class sought to extend the economic war indefinitely with a permanent regime of protectionism. The great English classical economists responded by founding the modern theory of international trade, including the epochal Law of Comparative Advantage.
5 Charts That Will Shift Your Perspective on Poverty | Chelsea Follett
Angus Deaton, the Nobel-prize winning economist (who also sits on the advisory board of HumanProgress.org), recently reiterated his belief that on the whole the world is getting better -if not, as he accepted, everywhere or for everyone at once.
Free Trade Puts America First | Tico Moreno
I would venture to say that in the USA there is a consensus for making "America First." Nothing wrong with that objective, we want to win the Olympics, have the best-educated population, the best standard of living, the best health care, etc. However, discord arises on how best to achieve that objective.
Overtime Rules Based on Bogus Economic Theory | Jeffrey A. Tucker
This very day, millions of business managers are pulling their hair out, dealing with a genuine and traumatizing October Surprise that has nothing to do with the election. The Department of Labor, on its own and without a vote from Congress, has made a seemingly small administrative change that is profoundly and disastrously affecting the lives of probably tens of millions of people (if you include everyone directly and indirectly affected).
Socialism Requires a Dictator | Richard M. Ebeling
The idea of communism - the common sharing of productive property and its resulting output - is as old as the ancient Greeks and Plato's conception of the ideal Republic in which the guardians all live and work in common under the presumption that a radical change in the social institutional setting will transform men from self-interested beings into altruistic servers to some defined needs of society as a whole.
What If Grocery Stores Worked Like Public Schools? | Eric Schuler
One of the most important things to consider when buying a house is the quality of the grocery district. As the name implies, the grocery district determines which public grocery store you and your family get to use. District maps are drawn by the government to ensure each grocery store has an appropriate number of patrons based on its capacity.
The Customer Is Always Taxed | Antony Davies
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney established a 1.5 cents per ounce tax on soda in January. One month later, the price of soda has risen, and Kenney is mad the businesses are "gouging their customers." Apparently it never occurred to him that businesses would pass the tax along to the people.
A Universal Basic Income Would Mean Massive Tax Hikes | Robert Colvile
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Marx the Man | Richard M. Ebeling
Marx's critiques of capitalism have shaped Western thinking about economic intervention and laid the foundation for the tragic practice of socialism in the 20th century. The man behind the ideas was just as despicable as the actualized horror that his vision spawned.
Unleash the Market's Creative Destruction | Iain Murray
Whether jobs are lost to trade or innovation, the best policy response is deregulation. The economy will not improve as long as Americans see financial regulations as rules that keep bankers in line rather than barriers to regular people who could be opening small businesses.
Taking Off Our Economic Blinders
As someone with a relatively distant relationship with horses, I have occasionally seen some with blinders on and wondered exactly why, when I have never noticed any other animal with blinders on. So when my curiosity got the best of me, I did some checking.
What Is the Evidence on Taxes and Growth? - Tax Foundation
Download (PDF) Special Report No. 207: What Is the Evidence on Taxes and Growth? Introduction The idea that taxes affect economic growth has become politically contentious and the subject of much debate in the press and among advocacy groups. That is in part because there are competing theories about what drives economic growth.
Thank Goodness for Tax Havens! | Daniel J. Mitchell
While my colleagues are stuck in the cold of Washington for inauguration week, I'm enjoying a few days in the Caribbean. More specifically, I'm sharing my views today on Trump and the global economy at the annual Business Outlook Conference in the British Virgin Islands.
Trade, Innovation, and Job Losses - Cafe Hayek
TweetIt's well-known among people who bother to learn the facts that U.S. manufacturing output continues to rise despite the reality that the number of Americans employed in jobs classified as being in the manufacturing sector peaked in June 1977 and has fallen, with very few interruptions, ever since.
The Egalitarian Left is Getting More Extreme | Daniel J. Mitchell
Since I can't even keep track of schools of thought on the right (libertarians, traditional conservatives, neocons, reform conservatives, compassionate conservatives, Trump-style populists, etc), I'm not going to pretend to know what's happening on the left. But it does appear that something significant-and bad-is happening in the statist community.
Charity Can't Eliminate Poverty - Markets Can | Daniel J. Mitchell
If there was an award for the most dramatic political development of 2016, it would presumably be the election of Donald Trump. If there was an award for the best policy reform of 2016, my vote would be the constitutional spending cap in Brazil.
Socialist Self-Deception: Einstein and the USSR to Bernie Sanders and Venezuela | Marian L. Tupy
Albert Einstein is supposed to have defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Yet, as the economic implosion of Venezuela reminds us, we seem to be unable to stop repeating the same terrible mistake: trying to make socialism work.
Competition Makes the World Go Round | Generation Opportunity
The D.C.-based ridesharing company, Split, gave its last ride yesterday. Last week, the company announced that it would be shutting down after a year of servicing the D.C. area. "The time has come for us to start a new chapter," its founders said in a farewell letter sent out to their patrons.
Why Americans Don't Move Any More | Michael Barone
Americans see themselves as people on the move. When the going gets tough, or when opportunity beckons, we get up and go. We move around a lot. Contrary to widespread impression, mobility tends to decline in economic depressions. Actually, we don't - or don't nearly as much as we used to.
Why Chile Is So Resilient Against Earthquake Damage | Andrea Kohen
A few days ago, a 7.7 earthquake shook the south of Chile. Its epicenter was 67 kilometers northwest of Melinka, in Aysén, and generated a tsunami alert in certain coastal sectors of Los Lagos. It was felt in five regions of the country, but it was the southern area of Chiloé was the most affected.
What Led to the Magna Carta? War and Taxes | Lawrence W. Reed
June 15, 2015 marks 800 years since a fateful day along the River Thames just twenty miles west of central London. It's a good thing to note such anniversaries. They encourage us to discover things we should have learned or should never have forgotten.
Socialism On My Mind: Reed's Feed | Lawrence W. Reed
Socialists promise peace and harmony (when they're not preaching envy and theft) but they deliver strife and conflict. They pit class against class. They cynically buy off one faction at the expense of another. They thrive on victimology. They shun personal responsibility. They encourage groupthink and mob mentalities.
Give Me Liberty | Rose Wilder Lane
In 1919 I was a communist. My Bolshevik friends of those days are scattered now; some are bourgeois, some are dead, some are in China and Russia, and I did not know the last American chiefs of the Third International, who now officially embrace Democracy.
Millennials vs. Mutant Capitalism
About 70 million millennials will be eligible to vote in this year's presidential election, according to Pew Research Center. How my generation votes matters more than ever-which makes the results of an April Harvard Institute of Politics survey seem very troubling. About a third of Americans ages 18-29 support socialism, while not even half back capitalism.
Socialism Is Harder than You Think | Scott Sumner
Suppose you wanted to switch to socialism - what would be the ideal place to do so? You'd want a country with extremely high quality civil servants. That would be France. You'd want a country where socialism is not a dirty word, and capitalism is. That would be France.
The Young and the Economically Clueless
Bernie Sanders, the 74-year-old self-described democratic socialist, is surprising even himself with his primary-season success against Hillary Clinton, fueled by a staggering 83% majority of the under-30 vote in New Hampshire and 84% in the Iowa caucuses.
Anti-Capitalism through the Ages | Marian L. Tupy
On a couple of previous occasions, I have written about the failures of socialism and about socialism's continued appeal. In those columns, I pointed to research that suggests that at least some socialist instincts, including zero-sum thinking and egalitarian sharing, might be inherent to the design of the human brain.
This section provides insights.
Humanity's Long Fight for Freedom | Robert Higgs
Whatever occurs in the near term, however, we know that the contest is never-ending, because its two sides represent in effect the two sides of the human heart: the one side yearning to act decently, responsibly, and productively, and the other side longing to get something for nothing at the expense of others.