The Political & Economic Debate
How Foreign Competition Strengthens Domestic Firms | Tim Worstall
Protectionists would have you believe that domestic firms would be helpless against those viciously efficient foreigners, so we must have trade barriers to stop that pressure. But it's actually that competition from viciously efficient competitors which drives up productivity and thus increases living standards.
Capitalism Makes Us Free to Be You and Me | Omer Grigg
Karl Marx argued that capitalism alienates man from the products of his labor. He admired the massive productivity of the capitalist system, but lamented the loss of small industry for industrial production, aimed at satisfying the needs and tastes of the masses.
How Foreign Competition Strengthens Domestic Firms | Tim Worstall
Protectionists would have you believe that domestic firms would be helpless against those viciously efficient foreigners, so we must have trade barriers to stop that pressure. But it's actually that competition from viciously efficient competitors which drives up productivity and thus increases living standards.
Rent Control Advocates Need a Lesson in Economics | Luis Pablo de la Horra
Rent control is one of those policies that continues to attract the favor of the public despite the fact it has repeatedly proven to be ineffective when it comes to improving the lives of those it is aimed at.
South Africa Didn't Learn from Apartheid. It's Still Waging War against Free Markets | Marian L. Tupy
Racial discrimination in the country, Thomas Sowell wrote, was not a result of free enterprise. Instead, it was a consequence of the government's attempt to protect white workers from their black competitors. "If capitalism can be described as the unfettered operation of the market in the allocation of society's scarce resources," he concluded, "then apartheid is the antithesis of capitalism."
The Data is Clear: Freedom-Not Foreign Aid-Is the Solution to Global Poverty | Patrick Tyrrell
The 2018 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual study that ranks 180 countries for their economic freedom using hard data, has now been published by The Heritage Foundation. The results, when combined with poverty data from the World Bank, show that inhabitants of countries who enjoy high levels of economic freedom are far less likely to suffer from abject poverty.
3 Economic Fallacies That Just Won't Die | Luis Pablo de la Horra
Economics in One Lesson is a magnificent rebuttal of popular economic fallacies deeply embedded in the political discourse of his time. By means of a very accessible language aimed at the general public, Hazlitt discusses, dissects, and debunks 22 economic sophisms like the idea that technological advances destroy employment or the myth that price ceilings are beneficial for consumers.
Why One Economist Abhors Earth Hour | Mark J. Perry
I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its tradeoffs is something to be ashamed of. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity.
How Estonia-Yes, Estonia-Became One of the Wealthiest Countries in Eastern Europe | Luis Pablo de la Horra
The emergence and consolidation of growth-boosting institutions took hundreds of years in countries like the UK and the US. However, in recent decades we have seen that the right policies can significantly speed up economic development. Estonia is a paradigmatic example of this.
America should get rid of oppressive job licensing
SOME rush to blame free markets for America's income inequality and its lack of social mobility. Among rich Western countries, America is where the top 1% of earners have become most detached from their compatriots. Yet those who blame this on unfettered competition or globalism run wild in the home of capitalism ignore an awkward fact.
