Tariffs, Pickpockets, and the Nationalist Snake in the Moral Grass

Like nearly all economists, I am inclined to explain to people who favor tariffs that such taxes entail inefficiencies. They make the consummations of otherwise desirable trades more costly and hence discourage people’s actions that, absent the tariffs, would result in the creation of new wealth. After all, people who voluntarily purchase goods and services from sellers who reside outside the national borders expect to gain by making those purchases (and, of course, the sellers also expect to gain from the sale), and a gain from trade is the principal form of wealth creation in the world...

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Political and Governmental Corruption Is a Feature, Not a Bug

People do not oppose corruption in politics and government. They oppose only the corruption that does not steer loot and social domination to them. After all, the entire process of so-called democratic government is nothing but corruption writ large and backed by the threat of violent force. Political partisans in particular are utterly unprincipled in regard to the corruption of the political process. If the Republicans are exposed as receiving unlawful campaign contributions or perpetrating political dirty tricks, the Democrats howl to high heaven, and vice versa. Of course, neither major...

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Robert Higgs

Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute, author or editor of over fourteen Independent books, and Editor at Large of Independent’s quarterly journal The Independent Review.


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