Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute

Anyone Can Be a Capitalist, part 1

by Sheldon Richman | Dec 7, 2024 | Blog, Economics

"[A]ny man can be a capitalist if only he wants to be. He can derive his funds solely from the fruits of previous capitalist investment or from past 'hoarded' cash balances or solely from his income as a laborer or a landowner. He can, of course, derive his funds from several of these sources. The only thing that stops a man from being a capitalist is his own high time-preference scale, in other words, his stronger desire to consume goods in the present. Marxists and others who postulate a rigid stratification—a virtual caste structure in society—are in grave error. The same person can be at...

TGIF: Supply Precedes Demand

by Sheldon Richman | Dec 6, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production." —Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776 "In the market economy the consumers are supreme. Their buying and their abstention from buying ultimately determine what the entrepreneurs produce and in what quantity and quality." —Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos, 1947 If the ultimate purpose of economic activity is consumer welfare, you might think that government measures to increase consumption ought to be taken seriously. But that would be hasty. Even though many smart people, even economists, do so, there's a simple reason it's...

TGIF: On Fairness

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 29, 2024 | Economics, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Fairness and its synonyms are among the most abused words in English. By that I mean they are commonly manipulated for ideological ends. Wokeness has aggravated a situation that has existed for some time. What better way to score points for a political position than to declare that fairness demands it? The tactic puts the unprepared opponent on the back foot. For example, people say it is unfair that some people have more than others. There are "haves" and "have-nots," although the latter phrase is either grossly exaggerated or outright dishonest. By and large, Americans are the richest...

Economics and Everyday Life, 2

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 26, 2024 | Blog, Economics

"[E]conomic relations constitute a machinery by which men devote their energies to the immediate accomplishment of each other's purposes in order to secure the ultimate accomplishment of their own, irrespective of what those purposes of their own may be, and therefore irrespective of the egoistic or altruistic nature of the motives which dictate them and which stimulate efforts to accomplish them. And the things and doings with which economic investigation is concerned will therefore be found to include everything which enters into the circle of exchange—that is to say, everything with which...

Economics and Everyday Life

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 25, 2024 | Blog, Economics

"[T]he general principles which regulate our conduct in business are identical with those which regulate our deliberations, our selections between alternatives, and our decisions, in all other branches of life. And this is why we not only may, but must, take our ordinary experiences as the starting point for approaching economic problems. We must regard industrial and commercial life, not as a separate and detached region of activity, but as an organic part of our whole personal and social life; and we shall find the clue to the conduct of men in their commercial relations, not in the first...

TGIF: “You Didn’t Build That”

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 22, 2024 | Economics, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF

Remember Barack Obama's profound 2012 campaign speech about success? Here's part of what he said: There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out...

Taking It for Granted

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 19, 2024 | Blog, Economics

"Capitalism, says Marx, unthinkingly repeating the fables of the eulogists of the Middle Ages, has an inevitable tendency to impoverish the workers more and more. The truth is that capitalism has poured a horn of plenty upon the masses of wage earners who frequently did all they could to sabotage the adoption of those innovations which render their life more agreeable. How uneasy an American worker would be if he were forced to live in the style of a medieval lord and to miss the plumbing facilities and the other gadgets he simply takes for granted!" —Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

The Miracle of Mass Production

by Sheldon Richman | Nov 18, 2024 | Blog, Economics

"The fact that my fellow man wants to acquire shoes as I do, does not make it harder for me to get shoes, but easier." —Ludwig von Mises, Human Action