TGIF: Culture without Romance

TGIF: Culture without Romance

by | Jul 12, 2024 | , , , , ,

"The entire history of the human race, the rise of man from the caves, has been marked by transfers of cultural advances from one group to another and from one civilization to another." So said economist, social philosopher, and historian Thomas Sowell in a 1990 speech titled "Cultural Diversity." (Watch it here. I also recommend this lecture by Nigel Biggar.) By cultural diversity Sowell did not mean the still-fashionable sense of that term. He has in mind what might be called culture without romance, echoing James Buchanan and the Public Choice school's economics without romance. What does...

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TGIF: On the Pursuit of Happiness

TGIF: On the Pursuit of Happiness

by | Jul 5, 2024 | , , , , , ,

The most remarkable phrase in the Declaration of Independence, whose anniversary we just celebrated, is the pursuit of happiness. Looking back 248 years, that phrase may strike the modern ear as strange for a political document. But it apparently did not seem that way to Americans in 1776. The second paragraph told the world: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The term among these indicates that Thomas Jefferson and the...

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TGIF: No Cheers for Decolonization(R)

TGIF: No Cheers for Decolonization(R)

by | Jun 28, 2024 | , , , , , , ,

How can a libertarian oppose decolonization? Colonization not only oppressed conquered peoples, as the staunchest early classical liberals never tired of pointing out, but also burdened the taxpayers of the home country, who were forced to pay through the nose for massive a military establishment, which subsidized the profits of the politically privileged few. Imperialism stunted economic growth by depriving entrepreneurs of resources they would have invested to benefit consumers. Adam Smith showed this in The Wealth of Nations (1776), but he was later echoed by Richard, Cobden, Herbert...

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TGIF: What Free Market in Health Care?

TGIF: What Free Market in Health Care?

by | Jun 21, 2024 | , , , ,

Contrary to a popular article of faith, America has no free market in health care—far from it. Consider this: the largest lobby in Washington, D.C., is—wait for it—the health care and health insurance industries. Last year, they spent 5.8 times the amount the "defense" contractors spent on lobbying: $800 million versus less than $200 million. This may have many explanations, but the fact remains: a free market in health care would not see massive lobbying. Based on what Congress and regulatory agencies do, we can be sure that the health care and insurance industries are not by and large...

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It’s a Crazy World

by | Jun 14, 2024 |

What's to be said about people who grieve over the deaths of Palestinian children in Gaza at the hands of the U.S.-backed Israeli military while simultaneously cheering the Mengele-style wrecking of children's lives in America and elsewhere at the hands of "transgender" fanatics? And vice versa.

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TGIF: “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”

TGIF: “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”

by | Jun 14, 2024 | , , , , , ,

The famous line "We have met the enemy and he is us" is from Walt Kelly's comic strip, Pogo. Kelly adapted the line from a U.S. naval commandant who, during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, reported to his superior, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Kelly did the parody for the first Earth Day in 1970, a pro-state, antimarket, antihuman occasion. More constructively, we can apply Kelly's slogan to a bigger matter, namely, who's to blame for the bad policies that representative democracy turns out? Is the culprit an elite group of politicians, bureaucrats, and Big Business/Big...

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David Boaz (1953-2024)

by | Jun 7, 2024 | ,

With great sadness I note the passing of David Boaz today, June 7, 2024, at age 70. He had been ill for some time. He was a good man and a giant of the libertarian movement. Very much because of David's influence and example, libertarian organizations not only embraced a rigorous dedication to individual liberty, private property, free markets, and peace, but also a commitment to professionalism. He is one big reason libertarianism moved from amateur status to the big league. The value of his multifaceted work, predominantly for the Cato Institute for over 40 years, can not be overstated....

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TGIF: Freedom or Power

TGIF: Freedom or Power

by | Jun 7, 2024 | , , ,

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, the Austrian-school economist who learned from Carl Menger and taught Ludwig von Mises, speaks to the ages. We ignore his lessons to our peril. One hundred ten years ago, in a journal article titled "Control or Economic Law," he wrote: [J]ust as natural phenomena are governed by immutable eternal laws, quite independent of human will and human laws, so in the sphere of economics there exist certain laws against which the will of man, and even the powerful will of the state, remain impotent; and that the flow of economic forces cannot, by artificial interference of...

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