Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute

Time to Separate Medicine and State

by Sheldon Richman | Dec 10, 2024 | Blog, Economics

The "progressive" coverage of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson's murder has an unspoken premise: namely, that we could have had a system in which medical care was instantly superabundant and free for everyone. There is no such system. We live in a world of scarcity. Socialized medical systems limit or deny care because of resource and government-budgetary constraints, and they impose high and even lethal costs through long waits for tests, surgeries, etc. Our government-saturated system is a nightmare, to be sure, but more government control would make things even worse, as Obamacare...

No Need for DOGE

by Sheldon Richman | Dec 10, 2024 | Blog

We don't need a Department (sic) of Government Efficiency. (It's a nongovernment thing.) We need a "Department" of What the Hell Should the Government Be Doing in the First Place? Efficiency implies that you know the objective of a course of action and want to avoid or minimize waste in achieving it. What is the objective of government? We can't judge its efficiency if we don't know its objective.

We Can’t Consume Our Way to Prosperity

by Sheldon Richman | Dec 9, 2024 | Blog, Economics

Once upon a time, John Stuart Mill could write these words truthfully ("Of the Influence of Consumption on Production," 1844): It is no longer supposed that you benefit the producer by taking his money, provided you give it to him again in exchange for his goods. He was talking, of course, about government tax-transfer programs intended to stimulate employment by subsidizing consumption. We cannot say this today.

Anyone Can Be a Capitalist, part 2

by Sheldon Richman | Dec 8, 2024 | Blog, Economics

"It might be argued that only the 'rich' can afford to be capitalists, i.e., those who have a greater amount of money stock. This argument has superficial plausibility, since ... for any given individual and a given time-preference schedule, a greater money stock will lead to a greater supply of savings, and a lesser money stock to a lesser supply of savings.... We cannot, however, assume that a man with (post-income) assets of 10,000 ounces of gold will necessarily save more than a man with 100 ounces of gold. We cannot compare time preferences interpersonally, any more than we can...

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...

Time to Separate Medicine and State

No Need for DOGE

We Can’t Consume Our Way to Prosperity

Anyone Can Be a Capitalist, part 2

Anyone Can Be a Capitalist, part 1

TGIF: Supply Precedes Demand

TGIF: On Fairness

Economics and Everyday Life, 2

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