Freedom Swiss style: Pay a per head tax on your pet or the state will kill it. So much for private property—one’s pet—being one’s own. If pet owners don’t pay the state money, most of which goes into someone else’s pocket, it will come after them. A local Swiss politician described it for what it is: “It’s meant to put pressure on people who don’t
The Free Market 26, no. 5 (May 2008) Punditry is seriously exercised about the worldwide shortage of food, which is real enough, but not an act of nature or a result of market failure. Rather, it stems from the combined failures of government, and with results that are potentially catastrophic. Paul Krugman suggests that this has come about
The Free Market 28, no. 8 (August 2010) It is a common assumption in today’s world that capitalism is, at best, out of control and, at worst, outright evil. Everyone knows that it causes most of our financial, economic, and social problems, and that we need a referee—the government— to make sure that all is fair and that we innocent citizens are
Redtube.com is an internet site offering high quality porn for free. But competitor sex sites which were trying to charge for the same service didn’t like the supposedly unfair competition (and California does have an “unfair competition” law). Thus, one competitor sued. Thankfully, however, a California Appeals court dismissed the case ,
It is one of thousands of cases where one group of people wants to live differently than the way in which another group of people forces them to live. In this case, those who were not allowed to live as they wanted have now been given the choice to vote their way to freedom. Low and behold, 99% of the people chose to live differently . The world
Last month, Kansas ended a five-year long experiment, whereby it lowered state income taxes with the expectation that it would boost economic growth in the state. As is widely acknowledged, Kansas’ low tax experiment was a failure. However, it was also a success. Few people know how to interpret the results, however, because few people use the
«Una economía en crecimiento consiste en que los precios bajan, no suben.» El mercado de valores no funciona de la manera en que piensa la mayoría de la gente. Una creencia muy extendida (tanto en Main Street como en Wall Street) es que un auge bursátil es el reflejo de una economía que progresa: al mejorar la economía, las empresas ganan más
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.