After quoting H.L. Mencken’s famous quip, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people,” Andrews wonders, “I don’t know if old H.L. was a bookmaker, but he would have been a great one if he had been.”
Yes, many researchers are biased. But as Mises noted: "Reference to a thinker's bias is no substitute for a refutation of his doctrines by tenable arguments."
Liberalism has many meanings, but I wish to maintain that the most authentic form of liberalism has been concerned above all with two things: the expansion of a free functioning civil society and the restriction of the activity of the state.
Public lands already have value as nature preserves and tourist attractions. At the same time, the economic needs of ordinary human beings — which often require land development — shouldn't be ignored.
Inflation can always give only a temporary fillip to the economy, and will leave us with a legacy of postponed adjustments and new maladjustments which make our problem more difficult.
Since 1900, the number of American farms in operation has fallen 63 percent. Meanwhile, the American standard of living is far beyond what the farmers of yesteryear could have imagined.
In every trade, a person is giving up something he values less for something he values more. Every time a shopper buys any item from another person, he has improved his standard of living, and so has the seller.
