Other Schools of Thought

Here we are 138 years later with many people still believing in the economic virtues of subsidies from farm programs to energy development.

For most people, economics has ever been the “dismal science,” to be passed over quickly for more amusing sport. And yet, a glance at the world today will show that we pass over economics at our peril.

The benefits of a system of old-age security without the state would be more than economic. It would also foster the acquisition of personal virtues and responsibility, which would then be reflected in other spheres of private and social life. A non-governmental system would even treat the least fortunate members of the society with more humanity and dignity, and there would be fewer such people overall.

I had a enlightening exchange with an international economics professor recently about Marxist dogmas inserted into neoclassical economics.

The New York Times reports on the thrilling,

Tyler Cowen has written a provocative essay: The Paradox of Lib

The Adventures of Tintin is a series of 24 comic books created by Belgian comic writer and artist Georges Remi (1907–1983), better known as Hergé.

Timothy Noah’s Would You Privatize Defense?The case for socialized medicine, Part 1

But even more damaging to the case for state-mandated preservation is the fact that the most egregious destroyers of treasures from our past have not been market actors seeking profit, but states pursuing power, engaging in wars, urban renewal projects, and eminent domain seizures of long-established and beloved neighborhoods for highways, airports, sports stadiums, and commercial developments promising higher tax revenues.

That's true enough but it sidesteps the reality that there is no economic activity that these people don't favor regulating to the nth degree. They talk of privacy and civil rights, but when it comes to commerce, they recognize no right of privacy and no individual rights. All property is up for grabs to control and meld in the name of national well-being.