The Austrians view is that monopoly came about as privilege, usually granted by royalty, given to a particular person or industry. This process is arbitrary and capricious. Free entry is required in capitalism. There cannot be restrictions on entry, as with doctors.
Price, quantity, profit, and deadweight loss are four criticisms of monopolies.
Minimum wage laws are not only counterproductive, but they make situations worse. All voluntary mutual trade benefits all. Minimum wages and union legislation make it difficult if not impossible for poor youth to get jobs.
Opponents of employment-at-will speak of defending an employee's "individual freedom." Arthur Foulkes argues that this isn't freedom at all.
Surely, no one would dare to apply the Bastiat's Broken Window fallacy to the human tragedy that is still playing itself out along the rim of the Indian Ocean. And yet Chris Westley has discovered that at least one economist has done so.
The average family will spend about $1000 on Christmas gifts, writes Lew Rockwell, and much of what we buy might be described as rather shoddy. Paradoxically, this is not a bad thing but a sign of rising wealth.
The oft-heard tale about the sad plight of labor as versus capital is almost entirely false, writes Thomas Woods, author of a new book on American history.
Recorded 10/15/2004 at Radical Scholarship: The Guerrilla Movement for Liberty.
