If someone is forced to engage in work that he otherwise would not do, and he is not paid compensation to which he agrees for that work, then we call this slave labor. It cannot be defined by any other term, writes William Anderson. Princeton's Paul Krugman and his followers, however, believe that the state should force people to do its bidding, even if it means they will not receive payment for their work.
The US government is attacking capitalism under the guise of cracking down on "corporate criminals." Corporate CEOs are being demonized and blamed for the collapsing stock market Bubble. Exploiting the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies, Washington DC has imposed the most sweeping accounting and securities laws since the 1930s.
It is never profitable--and therefore, never reasonable--for a business to refuse to do business that is profitable for it to do, writes George Reisman. To pretend that businessmen and their greed are nonetheless responsible for people not being supplied, and for people therefore suffering deprivation and even death, is to display an ignorance of elementary economic law.
In aiding drought-striken Canadian farmers, insurance providers can succeed where the state has failed. It is but a bit more evidence that private enterprise is more productive than the central planning of any government program, even those designed to create rain.
Special-interest-group pleading often tries to hide behind supposedly economic arguments. It is important to debunk such arguments as they arise so that the interest group politics can be seen for what it is. In the spirit of Bastiat's Economic Sophisms, Gene Callahan offers the following.
Gregory Bresiger offers his compassion for the regulatory Quixotes, and says that it is time to think the unthinkable: Forget about the system of regulation; consign it to the garbage bin of history. Close down the SEC, along with myriad other regulatory bodies.
For those who have not flown commercially in since last September are in for a rude awakening, writes William Anderson. You will face the insanity that passes for modern airport security, even as airline travel is as vulnerable as ever. And if you believe things might improve, think again.
Ask farmers in China, and they will tell you that the really bad apples don't come from Washington state. The bad apples come from Washington, D.C. That's because, just as with steel, our government recently imposed rules designed to drive out foreign apple producers. J.C. Robbins explains.
Despite its great appeal because of its simplicity, the supply-demand graphic as employed by mainstream economics is a tool that is detached from the facts of reality. The real-world economy is far too complex to be faithfully rendered on simple graphs that take no account of uncertainty, entrepreneurial speculation, and the ceaseless change of the market economy.
In the real world, human action can only manifest itself through material objects; man must utilize the resources that nature gives in order to employ means. If man desires to live, he must obtain food, shelter, and other physical necessities. On the most fundamental level, to exist in this universe, man must occupy space.
