Value and Exchange

The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture sponsored by James Walker.

Subsidies, government quotas, and regulations of workers won't make us richer or better off. Only private owners and entrepreneurs can determine the best way to use labor (and capital). 

A successful economy depends on innovative entrepreneurs who are willing to take large risks in return for the chance at great profits.

Imposing restrictions on trade is not a mere academic exercise. It requires government agents, courts, prisons, police, and the whole panoply of the punitive, coercive state. To oppose free trade is to support more jails, fines, regulations, and more.

The US government owns immense amounts of dry land, but the US government also owns far larger amounts of ocean floor. Government ownership of such immense amounts of natural resources causes substantial distortions to prices and markets.

Recognizing they have little chance of changing the outcome, people often vote to send a message about themselves. But, whatever the motivation, voting contrasts sharply with market choices where people actually bear the costs of their own decisions.

Some old economic myths never die, and presidential candidates are once again running on old fallacies about free trade. In truth, uninhibited trade helps to make everyone wealthier, whether it happens domestically among neighbors, or internationally.

It’s laudable when we give gifts that are truly ours to give. This should not be confused with giving away the property of others. In either case, if we want more wealth to give away, we have to produce wealth first.

Do women really pay more than men for the "same" goods and services? No. Not only are these supposedly identical goods not actually identical, but the consumers value them differently, leading to different prices.

Economists Robert Shiller and George Akerlof would have us believe that the market sells us things we don’t really want. That’s not true, but even if it were, the proposed solution — government — is even less likely to give us what we want.