The nonaggression principle—"anything peaceful"—comes as close to a value-free analysis in a political, ethical, economic, and legal theory as conceivably possible. It was insufficient for Rothbard, because he rightly found it insufficient for liberty.
If buyers aren't allowed to compete in terms of prices, they'll be forced to compete in terms of time waiting, distance traveled, or other real costs.
A healthcare system based on responsible risk management systems would provide market incentives for people to improve health while cutting costs for some needy populations.
There is a misconception among critics of the COVID-19 lockdowns that they're being imposed over the howls of the local population, which wants freedom. If only that were true.
The airline industry has clearly been prone to booms and busts for decades. Yet instead of planning for hard times, these corporate welfare machines called "airlines" use resources to inflate stock value and pad executive salaries.
Thanks to regulations and a lack of private spending, Italy's healthcare system had very limited capacity even before the current crisis.
The quality of the models being used by politicians to set COVID-19 policy is only as good as the data collected. Unfortunately, the data is not very good. Meanwhile, real costs arise from the ruined economy.
“Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State…the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute.” We cannot allow combating a virus to overwhelm all other values in society.
Noneconomists struggle to realize that scarcity results in the necessity of tradeoffs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this difference in thinking causes them to wrongly accuse economists of "prioritizing money over lives."
How much must total mortality increase to justify a global suspension of commerce and the rule of law? One percent? Ten percent? And what if overall mortality doesn't even go up?
