To support free markets is to invite criticism on virtually every policy issue. Whether it’s the minimum wage, gun control, or a hundred other topics, markets are constantly under attack, and the burden of proof always seems to fall on advocates of free choice to show that it’s superior to coercion.
If, as libertarians believe, every individual has the right to own his person and property, it then follows that he has the right to employ violence to defend himself against the violence of criminal aggressors. But for some odd reason, liberals have systematically tried to deprive innocent persons of the means for defending themselves against aggression.
This talk was delivered at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Mises Circle, “Against PC,” on October 3, 2015.
A sharp Martian visiting Earth would make two observations about the United States — one true, the other only superficially so. On the basis of its ceaseless exercises in self-congratulation, the US appears to him to be a place where free thought is encouraged, and in which man makes war against all the fetters on his mind that reactionary forces had once placed there. That is the superficial truth.
The Trans Pacific Partnership is just the latest assault on free trade, although, like previous assaults before it, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is labeled as having something to do with free trade.
Mises Daily Wednesday: Ferghane Azihari and Louis Rouanet write:
Mises Daily Tuesday: Transcribed from his appearance at Mises U, Patrick Byrne explains:
The costs of centralizing information are higher than people understand. Until they have worked in actual organizations that have missions like fighting a war or making a profit, people tend to underestimate just how expensive it can be to centralize information.
It is erroneous to believe that free traders have been historically in favor of free trade agreements between governments. Paradoxically, the opposite is true. Curiously, many laissez-faire advocates fall into the government-made trap by supporting “free-trade” treaties. However, as Vilfredo Pareto stated in the article “Traités de commerce of the Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Economie Politique” (1901):
After 19 rounds of negotiations spanning 5 years, hosted along the Pacific Rim from Bali and Lima to Hanoi and Hawaii, the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) was signed yesterday in Atlanta by all 12 member governments and remains only to be ratified by each country. Although the text has not been made available to the public, and will not be for the next four years to avoid opposition, the TPP is publicized as a tremendous boost in free trade for the signing countries, and thus for almost 40% of worl
The costs of centralizing information are higher than people understand. Until they have worked in actual organizations that have missions like fighting a war or making a profit, people tend to underestimate just how expensive it can be to centralize information.
If our mental picture of the world is like the pointy-haired manager in the Dilbert cartoons, we’ll tend to favor institutions where knowledge comes from the knowledge frontier, and is then moved to the central office where the managers sit and cogitate. The managers then push stupid orders back to the frontier.
