Contra Watermelons
There are two schools of thought on the environment and its challenges. For want of better nomenclature, I shall characterize them as the watermelons and the free-market environmentalists.
Who Was Niccolò Machiavelli?
[This article is excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith. An audio version of this Mises Daily, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available as a free download.]
The Supposed Sham of Advertising
To say that individuals who are in the market for a product are not in need of silly advertising, but instead in need of the best product, is to overlook the economic consequences of substitutes.
A Medical Proletariat
Governmentalized health services sooner or later run into the iron curtain of mountainous costs. The easiest way out is to curtail honoraria, denouncing the doctors as profiteers.
The Inevitable Depersonalization of Medicine
The WSJ re-posted an excerpt from Milton Friedman’s original article “A Way Out of Soviet-Style Health Care” a few days before the passage of the behemoth bill now known as ObamaCare. The mentality behind the legislation, of course, is hardly novel; attempts to insulate people from the costs of health care have been infecting public policy debates for as long as politicians have been deciding “public” policy.
Kinsella Intellectual Property discussion on Freedomain Radio Book Club
From Stefan Molyneux’s post on the Mises forum:
The Freedomain Radio Book Club had a great discussion with Stephan about intellectual property which I thought you might enjoy…
Healthcare Legislation and a Potential Ron Paul Presidential Run in 2012
The health care legislation passed by Congress today is a disgusting socialist and fascist bill, and a monstrous assault on human liberty and sound and truthful economic/financial analysis. Particularly disgusting is the underhanded procedural method used to pass the legislation, especially given the apparent significant, actually majority public opposition to the bill.
Scientific Regress: the Case of Scurvy
On his blog, IdleWords.com, Polish-born Maciej Ceglowski (”as American as gooseberry pie,” but now living in northeastern Romania) tells the fascinating story of how the cure for scurvy was won and lost in a culture confident in scientific progress.
Origin and Rise of Compulsory Medicine
[Excerpted from chapter 2 of Compulsory Medical Care and the Welfare State (1950)]
Obligatory health insurance started moderately enough — in Prussia. Compulsion under a law of 1845 was left in the hands of municipal administrations, with no government subsidy involved and no contributions from employers. The antisocialist law of 1878 suppressed many of labor’s voluntary associations for sickness benefits. The next step was the governmentalization of the associations’ functions.
