Any attempt to equalize wealth or income by forced redistribution must only tend to destroy wealth and income. Historically the best the would-be equalizers have ever succeeded in doing is to equalize downward. This has even been caustically described as their intention. “Your levellers,” said Samuel Johnson in the mid-eighteenth century, “wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.”
Less than a year after a Tsunami killed approximately 275,000 people in the poorer part of Asia,1 another 80,000 have died in Pakistan and India from an earthquake that hit on 8 October 2005.
Francis Dumouchel employs Rothbardian logic to defend vampires—satire indeed.
This post is in response to Stephan’s. My objection to limited liability is actually one that he passes over quickly, and is not quite the same as van Eeghen’s. He says, “As for voluntary debts being limited to the corporation’s assets; this is no problem since the creditor knows these limitations when he loans money.”
Piet-Hein van Eeghen’s article “The Corporation At Issue, Part I: The Clash With Classical Liberal Values and the Negative Consequences for Capitalist Practices,” in the latest issue of the JLS, argues that “the corporate form of business organization is inherently incompatible with the principles of classical liberalism.” (Further summary of van Eeghen’s piece reprinted below.)
California is having a November 8 special election with nationwide consequences. Of particular importance, because of the implications if it wins and its momentum spreads similar initiatives throughout the country, is Proposition 75, which would require public employee unions to obtain members’ permission before using their dues for political activities. The large stakes are reflected in campaign spending of over $100 million, with substantial amounts from outside the state.
Despite all of the public wailing for the desperate state of the poor left behind in New Orleans, to say nothing of all the low-wage workers who recently lost their employers down along the Bayou, the White House announced today that it will apply Davis-Bacon workplace rules to federally-funded reconstruction work in New Orleans.
On October 24 President Bush nominated Ben S. Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. In response, Wall Street became very excited and pushed the Dow Industrial average up by almost 1.7%. The media and the pundit class were overjoyed too.
Most experts regard this successor to Greenspan as one of the greatest monetary economists of our times. So if anyone can step into the big shoes of Alan Greenspan it is Bernanke.
What we are seeing is a repeat of the hosannas that greeted Greenspan when he followed Volcker in that sainted position.
