Thomas Sowell’s book, Civil Rights, lays bare many of the myths of the Great Society. What did ordinary people do before an advanced welfare state? Anti-poverty programs like the 1965 Job Corps did not turn out well. There was less poverty before the programs. Federal aid to education, like Head Start, did not stop any cycle of poverty. There was no difference in performance.
Microeconomics starts with the basic fact that each person has short term and long term goals, like buying a ham sandwich and graduating from college. People act in the world to accomplish something. Human action is purposive. You employ different means to achieve certain goals.
One of the problems of the American Empire is that there is a lot of empire denial going around. You cannot want to rule the world and yet say that what you value is laissez-faire economics (like National Review does).
This is a federal constitution. Federalism is the most important idea for liberty. You must maximize your choices and you need meaningful choices, made against a cultural background. Federalism requires such moral correctness that it makes it the most difficult system to maintain. Federalism always fights consolidation.
Better J. Boettke talks about Rothbard on Socialism in the U.S. and in the Soviet Union at the 2003 Austrian Scholars Conference.
Robert Higgs critically examines how academic historians have shaped—and often distorted—our understanding of the relationship between the state and individual liberty.
Recorded at the Reassessing the Presidency seminar; March 2004. (28:27)
Rothbard covers the principles of demand and supply curves. Prices are at the seat of the whole system. Use the logic of reality. The most mobile labor force is teenagers. Over time, capital equipment per laborer increases. Real wage rates increase. Consumer prices decrease.
Recorded at the 2003 Supporters Summit: Prosperty, War, and Depression.
(28:35)
Recorded at the Reassessing the Presidency seminar; March 2004.
Recorded at the 2003 Supporters Summit: Prosperty, War, and Depression.
(39:25)
Recorded at the 2003 Supporters Summit: Prosperty, War, and Depression.(16:52)
