as it gets: most critics of free-market capitalism simply don’t understand how competitive markets work. And, as far as I can tell, many have never bothered to try. . Consider instead agricultural subsidies, which are probably the least-defensible policy currently in place (though I will admit that the competition is fierce). In his book The Myth of the Rational Voter , Bryan Caplan
grocers Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Market. They claim that it would reduce competition in the “premium natural and organic supermarkets” sector, suggesting we have the theory of monopolistic competition. The grocery market is at least as competitive; while many retailers are having trouble beating Wal-Mart on price,
anvil that has worn out many hammers. This is another case in point. How much bad policy would we avoid if policy makers and activists understood that wages in competitive markets are determined by productivity rather than employer caprice? I
Popular treatments of the minimum wage point to Wanda Washerwoman and declare the policy a success because she now earns higher wages than she used to. If we focus and David Dishwasher, we aren’t telling the complete story and will likely enact policies that oppress the poor. Here are a few points explaining exactly how the oppressing poor people. 6. Minimum wages translate into more discrimination . Competition constrains employers’ ability to to discriminate on the basis if
trade at gunpoint enriches special interests, but it oppresses the poor. 2. Competition in Education. Competition encourages innovation and leads to better educational outcomes . Affluent Jerry Hausman and Ephraim Leibtag have argued that the benefits of Wal-Mart’s policy of “Every Day Low Prices” have accrued disproportionately to poor households .
and activists send when they push for a minimum wage is “we don’t understand how competitive markets work.” Support for price-gouging statutes and rent control send the same signal. As long as people support these policies, we will have work to do.
across the political spectrum are fretting about the need for a national energy policy, wringing their hands about the apparent un-American-ness of our dependence on separate the good ideas from the bad. Scholars like F.A. Hayek have referred to “competition as a discovery procedure,” and in an article that appeared in the
across the political spectrum are fretting about the need for a national energy policy, wringing their hands about the apparent un-American-ness of our dependence on separate the good ideas from the bad. Scholars like F.A. Hayek have referred to “competition as a discovery procedure,” and in an article that appeared in the
and money, financial self-interest and the profit motive, the freedoms of economic competition and economic inequality, the price system, economic progress, and a succinctly in a series of lectures which were published posthumously as Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow. He notes that “this is the fundamental
issue with the way I presented a libertarian approach to compassionate economic policy in this article . This is the kind of life that the blogosphere brings to the Higgs’s Depression, War, and Cold War . Finally, I’m taking for granted that the policies I’m criticizing are “designed to help the poor.” I’ve assumed that of the minimum wage have acted out of concern for the poor and have rejected the competitive model of the labor market for reasons of varying intellectual merit. As
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The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
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