A low wage constitutes a competitive advantage for less-skilled workers that serves to protect them from competition from more-skilled workers. In other words, a wage of $7.25 per hour for fast-food workers serves to protect those workers from competition from workers able to earn $8 to $15 per hour in other lines of work.
Japan suffers the universal results of high taxation and the wide variety of social problems that follow. No longer is one income enough to make ends meet. Government regulations make it difficult for new industries to compete against the established giants and most industries behave like state-owned enterprises.
The legal incentives created by prohibition lead to artificially restricted production, decreasing the supply, and causing the price to skyrocket. Prohibition transforms users into criminals by making their drug use a large financial burden, enticing many to commit real crimes. All of this is a disaster for the addicts.
The “public issues” of today are crucially dependent on an understanding of sound economics. Virtually every major “public” or “social” issue involves proposals for government interference with the market. That’s why it’s crucial for lovers of liberty to understand how a voluntary economic marketplace works, in order to explode the myths and lies of its enemies.
The notion that unpatented medical technologies are not feasible is historically false. The <em>British Medical Journal</em> challenged its readership to submit a list of the most noteworthy medical and pharmaceutical inventions throughout history. Only two of them have remotely <em>anything </em>to do with patents.
Block’s Defending the Undefendable has needled and irritated an entire generation of readers and compelled many to re-examine long-held beliefs in favor of the logic of libertarianism. Now comes volume 2, with a foreword by Ron Paul, that promises more such irritation for future generations.
Sweden, once the crown jewel of the welfare state, took the road less traveled, and emerged as a financially sound economy, and an example of the economic growth possible with free markets. The country’s financial strength and its ability to resist a global recession are due to the long-term rolling back of the expansive welfare that Keynesians so often praise.
What would happen if the FDA didn’t ensure that food was safe and the EPA didn’t protect us from pollution? What would happen if the SEC didn’t rein in Wall Street and the FTC and antitrust laws didn’t protect us from monopolies and collusion? The answer is “I don’t know; no one knows.” But someone would come up with an solution.
The criticisms of free markets in Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium ("The Joy of the Gospel") have generated strong reactions around the world.
Peter G. Klein answers a viewer's question, and explains how salary caps are price controls.
