The coronavirus crisis must cause us to rethink the idea governments can manage these situations. It is absolutely true that most private industry can be trusted, because the alternative for poor or unscrupulous providers is failure.
Governments that hamper entrepreneurship certainly damage it in the near term. But these measures destroy the conditions necessary for innovation and entrepreneurship in the future as well.
After an old red barn was given "heritage protection" by the city council, the owner demolished it anyway. Many townspeople cheered the defiance of the council's blatant violation of property rights.
Free market economics is often ignorantly dismissed for being "ideological" rather than scientific. It probably sounds smart to the economically illiterate, but it is decidedly not.
The North American fur trade is in decline. Unfortunately, many think that the solution is for the government to step in to “protect” trappers from market competition.
In spite of all kinds of restrictions and red tape, consumer demand for firearms remains high, and the industry has found a way to meet that demand—through "80 percent lower receivers."
Whether diversity is a social benefit depends on whether it creates excuses to fight each other for special treatment. Politicizing our differences is far more likely to make diversity a source of conflict.
Entrepreneurs are the reason consumers have come to expect new gains and innovations in products and services every year. Without entrepreneurs, we'd still be using rotary phones.
Clearly marked prices on private-sector cash-payment surgeries are a great thing. In fact, the competition of for-profit surgery centers drives down prices at more "traditional" (i.e., highly bureaucratized) hospitals.
