Feed the World
Make fuel from corn, by all means, if the free market signals that this the most pressing need and, hence, the most lucrative use for the crop.
Make fuel from corn, by all means, if the free market signals that this the most pressing need and, hence, the most lucrative use for the crop.
The problem here is that the original Friedman thesis was wrong.
Economic calculation encompasses everything that trades against money. There is nothing "objective" about them.
Markets make more people fit rather than triggering a "dog eat dog" fight for survival. Private property prevents the law of the jungle rather than enabling it.
Robert Murphy's admirable book is much more than a conventional defense of capitalism. Murphy includes standard material, e.g., why price controls, minimum wage legislation, and rent control do not work.
In my field of economics, we have generally dismissed inferences based on mere correlations.
Binkley believes that as Las Vegas becomes like the rest of the country, the rest of America is becoming at least a little like Las Vegas, with gambling popping up everywhere.
Profit-seeking individuals are constantly searching for the most economic ways to produce goods for consumers, and virtual goods are no exception.
We are able to make more sense of all this insanity if we use the Austrian lens to observe that money doesn't have to be a force for human motivation. It is, rather, a tool of calculation.