Statistical data is merely history, but a competent historian does not simply let the events speak for themselves. He arranges them according to the ideas underlying the general notions he uses in their presentation. He does not report facts as they happened, but only relevant facts.
Economic history is possible only because there is an economic theory capable of throwing light upon economic actions. If there were no economic theory, reports concerning economic facts would be nothing more than a collection of unconnected data open to any arbitrary interpretation.
When governments raise the cost of obtaining a good, many people will opt for buying a higher quality (or more potent) version of the good with each transaction.
Karl Marx agreed with Rothbard that individual rights lead to inequality. For Marx, though, this was an argument against rights.
We don’t let just anyone repair our homes or perform surgery. So why do we let everyone vote, and, theoretically, let just anyone rule? Jason Brennan’s recommendation is epistocracy: the rule of the knowledgeable.
Proponents of socialized medicine assert that markets cannot be trusted with healthcare due to "market failure." But the assumed "failures" of health markets are not improved by socializing healthcare.
Our foremost mission is to fight back in the war of ideas, and we must.
In order to expand production and increase productivity — and thus increase the standard of living — it is necessary to use capital. And so it makes sense to pay interest on capital lent, so as to encourage the maintenance and production of capital for the future.
Scrooge McDuck is the perfect type of a miser: a capitalist-entrepreneur — and the most philanthropic man (duck, I mean) in Duckburg.
In It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey was right to oppose Old Man Potter. Potter's fondness for the draft board and his attempt to use the DA to crush his adversary shows Potter had little regard for truly voluntary exchange.
