The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Inequality on Feb 29th, 2012
My colleague Steve Landsburg made a great observation that the behavior of our current Presidential candidates indicates a rejection of the “Frankian” idea of the importance of relative measures of well-being. Do read it. But a terrific comment is down below: I’ll believe the relative income nonesense when someone shows me evidence that people leave [...]
Posted in Voluntary Society, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Feb 29th, 2012
My readers would really enjoy the site Bleeding Heart Libertarianism. I’m not sure that is a proper characterization of me, but the discussion there is top notch and raises and addresses many of the questions that are simmering beneath some of the content of this site and the work I do. They recently had a [...]
Posted in Behavior, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Feb 28th, 2012
It has been asserted that the happiness of a population, particularly once a base level of income is reached, depends not on some absolute measure of well-being but rather how one’s income compares to others around them. Of course you know what the chess-masters are thinking about the best way to improve outcomes: tax the [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Feb 27th, 2012
A great post on “Machete Libertarianism” something that I try to urge my students not to practice. Are there times to pull out the machete? Of course. But read the whole thing carefully.
Posted in Central Planning, Government Gone Wild on Feb 27th, 2012
Oh, you thought I was talking about this? This is perhaps the best way to think about our modern planners’ obsession with light-rail, bike-paths, and other planner friendly methods of producing transportation services. In reading this, remember this big fact. Remember it again and again and again. Here is an illustration of what is going [...]
Posted in Methodology on Feb 27th, 2012
I wrote recently, with much disgust (which I will not redact), about the use of symbolism. The implicit message which should have been made explicit, is that relying on symbolism to “run” an extended order will destroy it. But to coin a presidential phrase, let me be clear on what else I see in symbolism: [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Feb 26th, 2012
Part of my organization here gets funding from the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation. We are proud that they wish to support our efforts to become better educated and better citizens. Of course, as you can imagine, despite us being an independent organization with no university affiliation (outside of the obvious fact that U of R [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Politics on Feb 26th, 2012
Milk has an expiration date. Your drivers’ license has an expiration date. Heck even my life insurance policy has an expiration date. Yet most legislation does not come with an expiration date. Ironically, it seems that any legislation that potentially reduces the size and scope of government does come with an expiration date (e.g. the [...]
Posted in Welfare State on Feb 25th, 2012
David Brooks makes a point I’ve been screaming about for years: When you include both direct spending and tax expenditures, the U.S. has one of the biggest welfare states in the world. We rank behind Sweden and ahead of Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Canada. Social spending in the U.S.is far above the organization’s average In [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Feb 25th, 2012
What, exactly, does “Food Democracy” mean anyway? When I am up for another rant I may actually go sentence by sentence through the linked story. In the meantime, let me offer up a piece of advice to the people who want to Occupy My Dinner Table: try capitalism. You don’t like it that a few [...]
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