Archive for Walter Block
Environmentalists in Outer Space
J. H. Huebert (jhhuebert@jhhuebert.com) is an attorney and a former FEE intern. Walter Block (wblock@loyno.edu) is Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics and professor of economics at Loyola University, New Orleans. A longer version of this article appeared in the University of Memphis Law Review. Save the earth! That’s been the mantra of [...]
1Mar2008 | and Jacob H. Huebert | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Living Wage: What’s Wrong?
The latest on the minimum-wage front, brought to us by the academic minions of "social justice," is a private, not a public, effort to raise the pay of low-wage workers. Emanating first from prestigious institutions of higher learning such as Harvard and Yale, this initiative has spread like wildfire to colleges all around the country. [...]
1Dec2002 | and Walter Block | 1 comment | ContinuedSocialized Medicine Is the Problem
Recently, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien changed his mind about his country’s system of socialized medicine. After long and hard opposition, he now favors a two-tier health system, including user fees and private provision. This makes it all the more important to take another look, not just at the surface of state-run medical care, but [...]
1Dec2001 | Walter Block | 6 comments | ContinuedThe Minimum Wage
Mr. Sohr is a student, and Dr. Block a former professor, at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Block is now chair of the department of economics and finance at the University of Central Arkansas. The second stage of the minimum-wage increase approved by Congress last year recently took effect. What [...]
1Nov1997 | and Kevin Sohr | 1 comment | ContinuedAffirmative Action: Institutionalized Inequality
Mr. Mulcahy is a student and Dr. Block a former professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Block is currently chairman of the department of economics at the University of Central Arkansas. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy established a program of “affirmative action” with the declaration of [...]
1Oct1997 | and Walter Block | 3 comments | ContinuedThe End of the World as We Know It?
Mr. Bandoch is a student, and Dr. Block a professor of economics, at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. In today’s world there exists a widespread belief that new technology is creating massive unemployment and rendering human labor obsolete. This is not true. Ideally, having machines and computers do all our dirty [...]
1Mar1997 | and William V. Bandoch | 0 comments | ContinuedPrivatize Public Highways
Michelle S. Cadin is a student, and Dr. Block a professor of economics, at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Across the United States, more than four million roads, streets, and highways tie cities and states together and enable citizens to work, travel, and shop. Americans enjoy unprecedented freedom and convenience, as [...]
1Feb1997 | and Michele S. Cadin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Benefits of Outsourcing
Mr. Boland is a student, and Dr. Block a professor of economics, at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Imagine yourself an entrepreneur planning a new firm. After extensive market research, you decide to manufacture pencils. You begin selling them for five cents each. Your accountants have determined that it costs you [...]
1Jan1997 | and Brian Boland | 4 comments | ContinuedThe State of Humanity
Dr. Block is a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross. If you are one of those persons whose intellectual style can be summarized by the motto. “Don’t confuse me with the facts,” then you won’t like this book one bit. On the other hand, if you think that facts, evidence, and [...]
1Oct1996 | Walter Block | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Bright Side of Failure
Everyone abhors failure, and rightfully so. No one wants to fail. Students want to succeed at their school work, employees want to succeed in their jobs, and athletes want to succeed on the playing field. Business people are the same. No firm tries to be unsuccessful; all businesses try to satisfy their customers in order [...]
1Oct1996 | and Matthew Ragan | 1 comment | ContinuedBook Review: Disaster in Red: The Failure and Collapse of Socialism edited by Richard M. Ebeling
The Foundation for Economic Education • 1995 • 379 pages • $24.95 paperback What? Yet another book on the evils of socialism! Give me a break. There are already far too many of them; and they are unnecessary especially since the breakup of the Berlin Wall, and the move toward private enterprise in Eastern Europe, [...]
1Nov1995 | Walter Block | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: A Pollyanna World
The collapse of Eastern Europe has highlighted the serious flaws of socialism as a system that vests all power in a small, political elite, and in the name of equality turns a people into an unthinking, un-creative, faceless mass. It is a system without checks and balances, a system that takes away a people’s voice [...]
1Oct1991 | Walter Block | 0 comments | ContinuedOld Letters and Old Buildings
Dr. Block is a Senior Research Fellow at The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia. James Joyce’s grandson Stephen burned dozens of letters written by his aunt Lucia, the daughter of the famous Irish poet and novelist. Stephen Joyce explained as he destroyed the letters, “I didn’t want to have greedy little eyes and greedy little [...]
1Mar1991 | Walter Block | 1 comment | ContinuedPerspective: Oil Spills
The Exxon Valdez in Alaska spilled over 10 million gallons of oil into the ocean. This was the third largest oil spill in history. In 1978 the Amoco Cadiz spilled 68 million gallons, and the largest spill was on the Yucatán in Mexico where an offshore oil rig spilled 155 million gallons of oil. But [...]
1Sep1990 | Walter Block | 0 comments | ContinuedRacism: Public and Private
Dr. Block is Senior Economist at The Fraser Institute. Vancouver, Canada. When an individual or a group of persons in the private sector discriminates against a racial or ethnic minority, the results can be debilitating. Psychological harm, feelings of isolation, and a sense of hostility are likely to result. Fortunately, in the private sector there [...]
1Jan1989 | Walter Block | 0 comments | ContinuedCaveat Emptor
Dr. Block is Senior Economist at The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, Canada. In Peterborough, Ontario, 21-year-old Christopher Green died after being crushed by an 800-pound Coca-Cola dispenser. The young man was trying to steal a Coke by tipping the machine toward him, and had asked his friends to push from behind. However, in a travesty of [...]
1May1988 | Walter Block | 1 comment | ContinuedA Free Market in Kidneys?
Dr. Block is Senior Economist at The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, Canada. According to recent reports, the black market value of a kidney which can be transplanted is some $13,000—which translates to roughly seven times its weight in gold. This is a dramatic figure, and behind it lies a tale of untold human suffering. There are [...]
1Aug1987 | Walter Block | 1 comment | Continued-
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