Pursuit of Happiness
Hayek on Closed Shops and Yellow Dogs
Charles Baird is a professor of economics and the director of the Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at California State University at East Bay . In my December 2006 column I discussed some of Hayek’s classical-liberal views on the rule of law and labor unions. In brief, Hayek approved of voluntary unionism based on [...]
1Apr2007 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedMinimum Wage, Maximum Folly
The big Associated Press story for last October 11 was that “More than 650 economists, including five winners of the Nobel Prize for economics, called Wednesday for an increase in the minimum wage, saying the value of the last increase, in 1997, has been ‘fully eroded.’ ” Among these economists were Nobel laureates such as [...]
1Mar2007 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedHayek on the Rule of Law and Unions
In F. A. Hayek’s mind the rule of law has two equally important parts. Like most writers on the subject he argued that the rule of law requires everyone, including those who wield government powers, to be bound by the same set of rules. He called this principle “isonomia” (Greek for “equal law”). Isonomia, by [...]
1Dec2006 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | ContinuedConstitution Day
On September 17, 1787, 39 men signed the U.S. Constitution. Each year since 2004 we have celebrated Constitution Day as a result of legislation, fathered by Senator Robert Byrd, that requires federal agencies and every school that receives federal funds, including universities, to have some kind of program on the Constitution. I cannot think of [...]
1Nov2006 | Walter E. Williams | 7 comments | ContinuedWe Need Multimedia Economics Teaching
Earlier this year I was invited to give a talk at an art gallery in Georgetown, the posh area of Washington, D.C., down the street from the White House, abutting the Potomac River. I confess this doesn’t happen to me very often. Okay, I exaggerate—it never happens to me. This was my first invitation ever [...]
1Oct2006 | Russell Roberts | 1 comment | ContinuedFreedom for Workers
In my January/February column this year I explained why I believe that, given the existence of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which regulates American labor-management relations, a classical liberal should support a national right-to-work-act. Last year Freeman book review editor George Leef published Free Choice for Workers: A History of the Right to Work [...]
1Sep2006 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen: Part V
We’re all grossly ignorant about most things that we use and encounter in our daily lives, but each of us is knowledgeable about tiny, relatively inconsequential things. For example, a baker might be the best baker in town, but he’s grossly ignorant about virtually all the inputs that allow him to be the best baker. [...]
1Aug2006 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedThe End Run to Freedom
What does the future hold for economic life in the United States? Will we move toward greater freedom or less? What role will ideas and rhetoric play, if any, in making sure that the direction is one that lovers of freedom prefer?
1Jun2006 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedUnions and Abortion Protestors
The National Organization for Women (NOW) and labor unions have a long record of supporting each other in their respective public-policy wars, so one could reasonably expect the AFL-CIO to be on NOW’s side in Scheidler v. NOW, a long-running case that was finally decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in February. But NOW and [...]
1May2006 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen, Part IV
There’s a reggae song that advises, “If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife.” Mechanics have been accused of charging women higher prices for emergency road repairs. Airlines charge business travelers higher prices than tourists. Car-rental companies and hotels often charge cheaper rates on [...]
1Apr2006 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedIt’s Always Something
Our economy is in the middle of an extraordinary run of success. Unemployment is low.Personal wealth is near an all-time high. Real wage growth sometimes appears less robust, but when benefits are included, real compensation is healthy. And even with the cries from some that economic mobility
isnt what it once was, legal and illegal immigrants continue
to flock to the United States. Evidently being poor here beats being poor elsewhere by a long shot.
The Government-Created Right-to-Work Issue
The principles involved in right-to-work laws are identical with those involved in [workplace antidiscrimination laws.] Both interfere with the freedom of the employment contract, in the one case by specifying that a particular color or religion cannot
be made a condition of employment; in the other that
membership in a union cannot be.
Australian Labor-Relations Sell-Out
In mid-March, at the behest of the H.R. Nicholls
Society, I traveled to several Australian cities speaking
on the subject of the American labor market and
the lessons that it might have for labor-law reform in
Australia. Along the way I discovered that Australian
labor-relations regulations are much more irrational,
contradictory, and oppressive even than our own
National Labor Relations Act.
Who Hates Wal-Mart and Why?
America remains a country where you can get fabulously rich rolling the dice on a business venture or lose all your money. We have the greatest venture-capital market in the world. Our culture honors success almost unashamedly, from athletes to entertainers to entrepreneurs. At the same time, there is a tendency to tear down the [...]
1Jul2005 | Russell Roberts | 5 comments | ContinuedEmployee Free Choice and Top-Down Organizing
The good news is that American union membership in the private sector fell from 8.2 percent in 2003 to 7.9 percent of the labor force in 2004. (In 1900 the figure was 7 percent without any union-friendly legislation on the books.) Over the same time the market share of government-employee unions fell from 37.2 to [...]
1Jun2005 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedEconomics for the Citizen
For the first time in 37 years, last fall semester I didn’t teach. No, I haven’t retired. It was my semester-off reward for two terms as department chairman at George Mason University. A break is well deserved after a chairmanship––a job not unlike that of herding cats. During fall semesters I typically teach our first-year [...]
1May2005 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedHalf Full or Half Empty?
It’s easy being pessimistic about the future of America, especially for those of us who are classical liberals. We prefer limited government, yet government seems to continue to grow in all soils, in all weather, no matter which party’s watching the farm. As dispiriting as this growth can be, it’s good to remember that the [...]
1Apr2005 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | Continued-
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