All Posts Tagged With: "cars"
Going to Graceland
A recent trip to Memphis took me to Elvis Presley’s famed home, Graceland. Touring Presley’s mansion and its grounds is fascinating for fans of his music, and the Presley estate has done a marvelous job in capturing his music and life. But visiting Graceland mostly interested me as an economist. Walking through the home of [...]
4Jan2012 | Andrew P. Morriss | 9 comments | ContinuedThe Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History
In my M.B.A. economics class I emphasize the Austrian view of entrepreneurship, noting that successful entrepreneurs are rewarded for moving resources from lower-valued to higher-valued uses in a free market. Alas I also spend time explaining “political entrepreneurship”: exploiting connections with “the right people” to profit by moving resources from uses consumers would value highly [...]
22Jun2011 | William L. Anderson | 5 comments | ContinuedGridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It
Congestion is five times worse than in 1995. Why? What should we do about it? Those questions drive Randal O’Toole’s Gridlock. The main reason for the increase, the author writes, is that beginning in the 1960s, “Many people looked at the costs of the automobile without considering the benefits, and their solution was to get [...]
21Apr2011 | Gary M. Galles | 26 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – July 2008
- A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark Reviewed by Gene Callahan
- Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t by John Lott Reviewed by Robert P. Murphy
- Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America’s Founding Fathers by Michael Barone Reviewed by Martin Morse Wooster
- Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America Into a Nation of Children David Harsanyi Reviewed by George Leef
Are Highways Subsidized?
I have always loved trains. I am an ardent cyclist, and I never particularly liked automobiles. So I always took it for granted that the reason most Americans drive and passenger trains have nearly disappeared is that our highways are unfairly subsidized. I felt particularly incensed that the Interstate Highway System, which took business from [...]
1Nov2006 | Randal OToole | 8 comments | ContinuedThe Smart-Growth Scam
H. Nathan Hart recently graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama. Paul Cleveland is an associate professor of economics at Birmingham-Southern College. Transportation is essential to the daily life of nearly every American. Millions of people flock onto the freeways and streets to accomplish innumerable tasks each day. Americans love their cars. No other mode [...]
1Jul2001 | and H. Nathan Hart | 2 comments | ContinuedDriving America: Your Car, Your Government, Your Choice
John Semmens is an economist with the Laissez-Faire Institute in Chandler, Arizona. Driving America is a well-reasoned brief on behalf of the automobile. The car is the travel option of choice because it offers a fast, comfortable, convenient, and affordable way of getting where one wants to go. Nevertheless, there are those who would sacrifice [...]
1Nov1998 | John Semmens | 0 comments | ContinuedBilly Durant: From Carriages to Cars
Like father, like son,” runs the old adage. In the case of Billy Durant, the founder of General Motors, he was like his father and also his grandfather—even though the two men were polar opposites. The Durant story shows how family and entrepreneurship blended to start the largest car company in the world.
Durant would need help from all his family and friends when he spearheaded the transition in America from carriages to cars. During the 1890s, several mechanics had tinkered with steam, electric, and gas-powered vehicles. None had made a competitive product, however, and most carriage-makers saw no threat to their industry.
1Mar1998 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 3 comments | ContinuedFreedom and the Car
Loren Lomasky teaches philosophy at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. This essay was originally produced as a working paper for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. A longer version appeared in Independent Review. Years before the automobile evolved into a transportation necessity, before meandering mudded ruts were replaced by multilaned asphalt, pioneering motorists took to the [...]
1Dec1997 | Loren Lomasky | 2 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
