Equality and Capitalism

Probably the most common charge against capitalism is that it creates wealth and income inequality. The frequency of this allegation testifies to the fact that it strikes a chord with large numbers of people. It’s so believable. After all, who can deny that Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and bond traders each have vastly more money [...]

The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization

Thomas Friedman has written a very surprising book. Surprising not in what he has written, but in that Thomas Friedman wrote it. Friedman is the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, and is probably known to readers of Ideas on Liberty as a moderately “liberal” establishment journalist. He is certainly not known as [...]

Redundancy

Private property is again getting the attention it deserves, thanks to two recent books. Tom Bethell’s The Noblest Triumph and Richard Pipes’s Property and Freedom won’t be the last words on the subject, nor should they be. The subject is too important. The centrality of property to a free and prosperous society cannot be overstated. [...]

Foolish Inconsistencies

When a domestic steel producer solemnly croons for the television cameras about how high tariffs on imported steel are good for the American economy, you can be sure that he is not really interested in the well-being of his fellow citizens. He is undoubtedly a swindler motivated by no ideal more elevated than fattening his [...]

The Futility of Class Warfare

With the collapse of socialism both as a theory and as a practical system of economic organization the world over, one might expect the rhetoric of class warfare to subside as well. But class warfare is alive and well in prominent academic circles and the mainstream national media.

It’s a familiar refrain: capitalism is doing itself in by concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. Saving the system from its own sins requires an activist government to intervene to make sure more people get their share of the economic pie.

The Rich Get Richer, and the Poor Get . . .

The allegation is appearing everywhere: Real average wages are stagnating and the distribution of wealth and income in the United States is becoming more unequal. In his latest book, Galbraith cites recent Federal Reserve statistics: By 1992, the top 5 percent were getting an estimated 18 percent, a share that in more recent years has become substantially larger, as that of those in the poorest brackets has been diminishing.

Growing Income Disparity

No matter how you may gather the data, the gap between the most affluent Americans and everyone else is widening. According to a Census Bureau report, the share of national income going to the top 20 percent of households increased from 40.5 percent to 46.9 percent between 1968 and 1994. Since 1994 the trend has [...]

Once Again, Freedom Is at Fault

“The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance,” was how John Philpot Curran put it. Sure enough, but there are different kinds of vigilance. My experience suggests that one of the most important forms in a relatively free society such as ours is to unfailingly meet arguments promoting the violation [...]