All Posts Tagged With: "income redistribution"
Alchemists of Loss: How Modern Finance and Government Intervention Crashed the Financial System
The subprime crisis and financial meltdown have spawned dozens of books, some aimed at re-enshrining John Maynard Keynes, others at laying him to rest once more; some aimed at praising the Federal Reserve for staving off another Great Depression, others at blaming it for treating the economy to another cyclical episode. In Kevin Dowd and [...]
26Oct2011 | Roger W. Garrison | 0 comments | ContinuedPrivate Investment and Public “Investment”
Politicians are fond of telling the public that we must “invest” in this program or that—be it education; health care; make-work infrastructure projects like the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere”; $50 million for an indoor rainforest in Iowa; $3.4 million for a tunnel to allow turtles to cross under a highway in Florida; $1.8 million for swine [...]
22Jun2011 | Adam B. Summers | 1 comment | ContinuedPoverty Is Easy to Explain
Academics, politicians, clerics, and others always seem perplexed by the question: Why is there poverty? Answers usually range from exploitation and greed to slavery, colonialism, and other forms of immoral behavior. Poverty is seen as something to be explained with complicated analysis, conspiracy doctrines, and incantations. This vision of poverty is part of the problem [...]
21Apr2011 | Walter E. Williams | 27 comments | ContinuedThe Paradox of the Welfare State
Welfare states face an inescapable paradox: The level of production needed to sustain a welfare state cannot be sustained by a welfare state. This paradox is created by policies that encourage the redistribution and consumption of wealth while discouraging its creation. In the face of such perverse incentives, living standards must fall even though, for [...]
22Sep2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 24 comments | ContinuedCorruption in Government? Shocking!
It’s funny how the people who push hardest for government intervention in more and more areas are the first to gripe that everything has become politicized. What were they expecting? Did they forget that government is a political institution? Paul Krugman and Chris Matthews, among other Progressives, are apoplectic because two senators of the minority [...]
20Apr2010 | Sheldon Richman | 3 comments | ContinuedWho Owes What to Whom?
Note: This column first appeared in the February 2002 issue of The Freeman. For a society that has fed, clothed, housed, cared for, informed, entertained, and otherwise enriched more people at higher levels than any in the history of the planet, there sure is a lot of groundless guilt in America. Manifestations of that guilt [...]
24Apr2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 8 comments | ContinuedFalling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class
Robert Frank, a professor of economics at Cornell, has long argued that affluent Americans spend too much on conspicuous consumption, which he relabels “positional” goods. His favorite examples include big houses, expensive watches, barbecue grills, and wine. If Smith has more positional goods than Jones, then Jones is said to suffer “relative deprivation” because “what [...]
22Jan2009 | Alan Reynolds | 3 comments | ContinuedCompromise, Principles, and Politics
“Public servants” laud compromise as a principled and sensible political course. They call it statesmanship or bipartisanship, and portray it as the path to unity, while roundly criticizing those unwilling to compromise in the desired way. This appeal often strikes a chord with the public. (Leave aside that compromise is usually sought by legislative near-majorities [...]
1May2008 | Gary M. Galles | 5 comments | ContinuedRights Versus Wishes
Critics of the U.S. health-care system often suggest that we should adopt the single-payer universal systems of other countries. The serious problems encountered by those systems are increasingly documented and well known, such as the long waiting lists, restrictions on physician choice, and rationing in countries such as Canada, Italy, Greece, and the United Kingdom. [...]
1May2008 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedA Sennholz Sampler
Editor’s Note: Hans Sennholz, a former president and trustee of FEE and long-time chairman of the economics department at Grove City College, died in June at age 85. We honor his memory with three of the many articles he contributed over the years. “Jobs and Trade,” July 1996 Unemployment is the great puzzle of our [...]
1Jun2007 | Hans F. Sennholz | 0 comments | ContinuedTolls on the Road to Serfdom
D.W. MacKenzie is an assistant professor of economics and finance at SUNY Plattsburgh. Many people think their taxes are too high and that the tax system is unfair. While those who favor individual liberty might find this encouraging, the specific reasons for discontent are not entirely positive. Many Americans think the current system is unfair [...]
1Apr2007 | D.W. MacKenzie | 0 comments | ContinuedWelfare for the Rich
Advocates of the free market—including those considered “right-wing” and “conservative”—believe it is wrong to violate property rights. Consequently, they oppose egalitarian measures to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Such “income redistribution” represents naked theft and epitomizes the Founding Fathers’ fears of unfettered democracy. At the same time, champions of laissez faire [...]
1Apr2007 | Robert P. Murphy | 10 comments | ContinuedThe Struggle to Subdue Luck
There was a time in Western societies under the rule of law when a person’s circumstances, such as his relative position in society, could only be branded as unjust if they could be shown to result from some breach of the rules of justice. The rules were enshrined in ageless conventions and elaborated in common [...]
1Apr2007 | Anthony de Jasay | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality
By Walter Benn Michaels Reviewed by George C. Leef
1Apr2007 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Cost of the Federal Government in a Freer America
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. In February, President George W. Bush submitted his proposed federal budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. It called for total government spending of over $2.9 trillion. The administration and the Republicans in Congress insisted that this budget reflected fiscal responsibility and the promise of a [...]
1Mar2007 | Richard M. Ebeling | 2 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – December 2006
- The Ethics of the Market
by John Meadowcroft Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- Peddling Panaceas: Popular Economists _in the New Deal Era
by Gary Dean Best Reviewed by Burton Folsom, Jr
- Philosophers of Capitalism: _Menger, Mises, Rand, and Beyond
by Edward W. Younkins Reviewed by Aeon J. Skoble
- Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in _Black America
by John McWhorter Reviewed by George C. Leef
Keynesian Economics and Constitutional Government
Last month 650 economists called for an increase in the federal minimum wage, saying it was the responsibility of the government to “improve the well-being of low-wage workers” by mandating the terms under which people may be employed. Among these economists were five recipients of the Nobel Prize in economics. One of them was Lawrence [...]
1Nov2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | Continued-
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