All Posts Tagged With: "natural resources"

Poverty 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 | Continued

A Free-Market Energy Vision

Energy is the master resource. Without it other resources could not be produced or consumed. Even energy requires energy: There would not be usable oil, gas, or coal without the energy to manufacture and power the requisite tools and machinery. Nor would there be wind turbines or solar panels, which are monuments to embedded fossil-fuel [...]

29Jun2010 | Robert L. Bradley Jr. | 5 comments | Continued

Freedom Is the Environment’s Best Friend

John Semmens is a transportation policy analyst at the Laissez Faire Institute in Arizona. Every April 22 celebrations of Earth Day take place around the world. This can serve as a reminder to reflect on the status of our planet. Some believe the earth is in great peril and that stringent measures to restrain economic [...]

1Apr2007 | John Semmens | 1 comment | Continued

The Day the Glue Came Undone

Scenes of the devastation and suffering inflicted by Hurricane Katrina will long remain in our memories. Equally horrifying were the pictures of New Orleans residentsand policemen helping themselves to goods from stores.

1Jan2006 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

Energy: The Master Resource

The economic and historical ignorance of the American public is frequently exploited by politicians and special-interest groups. The hotter the issue, the greater the exploitation, and no issue is hotter today than energy. Myths and misconceptions abound, leading people to embrace harmful interventionist policies. Ask a hundred typical Americans what role government should play in [...]

14Dec2005 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | Continued

Water Markets Are the Answer

The rains spun off by Hurricane Lili and Tropical Storm Isidore brought welcome relief from drought for much of the Southeast. But the respite may be temporary. While the drought may end, the southeast’s water problems have just begun. The population of the United States as a whole grew 13.1 percent in the 1990s. But [...]

1Mar2003 | Charles Oliver | 0 comments | Continued

Unsustainable Development

Sound economic thinking lies in accounting for the secondary results of private and government actions.1 This observation is not limited to economics. It can be applied to all areas of human study, including political philosophy. Once learned, that lesson can prevent a great deal of human hardship. Take, for instance, a concept promoted by left-wing [...]

1Mar2003 | James Peron | 0 comments | Continued

The World Is Dying, So Tax the Rich?

In a September 2, 2002, op-ed in the Washington Post, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan sets out what he believes should be the world’s agenda for the next century. He says we face “the twin challenges of poverty and pollution,” and that if we are to end the “wanton acts of destruction and the blithe [...]

1Jan2003 | James R. Otteson | 1 comment | Continued

The Contradictions of Capitalism

We advocates of individual rights and free markets can’t win the intellectual debate with the ideological left. That’s because there is no intellectual debate with the left. There can’t be a debate since the opponents of capitalism are simply not open to rational discussion. They know that capitalism is inherently evil, and no argument, no [...]

1Aug2002 | James Peron | 0 comments | Continued

The Impossibility of Harming the Environment

“The ‘polluter pays principle’ states that whoever is responsible for damage to the environment should bear the costs associated with it.” —United Nations Environmental Programme1 The “polluter pays principle” appeals to our sense of justice. People should be held responsible for their actions, and polluters who cause damage to others should “pay” for that damage. [...]

1May2002 | Roy Cordato | 0 comments | Continued

I Recycle!

I spoke recently to a group of college students on the economics of environmental protection. As I spoke of the market’s amazing ability to conserve natural resources, one young man asked me, “Do you recycle?” “No,” I answered. “Well, thanks for the effort,” he replied with bitter sarcasm. Before I could explain my answer, he [...]

1May2002 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 15 comments | Continued

Protecting Precious Resources

“If our progress is to continue, it is important that we do not forget the things which have brought us thus far.” -HENRY GRADY WEAVER, The Mainspring of Human Progress Ever since President George W. Bush proposed opening up parts of the federally owned Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for drilling, the debate has raged [...]

1Mar2002 | Scott McPherson | 0 comments | Continued

America and the World’s Resources

At the heart of almost all economics is the idea of mutually beneficial exchange. When two people voluntarily engage in an activity, economists assume that both parties are better off. Otherwise, one of them would have refused the deal. It doesn’t mean people don’t make mistakes—sure they do.

1Dec2001 | Russell Roberts | 5 comments | Continued

Ten Years After the Bet: The More Things Change. . .

Michael Mallinger is a research associate at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. The late Julian Simon’s victory in his famous bet with Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich was a defining moment in the free-market movement’s victory over Malthusianism. In 1980 Simon challenged Ehrlich to choose five commodities that would become more expensive over the [...]

1Nov2001 | Michael D. Mallinger | 0 comments | Continued

Whatever Happened to the Egyptians?

“Governments are generally reluctant to admit mistakes and to change mistaken policies until much harm has been done.” —P. T. Bauer and B. S. Yamey 1 In Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? (American University in Cairo Press, 2000), a popular book in Egypt, author Galan Amin raises a good question. Thousands of years ago Egypt [...]

1Aug2001 | Mark Skousen | 0 comments | Continued

Running Out of Agricultural Land

Fear that we are running out of important resources is perpetual. Oil is a favorite thing to worry about; landfill space is another, and trees yet another. I could continue listing things (coal, copper, iron ore, even tin) that people have worried would soon be exhausted, and I plan to discuss the persistent fear of resource exhaustion in future columns. In most cases the fear is baseless—fueled by organized interests hoping to capture advantages by scaring the public, by sloppy journalism, and by a general lack of basic economic understanding.

1Jul2000 | Dwight R. Lee | 3 comments | Continued

The Fine Art of Conservation

Bernie Jackson is an electrical engineer and freelance writer from California. Imagine being a fly on the wall in an upscale auction house. You witness a parade of unique, priceless merchandise—items whose value cannot be explained by material usefulness alone. Their value arises from some combination of aesthetics, historical importance, pride of ownership, and a [...]

1Oct1998 | Bernie Jackson | 0 comments | Continued
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