All Posts Tagged With: "profit motive"

Competition

Give Me a Break!
Competition
by John Stossel
John Stossel is the hosts of Stossel on Fox Business and the author of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong. Copyright 2009 by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.
“Choice, competition, reducing costs—those
are the things that I want to see accomplished [...]

23Oct2009 | John Stossel | 1 comment | Continued

Where Does Your Vote Really Count?

To encourage us to participate in the political process, we are told that every vote counts. That is true if one is adding up the total votes, but what is the likelihood of any one person’s vote affecting the outcome of a presidential election? Simply put, it is equal to the probability that the person’s [...]

1Apr2009 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | Continued

Profit: Not Just a Motive

One of the more common complaints of critics of the market is that “the profit motive” works at cross-purposes with people and firms doing “the right thing.” For example, Michael Moore’s film Sicko was motivated by his desire to take the profit motive out of health care because, in his view, the ways people seek [...]

1Mar2008 | Steven Horwitz | 9 comments | Continued

Nationalized Health Care Will Cut Costs? It Just Ain’t So!

A group called Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is promoting a government insurance plan to cover all Americans. In an August 13, 2003, Los Angeles Times report, the group claimed that their “single payer” plan would eliminate $200 billion a year in “administrative, marketing and other private-industry expenses.” This would save enough “to provide [...]

1Jan2004 | Gene Callahan and Robert Murphy | 15 comments | Continued

Selling History with Dolls

Contributing Editor Andrew Morriss is Galen J. Roush Professor of Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and shares his home with several American Girl dolls.
Many people think that markets can’t provide culture. History, for example, has to be supported through government-funded schools, endowments, and grants. In this view, markets [...]

1May2003 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

Enviro-Capitalists: Doing Good While Doing Well by Terry A. Anderson and Donald R. Leal

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. • 1997 • 189 pages • $52.50 cloth; $16.95 paperback
Bruce Yandle is Alumni Professor of Economics and Legal Studies at Clemson University.
Writing about Austrian economics and the market process, Israel Kirzner explains how entrepreneurs play a crucial role in discovering products, markets, and processes for improving human welfare (Journal of [...]

1Feb1999 | Bruce Yandle | 0 comments | Continued

Government in Business

In the midst of nationwide prosperity, some economic and social problems keep nagging at the public. All over the country, they take the same form. What are they? Traffic congestion, inadequate roads, overcrowded schools, juvenile delinquency, water shortages. Such matters have proven troublesome in many ways; above all, they seem to breed conflicts.

21Nov2009 | Murray N. Rothbard | 7 comments | Continued

Serving Others

Mr. Fairless is Chairman of the Executive Advisory Committee, United States Steel Corporation.
Ours would indeed be a sorry world if self-interest did not activate individuals to serve one another.
As far as I know, there are only two basic motivations that cause you and me and other people to serve our neighbors voluntarily and [...]

21Nov2009 | Benjamin F. Fairless | 0 comments | Continued

The Birth Of A Capitalist

Dean Russell is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
When the new superintendent came to the orphanage where I was reared, he found that we kids were not allowed to earn or have any spending money. So one of the first things he did was to tell us that if [...]

21Nov2009 | Dean Russell | 0 comments | Continued

Dedication To Success

Mr. Fairless recently retired as Chairman of the Board, United States Steel Company. This is extracted from an address, October 18, 1951.
Ever since the day it was started, the National Radiator Company has always competed against companies much larger than itself; and now that it has branched out into new fields, it has challenged [...]

21Nov2009 | Benjamin F. Fairless | 0 comments | Continued

The Essence Of Capitalism

Mr. Buck is statistician of The Toronto Dominion Bank.
One of the inescapable facts of human life is that we must choose among alternatives. That fact furnishes us the clue to economic science.
It is as simple as this. Two years ago, I wanted to hear a recital by Anna Russell and an address by [...]

21Nov2009 | Hart Buck | 0 comments | Continued

Inequality of Wealth and Incomes

Where there is a lower degree of inequality in wealth, there is also a lower average standard of living
The Market Economy—capitalism—is based on private ownership of the material means of production and private entrepreneurship. The consumers by their buying or abstention from buying ultimately determine what should be produced and in what quantity and [...]

21Nov2009 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | Continued