All Posts Tagged With: "voluntary exchange"
Chairs, Hamburgers, and Persons
Suppose you owned a furniture store, and someone asked you what you sold. You would probably say “furniture.” Likewise, if someone invited you to lunch, you would go to a restaurant for something to eat. The use of such words as “furniture” and “lunch” is common, and these words serve a useful purpose in communicating. [...]
1Jul2002 | John T. Wenders | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Cure Can Be Worse than the Disease
Last month I discussed the prisoners’ dilemma, in which everyone is motivated to behave in a way that leaves everyone worse off. One can appreciate market exchange by understanding how private property and voluntary exchange eliminate a destructive prisoners’ dilemma–one in which the best choice for everyone is to try to live at everyone else’s [...]
1Mar2002 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedAmerica 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 | 7 comments | ContinuedProperty Is Freedom
Capitalism is liberating. Maverick feminist Camille Paglia acknowledges that it was capitalism that liberated women. In this issue of Ideas on Liberty Andrew Bernstein points out that it was capitalism that enabled black entrepreneurs to advance in spite of racism and Jim Crow. Undoubtedly, capitalism is the greatest force for individual liberation the world has [...]
1Oct2001 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedTotal Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Penn State Press · 2000 · 496 pages · $65.00 cloth; $24.00 paperback Reviewed by James Otteson This book is the third in a trilogy from Chris Matthew Sciabarra. The other two were his Marx, Hayek, and Utopia (SUNY, 1995) and Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical (Penn State, 1995). The project of Total Freedom is [...]
1Oct2001 | James R. Otteson | 0 comments | ContinuedImperfect Opponents
“Microsoft and the government were the perfect opponents. The government has some power, but Microsoft has at least as much. Anyone else facing either one of them would be overmatched.” That is not some comedian’s line. It was spoken in all seriousness, I presume, by David Boies, who led the Justice Department’s antitrust case against [...]
1Oct2000 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedFree Markets and Highest Valued Use
Do free markets allocate resources to their highest valued use? It would seem that for the readers of Ideas on Liberty, the answer is a “no-brainer.” Indeed, the idea that voluntary exchange channels resources to where the value of output will be greatest has traditionally been one of the foundational arguments for a free-market economy. [...]
1May2000 | Roy Cordato | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Market and Political Freedom
John Marangos teaches in the department of economics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. This article is adapted from “Market and Political Freedom” in D. Kartarelis, ed., Business & Economics for the 21st Century, proceedings of the Business and Economics Society International Conference, Athens, Greece, July 18–22, 1997, volume I. The author wishes to thank [...]
1Jun1999 | John Marangos | 2 comments | ContinuedSen or Sense
Barun Mitra is a founder and the managing trustee of Liberty Institute, an independent think tank in New Delhi, India. He has published widely, including in the Wall Street Journal. In the battle over economics, the victory of the market seemed decisive. It had not been easy. Since the days of Adam Smith, the world [...]
1Feb1999 | Barun S. Mitra | 0 comments | ContinuedRecruiting Rural Physicians: Small-Town Socialism
As the supreme defender of the status quo, the state often feels a necessity to react whenever a broad market or social change is taking place. Lawmakers and bureaucrats are rarely satisfied to let new trends work themselves out for the public good in a free-market society. Such has certainly been the case with health [...]
1Jan1999 | William E. Pike | 1 comment | ContinuedFairness: Results Versus Process
Those of us who support liberty, limited government, and rule of law will never prevail in the public arena until we can compellingly make the case that free markets and voluntary exchange are inherently fairer than alternative forms of social organization.
1Oct1998 | Walter E. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedSpecialization and Wealth
Last month I explained how a remarkable degree of social cooperation emerges through market communication. This month, let’s consider some of the advantages we realize from that cooperation. At a general level these advantages are obvious. It simply makes sense that we can produce more if our actions are in harmony than if we are [...]
1Aug1998 | Dwight R. Lee | 1 comment | ContinuedSocial Cooperation and the Marketplace
The primary insights of economics come from explaining how individuals pursuing their own interests make choices that best enable others to pursue their interests as well. This social cooperation is not inevitable. It requires rules that motivate people to consider the concerns of others. The rules that accomplish this amazing feat define the free-market economy.[1] [...]
1Jul1998 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedCampaign Finance: The Symptom, Not the Problem
For decades politicians and pundits have been wringing their collective hands over massive political campaign contributions and spending. Almost daily there are revelations of campaign law violations and even suggestions of bribery. Pundits lament that many “good” people avoid political life because of the need to raise sufficient money to campaign effectively. Everyone agrees, in [...]
1Feb1998 | John T. Wenders | 1 comment | ContinuedAid to Owners of Dependent Enterprises
There is widespread support for ending welfare, and for nudging, or pushing, welfare recipients into self-sufficiency through employment. Congress even voted to end Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), though President Clinton and the Republican Congress have since backpedaled. However, there has been no similar attempt to eliminate what might be called Aid to [...]
1Nov1997 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Seven Deadly Sins of High Taxes
Dr. Lee is associate professor of economics at St. Ambrose University College of Business, Davenport, Iowa. By justice a king gives stability to the land, but he who imposes heavy taxes ruins it. —Proverbs 29:4 (New American Bible) In a free society government has an important but limited role to play. Adam Smith, for instance, [...]
1Nov1997 | Christopher Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedSlugging It Out
C. Daniel Bradford is a major in the Army and works for the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Virginia. Several years ago I was transferred by the military from Georgia to the Washington, D.C., area. Because real estate is so expensive in the area immediately adjacent to the capital, most people live in the outlying [...]
1Oct1997 | C. Daniel Bradford | 0 comments | Continued-
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