Voice For Liberty

Tag: Capitalism

  • Joe Scarborough: Please Stop Saying Laissez-faire

    I’m listening to Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, and he says: “Laissez-faire capitalism is a wonderful thing except in this case …” I’ve heard stuff like this over and over the past few months: A politician says “I’m a big free-market guy, but …” What’s sad to realize is that these people think that what we…

  • Pencils Reveal the Impossibility of Government Planning

    I, Pencil is one of the most important and influential writings that explain the necessity for limited government. A simple object that we may not give much thought to, the story of the pencil illustrates the importance of markets and the impossibility of centralized economic planning. The size and scope of government, both at the…

  • Pat Buchanan: Comrade Obama?

    Pat Buchanan’s recent column Comrade Obama? contains much I agree with, keeping me liking and admiring him, even through I disagree with a few of his positions. This column accurately describes the current political landscape, and it’s not complimentary to Barack Obama, Democrats, or Republicans. A few excerpts: Indeed, how do Republicans who call Obama…

  • Some Articles Worth Reading

    Making Social Security More Harmful. From the Foundation for Economic Education. “Consider first that ever since Social Security was enacted in 1935 Americans have been told that their ‘contributions’ are being deposited into their own account to pay for their retirement benefits. … The other fraudulent claim made about Social Security (again, from the very…

  • The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Present Crisis

    Professor George Reisman contributes the excellent (and lengthy) article The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Present Crisis. I’ve had the distinct honor of attending a number of Professor Reisman’s lectures at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and I’m slowly working my way through his monumental book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics. Here’s…

  • Our Economic Past — Equality, Markets, and Morality

    Free markets may yield odd results and certainly unequal outcomes, but the greater opportunities and prosperity have made the tradeoff worthwhile for American society. From Our Economic Past ~ Equality, Markets, and Morality by Burton Folsom, Jr., posted at the Foundation for Economic Education.

  • Laissez faire in Washington? On what planet?

    Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education contributes analysis of the current economic situation in the article Government Failure. A few quotes: Laissez faire in Washington? On what planet? Governments at all levels have regulated the financial industry from the time of the founding. … At the Division of Labour blog, economist Lawrence H.…

  • Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer saves us from covered wagons

    Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer believes that without government oversight and planning of our economy, Wichita would revert back to the way it was at its founding.

  • Downtown Wichita Arena TIF District

    Remarks to Wichita City Council, August 5, 2008. When I’ve been talking to people in Wichita, I find there is great confusion about the way that TIF districts work. This confusion serves to obfuscate what really happens with TIF districts: the TIF developers get to use their own property taxes to pay for things that…

  • Wichita and the Old Town Warren Theater Loan

    Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 1, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, we are potentially beginning a journey down a road where there are two classes of businesses in Wichita. There are business owners who seek to earn their profit through market entrepreneurship, that is, by meeting the…

  • Everything you love you owe to capitalism

    This is an excellent article by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. An excerpt: I’m convinced that Mises was right: the most important step economists or economic institutions can take is in the direction of public education in economic logic. There is another important factor here. The state thrives on…

  • The Entrepreneur As American Hero

    Here’s Williams’ law: Whenever the profit incentive is missing, the probability that people’s wants can be safely ignored is the greatest. If a poll were taken asking people which services they are most satisfied with and which they are most dissatisfied with, for-profit organizations (supermarkets, computer companies and video stores) would dominate the first list…