Posts by Editorial
What camping and Mickey Mouse teaches us about socialism and capitalism
“Anti-capitalism” appears to be the prevailing mood for 2020, with similar messages etched on signs on environment protests, used to describe scented candles and embroidery hoops. Besides the irony of these products being sold under the guise of “anti-capitalist”, one should stop to ponder the meaning of the term. People tend to use the terms…
Read MoreThe Significance of Mises’s “Socialism”
That Ludwig von Mises was one of the greatest economists of the 20th century should never be doubted. Mises never worked in scientific or popular obscurity, despite the various mythologies that are told on both left and right. Prior to World War I, Mises had established himself as a leading economic theorist among the younger…
Read MoreHayek and the Nobel Prize
The grant of a 1974 Nobel Prize in Economic Science to the great Austrian free-market economist Dr. Friedrich A. von Hayek comes as a welcome and blockbuster surprise to his free-market admirers in this country and throughout the world. For since the death last year of Hayek’s distinguished mentor, Ludwig von Mises, the 75-year-old Hayek…
Read MoreThe Reconstruction of the Liberal Project
“We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage. What we lack is a liberal Utopia… truly liberal radicalism… The main lesson which the true liberal must learn from the success of the socialists is that it was their courage to be Utopian which gained them…
Read MoreTrue Liberalism Is about Human Compassion
The first job in that task, I would argue, is for the true liberal is to reassert the fundamental liberal nature of true liberal radicalism to both friends and critics. Samuel Freedman published a subtle and sophisticated philosophical reflection on “Illiberal Libertarians” (2001), but his basic point was raised in a more popular treatment…
Read MoreWhy Do So Many Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism?
Following the valuable advice of co-blogger David Henderson, I’ve gotten my hands on Milton Friedman on Freedom, a new collection edited by the Hoover Institution. The book will surprise all of us who never properly appreciated the insights and wisdom of Friedman’s political thinking. His own peculiar blend of classical liberalism comes out all the more as subtle and…
Read More4 Questions to Ask When Debating Inequality
The change in the presidency is not going to reduce the amount of time and energy people will be spending debating the question of rising inequality. In fact, I would expect to see such debates become even more frequent and more intense. I have written a number of articles, and given many talks, on…
Read More5 Things To Know About Singapore’s Approach To The Environment
Local environmentalists have a tendency to go overboard in their accusations of the PAP government when it comes to the environment. The image being painted in the popular media of the government is that it has largely neglected environmental preservation at the expense of unbridled economic growth. Yet, a cursory study of the history of Singapore’s environmental…
Read MoreThe Unfairness of Equal Outcomes
When I talk to student groups about inequality, one of the first things I ask them to do is consider a mental experiment. Imagine a society in which, for example, the richest 20 percent of households earn an average of $60,000 per year and the poorest 20 percent of households earn an average of $10,000…
Read MoreCapitalism and the Family
It is hard to think of a human social institution that has undergone more change in less time than has the family in the last several decades. Although the magnitude and rapidity of those changes are exaggerated by the unusual stability in the family from just after World War II until the mid-1960s, the 40…
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