Via … every libertarian friend on Facebook, basically.
In other news, John C. McGinley is the man.
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Economics
That’s a direct accusation a grad school prof made against me. The implicit assumption is that you should live your everyday life in rigid accordance with your principles. This is stupid.
There are ideals, and there are reasonable compromises. Driving on a pre-existing road doesn’t mean I support future expenditures. At best, you can draw an indirect endorsement, in a supply/demand sense. But one car on the interstate system is so insignificant that my prof’s point becomes laughable.
The “who will build the roads” canard is a common anti-liberty argument. The old saw is that the government has to provide public goods, or else civil society couldn’t function. This is also stupid. People aren’t just inert lumps waiting for government to improve their lot.
The history of privately built toll roads is an interesting example of how private action benefits society at large. Especially when you consider that these undertakings carried the expectation of being unprofitable. An early example of a loss-leader?
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In today’s Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey argues that economic freedom is the the motor that drives prosperity:
The success of economic freedom in increasing human prosperity, extending our life spans and improving the quality of our lives in countless ways is the most extraordinary global story of the past 200 years. Gross domestic product per capita has increased by a factor of 1,000% across the world and almost 2,000% in the U.S. during these last two centuries. In 1800, 85% of everyone alive lived on less than $1 per day (in 2000 dollars). Today only 17% do. If current long-term trend lines of economic growth continue, we will see abject poverty almost completely eradicated in the 21st century. Business is not a zero-sum game struggling over a fixed pie. Instead it grows and makes the total pie larger, creating value for all of its major stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, investors and communities.
So why is our economy barely growing and unemployment stuck at over 9%? I believe the answer is very simple: Economic freedom is declining in the U.S. In 2000, the U.S. was ranked third in the world behind only Hong Kong and Singapore in the Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by this newspaper and the Heritage Foundation. In 2011, we fell to ninth behind such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.
He goes on to suggest some reforms, cutting spending on Defense, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, reforming corporate tax rates to allow capital use for job creation, and regulatory reform. In particular, I agree with this:
All regulations should automatically expire after 10 years unless a mandatory cost-benefit analysis has been completed that proves the regulations have created significantly more societal benefit than harm. Currently thousands of new regulations are added each year and virtually none ever disappear.
Mr. Mackey is right about the power of economic freedom. Consider this video:
Full disclosure, I once interned at the non-profit which produced this video.
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I love Anthony Bourdain, so naturally a video of him explaining why, as a “true believer” lefty, he supports the Tea Party.
Via.
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The well-being of ordinary people has been the main thing that has been improved by economic progress and economic growth and development. – Milton Friedman
Tell that to the Occupy Wall Street Puppeteers.
Via.
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