Amazon has developed a new way to help people do easy work for a little extra cash. The jobs involve repetitive tasks that computers can't do. But, since the jobs pay below minimum wage, we're told the whole thing should be outlawed.
The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee renewed its commitment to easy money this week. The Fed will pretend to be committed to raising rates while doing nothing, and its ongoing war against deflation will continue to make us poorer.
Government planners are fond of dreaming up new ways to force people out of their cars. But automobiles have long been a boon to ordinary working people who can access less expensive goods and better jobs because of them.
Neoclassical economists make too many assumptions and decree that the desires of consumers must conform to some external definition of what's "rational." But consumers like to decide for themselves what they want, and when they want it.
No amount of fantasizing can make fundamental economic realities go away, no matter how much we put our faith in central banks, government regulation, or technologies of the future.
Anti-capitalists often claim that employment is like slavery. But unlike slavery, employment in the market is voluntary, non-coercive, and makes the employee better off than he would have been without it. Employees merely choose an employer that provides the best alternative to non-employment.
Millions of pop culture consumers have been affected by the "post scarcity" world portrayed in Star Trek. But even in Star Trek, the claims of having overcome scarcity are belied by the fact that human lives, planets, starships, and time all remain scarce.
It was a big week for Bernie Sanders's brand of socialism, and millions of Americans already agree with him. Thanks to unquestioning acceptance of wild claims about the success of socialism in Europe, many Americans are now wishing for some European-style socialism themselves.
Privatizing garbage collection isn't exactly a tough nut to crack from the perspective of entrepreneurs and economic theory. But that doesn't stop government from mandating a government monopoly on trash collection in many places.
Whether its drug prices, crushing debt, or unemployment, government can always come up with someone else to blame. Fortunately though, in spite of the lackluster economy the Fed and the government seem committed to giving us, there's hope for a much better future.
