One of the great myths of economics is the idea that war is good for the economy. Robert Higgs has shown pretty convincingly that this isn’t the case in a series of papers that culminated in his book Depression, War, and Cold War . As I’m preparing for my Classical & Marxian Political Economy class this morning, I’m inspired by Book 2, Chapter 3
From page 111 of the 1918-1919 Negro Year Book , published by the Tuskegee Institute and edited by Monroe N. Work: Railroads Attack Validity Separate Car Laws. The Supreme Court of Tennessee in a decision rendered in March, 1918, relative to white and Negroes being served in dining cars upheld the validity of the separate car laws of the United
There has been a bit of chatter about this article in the Wall Street Journal about the costs of employment. Here, for example, is Mark Perry . The cost of providing a job that pays $44,000 (gross) and provides $12,000 in benefits is much, much higher than it at first appears. Enthusiasm for ever-larger piles of mandates on employers is only going
I’ll be interested in seeing how this discussion turns out: Bryan Caplan hypothesizes that a lot of conservatives are most passionate about the issues on which they are least libertarian: immigration and war. This is a case where vivid experience is suggestive but not conclusive; hence, he opens the door to bets and empirical tests. Bryan admits
One of the comments on yesterday’s post points out that some immigrants are net burdens on the welfare state because they consume more services than they pay in taxes and might, if they get strong enough, procure even more transfers. I agree with Bryan Caplan that an international free market in labor services is an important component of a free
This post from the New York Times Economix Blog is making the rounds (HT: David Skarbek, Steve Horwitz). It’s a really interesting story that discusses how life has changed for Bangladeshi women who have the opportunity to work in the garment industry. Are wages low? By Western standards, yes. However, the opportunities provided by Bangladeshi
Here’s an example of how cooperation helps us produce more output with the same quantity of resources. Part 3 will show how trade can help us conserve resources.
Jim Otteson asks about rights and duties with respect to health care . A choice line: “What is not the test for having a right to something is that one really, really wants it.” From the perspective of economics, there’s a subsidiary question: if I have a duty to provide others’ health care, what, then, do I have a duty to forgo in order to
The law of comparative advantage shows us that people can consume more than they would be able to produce on their own. Increasing specialization implies increasing productivity, and our ability to enjoy gains from specialization and trade is one factor that helps explain our high standards of living today. Here is another example that illustrates
Steve Horwitz and I assess Jane Smiley’s discussion of economists and economics . Passages on economists, rationality, and moral philosophy: We assume people are “rational,” but we don’t mean they are omniscient or wise or even quick learners. We mean people want to make themselves as well-off as possible; people try to shape the world according
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
