Mises Search

David Friedman’s book Price Theory: An Intermediate Text defines rationality as the application of correct means to human ends. He further assumes that people are mostly rational. Using incorrect means often results in personal misery or death, for example, for a person who fails to realize that refusing to eat will kill him. Similarly,

Here is the problem , according to Steven Landsburg: Taking a step has a certain cost, in terms of energy expended. That cost is the same whether you’re on the stairs or on the escalator. And taking a step has a certain benefit — it gets you one foot closer to where you’re going. That benefit is the same whether you’re on the stairs or on the

Suppose that Iran got a nuclear bomb. Would it be of any use to it? Let’s say the US attacks Iran and kills half of its population. Iran decides to retaliate by nuking Israel and destroying half of its population. What happens next? Israel responds with a nuclear strike eliminating the rest of Iran. Hence the Iranian strike was both immoral (for

The Lockean (and Rothbardian) theory of initial acquisition of property involves the necessity of mixing one’s labor with an object in the external environment. Once labor has been applied to a thing, it can legitimately become one’s private property. The immediate question that arises is, how much labor is necessary in order to make a thing one’s

How fashionable it is to love nature. Down with industry, development, internal-combustion engines, clear cutting, strip malls, and private ownership. Capitalists do nothing but ravage the beauty of mother earth. The hand of man only strangles and kills. If you agree with the above, you will love the fires that have driven half a million people

Quoting: An eminent economist writes: ‘The spheres of rational action and economic action are... coincident. All rational action is economic. All economic activity is rational action.’ And what is the end of economic activity? One’s own pleasure. ‘Action based on reason,’ goes on Professor von Mises, ‘action therefore which is only to be

In the early ‘40s a group of prisoners were forced to participate in a secret counterfeiting project spearheaded by the Nazi SS called Operation Bernhard . The plan was to flood the British economy with fake bank notes with the goal of destroying the currency (i.e., inflation). A similar project was developed in parallel for the American dollar.

There are three questions that must be answered by any supporter of anarcho-capitalism, one per each branch of the government to be dissolved and replaced by a private solution. 1) How do I know what is or is not lawful for me to do? According to what procedure am I to be guided to behave properly? Rothbard’s answer is: use the natural law. To the

Note another thing that the bailouts represent: special privilege to particular market players to protect them from failure. This isolates these firms from the market forces, such that they remain afloat whether they do good or bad at satisfying consumer wants. Resources cannot be reallocated from what have been revealed as useless projects to