Just like a mother of three in Columbus , I placed blame where blame was not due. The mother blamed the dishwasher; I blamed my children. Lately, I’ve been assuming the white, powdery film that occasionally remained on our dishes was the result of someone (er, some child) forgetting to add the detergent. Alas, I read today that my children are not
The direction of all economic affairs is in the market society a task of the entrepreneurs. Theirs is the control of production. They are at the helm and steer the ship. A superficial observer would believe that they are supreme. But they are not. They are bound to obey unconditionally the captain’s orders. The captain is the consumer. Neither the
Art Carden’s great article on windfall profits brings up an issue that really gets under my skin. Carden notes, “People often point to the run-up in gas prices — some gas stations were charging over $3 a gallon — after the September 11 attacks as an example of firms enjoying windfall profits.” Ah, yes, the price gougers. In the late morning and
Turns out there is a second minimum wage — a minimum wage for the disabled (currently, the minimum is effectively zero). And for supposedly moral reasons (reckoned in the absence of the morality of labor itself), some so-called advocates for the disabled are tirelessly working to price them out of the labor market. This interesting article (the
While on an evening bike ride with my oldest son, we reminisced about one of the first government meetings we attended together — an annexation hearing before our county commissioners. Looking back, we agreed that the meeting turned out to be an invaluable opportunity to witness government in action. At the hearing, the attorney for the petitioner
Whether the middle schoolers in your life are educated at home or elsewhere, the best way to introduce the economics of Liberty is Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? This is the book that introduced me – at age 38 – to Austrian Economics. I read the book after my homeschooling wife bought it as an economics text for my oldest son. Penny Candy shook
The nature of man being what it is, the desire for fun and leisure is limitless. After a hard week of working and saving, Friday night is enough reason to open the barn door for music and celebration. Farmer Bob woke Monday to face another week of reaping that which he had sown. He knows the routine: out to the fields in the morning for a long day
Does government function as a club or a prison? In particular, are local taxing districts — local governmental entities — simply clubs where residents voluntarily pay fees set by an elected board? Or, are these districts nothing more than prisons, so to speak, where the governing body extracts fines and penalties from land and labor? First, let us
Due to Obamacare, my health plan has become something other than insurance. It is now, for the most part, nothing other than a wealth transfer scheme to benefit the politically connected over others. In order to identify the difference between health insurance and government-mandated health care coverage , we can look to Human Action , in which
It’s that time of year here in Ohio: time to make a list and check it twice. Christmas gift list? Not in this instance. It’s time for county auditors throughout the state to cause the publication of their annual lists of delinquent real property taxes. Is the intent to shame the naughty into paying their fair share? To a point. However, I believe
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.