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POPSTwo Common Objections to Capitalism The system of voluntary exchange and experimentation based on secure private-property rights — what we loosely call "capitalism" — expands rather than restricts our material and nonmaterial opportunities. Substituting elite power for voluntary exchange invites all sorts of epistemological problems and moral disasters. For these reasons, capitalism deserves to be defended.
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POPSThe Forgotten Depression of 1920 The experience of 1920–21 reinforces the contention of genuine free-market economists that government intervention is a hindrance to economic recovery. It is not in spite of the absence of fiscal and monetary stimulus that the economy recovered from the 1920–21 depression. It is because those things were avoided that recovery came. The next time we are solemnly warned to recall the lessons of history lest our economy deteriorate still further, we ought to refer to this episode – and observe how hastily our interrogators try to change the subject.
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POPSThe Solution to Healthcare is Your Bathroom
Under no circumstances can we let people know the aforementioned policies artificially limited the supply of labor and goods, which precipitated the astronomical rise in prices. We can easily place blame on the toilet manufactures, the installers, or the training institutes even though their every move has been dictated by a complex code of laws that was supposed to keep everything under control in the first place. After blame has been sufficiently passed, then it is up to Congress to hammer out a 2,000-page piece of legislation that further controls the toilet industry and ultimately makes it more expensive and inconvenient. It will be penned in English, but the bill will not make sense. Congress will raise taxes, borrow money, and pass strict laws, but amazingly prices will go up and availability will go down. By then, people will all have forgotten about healthcare and will demand even more government to control the spiraling costs of toilets. Problem solved.[/quote
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POPSHealthcare Market Failure? From what I can decipher from his and other claims to support “universal” medical care, a “market failure” occurs when someone is not able to access immediately all of the medical care he or she “needs” immediately. Now, if this is what he means by a “market failure,” then every market (including the distribution of government-produced goods) falls into that category. If I cannot afford a Rolls-Royce, is that due to “market failure”? The very term "market" implies the presence of voluntary exchanges being transacted by individual parties to their mutual benefit...not the mandates of government.
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POPSMoney For Nothing Incredibly, the lesson Obama draws from history is that past administrations didn't spend enough..."The real problem was that Roosevelt slowed down on public spending in the first two years," the president said, according to one congressman who was in the room. "If he'd just kept on spending that money, we'd have gotten out of the Depression quicker."
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POPSKeynesian Foolishness I don't care how prominent, credentialed, or "accomplished" an economist is. If he says that burying cash in the ground can be a boon to society, then he should be immediately dismissed from public and academic discourse.
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POPSI, Toaster The basic theme of Thwaites' Toaster Project, however, was first conceived back in 1958 in the brilliant essay "I, Pencil," written by Leonard Read, founder of the libertarian think tank Foundation for Economic Education. In other words, the division of labor is what makes pencils—and, for that matter, all of the conveniences of modern life—possible. Millions of people are involved in the manufacture of a single pencil, or in Thwaites' case, a single toaster. No single human being could possibly possess the know-how to make one on his own. Pan back until you've framed the entire world economy, and it's hard not to marvel at the wonder and miracle of capitalism's invisible hand.
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POPSCronyism in My Hometown A must read letter by the president of a local Dodge dealer. In the past year, we have embarked on several creative initiatives in order to remain profitable and out of bankruptcy court. Though Dodge district sales are down by about 50%, our new vehicle sales actually increased comparing April 2008 and April 2009. Though I am a Washington, DC-educated attorney and former employee of the US Department of Labor and the US Senate and an active advocate of the American way of life, it is difficult for me to view this abrogation of our franchise rights as anything more than a manipulation of US bankruptcy court and law so that Chrysler LLC can transfer wealth between dealers they like and those they dislike, those that have agreed to under-table favors and those that haven't, and to settle old vendettas. This is not the purpose of US bankruptcy protection and, surely, it isn't why the US Treasury has given billions to Chrysler to keep them in business.
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POPSSoak the Rich, Lose the Rich One last point: States aren't simply competing with each other. As Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently told us, "Our state is competing with Germany, France, Japan and China for business. We'd better have a pro-growth tax system or those American jobs will be out-sourced." Gov. Perry and Texas have the jobs and prosperity model exactly right. Texas created more new jobs in 2008 than all other 49 states combined. And Texas is the only state other than Georgia and North Dakota that is cutting taxes this year.
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POPSBragging on the Texas Economy Thank you Gov. Perry for staying out of the way. For the third straight year, the nation’s leading executives rank Texas as the best state in which to do business, applauding the state for controlling taxes and spending as well as for its positive regulatory burden, quality of life and infrastructure. (Chief Executive Magazine, January 2008) This ranking is significant because it is not based solely on arbitrary economic indicators. Instead, it reflects the sentiment not of CEOs and decision makers throughout the nation. Voicing the positive sentiment of many respondents, Charles Hannabarger, President and CEO of PSI Associates, said, "Texas has a strong economy with a diversified economic base. The cost of living is low and the quality of life is very good. The attitude and capabilities of the workforce are outstanding!”
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POPSTax Questions Here's another tax question: Which worker receives the higher pay: a worker on a road construction project moving dirt with a shovel or a worker moving dirt atop a giant earthmover? If you said the guy on the earthmover, go to the head of the class. But why? It's not because he's unionized or that employers just love earthmover operators. It's because having more capital (tools) makes him more productive and therefore earn higher wages. It's not rocket science to conclude that whatever lowers the cost of capital formation enables workers to have more capital to work with and enjoy higher wages. Policies that raise the cost of capital formation such as capital gains taxes, low depreciation allowances and high corporate income taxes, and thereby reducing capital formation, serves neither the interests of workers, investors nor consumers.
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POPSConsidering Socialism This is usually where some like to insert a link to dictionary.com for the one sentence definition of socialism. While they are there they should also include the meaning of ownership. BTW, sometimes I get a smile from arrogant intellectuals not having a clue when to use an apostrophe. But what do I know...I'm just a dumb American.
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POPSMixed Economies Are Not a Happy Medium Capitalism is not a virtue in the way that courage is a virtue; it is rather a framework that avoids the extreme of violent coercion. Avoiding the one extreme, as a capitalist system does, does not guarantee avoidance of the other extreme, just as not being reckless does not guarantee you will be courageous. But again, avoiding the extreme of neglecting others cannot be achieved by embracing the extreme of coercing them. In one sense capitalism is an extreme in that it is the opposite of coercion. In another sense, capitalism is simply a system that allows individuals to choose the middle ground between coercion and neglect. Socialism, on the other hand, is an extreme in both cases; it is the opposite of freedom and it is not a middle ground between coercion and neglect; it is itself coercion.
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POPSThe Stimulus Policy That Would Really Work Corporations would respond to this change by investing in plant and equipment, and by hiring additional workers. These investments would be more productive than the ones funded by stimulus projects, since corporations respond to market forces, not to political influence. Since corporations could more easily invest out of retained earnings, repeal would also circumvent many banks' reluctance to lend.
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POPSThe Health Care Bailout of 2018 Instead of universal health care, we need free market reforms that reduce costs, reward individual responsibility, and respect individual rights. Some examples include eliminating mandatory insurance benefits, repealing laws that forbid purchasing health insurance across state lines, and allowing individuals to use Health Savings Accounts for routine expenses and to purchase low cost, catastrophic-only insurance for major expenses.
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POPSI, Pencil There is a fact still more astounding: the absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies—millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding! For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand—that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive masterminding—then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people.
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POPSBeginning of the End of Free Market Health Care in the U.S. Commercial insurers—who were still required to pay taxes, establish reserves, and adhere to other state insurance regulations—had difficulty competing with the Blues, which, by the 1950s, together were the largest provider of health insurance in America. In an effort to compete with the Blues, more and more for-profit insurance companies offered similar plans, and the model of third-party insurance plans paying the providers directly with little or no input from the patient—and paying for routine care through insurance—became entrenched. This new model was a disaster in the making. In addition to minimizing incentives for insured customers to comparison shop for medical services, it also minimized incentives for doctors and hospitals to compete on price.
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POPSThe Legacy of Keynes In the Keynesian framework, the largest chunk of spending is on account of consumer outlays. Therefore consumer outlays are regarded as the motor of the economy — consumption sets in motion real economic growth. But is consumption the motor of the economy? We suggest that one must make a distinction between productive and nonproductive consumption. While productive consumption is an agent of economic growth, nonproductive consumption leads to economic impoverishment.
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POPSBlaming Laissez Faire Laissez-faire capitalism has a definite meaning, which is totally ignored, contradicted, and downright defiled...Laissez-faire capitalism is a politico-economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and in which the powers of the state are limited to the protection of the individual's rights against the initiation of physical force.
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