Category: Economics
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Expanding the bureaucracy and the fallacy of the slippery slope
Those who oppose minor and perhaps reasonable expansions to the power of the government on the grounds that that power will inevitably be expanded abused are not necessarily committing the fallacy of the slippery slope. Extensive precedent has shown that once any task is institutionalized in a government agency, it will forever have a lobby…
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On "Special Interests"
It is truism today that “special interests” are to blame for economic problems and corruption. But “special interests” are only a symptom, not the cause of the disease. In a populist democracy with a mixed economy, every group that participates in the political system is a “special interest”, with the incentive and the power to…
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Are patents stifling innovation in mobile devices?
In 2007, I wrote why software patents are not a good idea. It’s easy to find examples of patent abuse but its not often to find a company that uses patents that stifle a whole industry. Such may be the case with the Apple iPhone. I purchased an iPhone shortly after it came out, because…
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… In economic matters, most people, including most politicians, mainstream economists, and investors unconsciously follow Dewey’s philosophical principles: reality is ultimately driven by social consensus, and the success or failure of markets depends only on the optimism or pessimism of consumers and investors. This is more than the belief that wishes and prayers affect reality…
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Full report. From: The New Clarion.
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Yaron Brook: Why Unregulated Capitalism Is Moral
Watch more great videos at the Ayn Rand Institute channel on YouTube
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"The Anticapitalists: Barbarians at the Gate" – Larry Sechrest
(You can skip to the lecture’s beginning at 5:40.) By the way, the introductory quote is from Ayn Rand’s 1970 essay “The Comprachicos.” The text is: Observe also the intensity, the austere, the unsmiling seriousness with which an infant watches the world around him. (If you ever find, in an adult, that degree of seriousness…
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Do compact fluorescent lights really save energy?
Earlier this month, Congress passed a law which will essentially force the public to switch to compact fluorescent lights. (CFLs) Environmentalists and light bulb makers joined forces to boost power and profits, and perhaps sue the competition out of existence.Some people object to the narrow light spectrum and toxic Mercury content of CFL lights, but…
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Real entrepreneurs don’t take bribes from the state
The Israeli government is trying to lure back some of the hundreds of thousands of Israeli expatriates with “tax breaks, employment and small business loans.” The campaign is set to cost $36 million a year. Israeli politicians must realize on some level that their best and brightest citizens are leaving in growing numbers because their…