Liberty
Economist: ‘Capitalism is good for the poor’
The greatest beneficiaries of capitalism are those at the bottom of the income ladder. That’s why I favor capitalism. Were that not the case, I would not be in favor…
Gary Becker
American economist (1930-2014)
Liberty
Freedom: the most effective antipoverty tool known to history
It is also the antipoverty tool most unknown to the UNC-Chapel Hill Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity. The center’s fate may be up in the air, but its track…
Liberty
Effectively fighting poverty in North Carolina
View in your browser. In a draft report released this week, the working group of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors has completed its review of the 240…
Liberty
Praise for the late Gary Becker in TIME magazine
It’s not much of a surprise to read praise for the late economist Gary Becker from advocates of limited government and free markets. It’s more of a surprise — and…
Liberty
Esse quam videri works for policies, too
John Hood surveyed a quarter-century’s worth of peer-reviewed academic literature examining the relationship between public policy and state or local economic performance. The survey yielded the following: the policy preferences…
Liberty
Effectively fighting poverty through freedom
View in your browser. Last week, complications from ulcer surgery claimed the life of Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker. It is a great loss. Becker had expanded the scope of…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Re: ‘celebrity musicians can’t feed the world’
Mitch’s earlier post of economist William Easterly’s Slate column made me think of one celebrity musician who gets it. I’ve earlier put U2 frontman Bono’s recent comments on entrepreneurship up…
Liberty
Of occupational licensure, a person’s fundamental right to earn a living, and Captain Obvious
View in your browser. The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred…
Liberty
Canutian, not Sisyphean
National Review’s defense, which Mitch posted earlier, of Paul Ryan for daring to seek new ways to fight poverty, is excellent. This part particularly resounded: This is a familiar situation…
Liberty
Furthermore, making money is moral. Let Stossel and Bono explain.
I want this post to piggyback on my previous one, in which I pointed out the obvious that “Art Pope and his family have done more actual, practical good for…
Liberty
‘How we use our money is a moral issue.’ Ah, yes. About that …
So it was said yesterday, to impugn the “morality” of someone who uses his money in this way: To mitigate the effects of the federal government shutdown that spanned the…
Liberty
‘The greatest beneficiaries of capitalism are those at the bottom of the income ladder’
John Goodman’s post today, “Do You Care More Than Paul Krugman Cares?“, opens with words from Gary Becker that happily explain also why I believe in free-market capitalism. Goodman’s opening:…