Capitalism
Thanksgiving: the REAL history
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008In May of 1606, the first American settlers arrived in Jamestown.
The Virginia Tidewater Region, where these original 104 set up their colony, was a breathtakingly fertile chunk of land, and so it was that these first American settlers found more resources than they could at first believe: oceans teeming with seafood; the woodlands alive with [...]
Super Duper Wal-Mart
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008I overheard two kids talking the other day. One said: “What’s Target?”
The other said: “It’s good. It’s a lot like Wal-Mart, except it’s not Super.”
Obviously, then, Wal-Mart has at last got a few sensible defenders out there — sensible, I say, because Wal-Mart is a great American institution that harkens back to our finest traditions: [...]
The Redheaded Slut of Political Theory
Saturday, November 8th, 2008Now that the people of these United States have proven beyond all reasonable doubt that, in fact, empty rhetoric can completely control their minds, it seems as good a time as any to lay out, in very fundamental terminology, what the science of economics actually is — all the more so since Barack Obama, like [...]
What are the Legitimate Functions of Government?
Thursday, October 30th, 2008What are the legitimate functions of government, and how do we know for sure?
How can we determine good politics from bad, smart political candidates from ignorant?
The answer: by defining our terms.
Governments are the body politic that have the power to make and implement the laws of the land, and humans are the only species [...]
Bailout
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008Mercantilism is the system of securing special economic favors from government.
Capitalism is the system of private ownership of the means of production and the primacy of the individual over the group.
Mercantilism is in every significant way the exact opposite of laissez-faire capitalism.
Most businessmen today are not capitalists — insofar as they seek, demand, and [...]
Vasily Grossman
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008The Russian writer Vasily Grossman was born in 1905 in what is now the Ukrainian town of Berdichev. At that time, Berdichev was still part of the Russian Empire. Vasily Grossman attended high school in Kiev and then the University of Moscow. He graduated from University in 1929 with a degree in a chemical engineering. [...]
Can laissez faire handle pollution and climate?
Monday, September 15th, 2008The United States is still the world’s most prosperous nation, and there is still no need to dwell upon this fact because, for the most part, it’s still uncontested.
The point is worth reiterating, however, if only because it stresses a fact which has been touched upon in a previous article. That fact is this:
So long [...]
Natural Resource and Goods Theory
Saturday, September 13th, 2008The economist George Reisman writes:
The two essential claims of the environmentalists, which I take for granted are already well known to everyone, are (1) that continued economic progress is impossible, because of the impending exhaustion of natural resources (it is from this notion that the slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle” comes), and (2) that continued economic [...]
Environmentalism: cult of death
Thursday, September 11th, 2008Environmentalism, with its attendant army of politicos all armed to the teeth with environmental laws, is, let us make no mistake, the highroad to hell.
Before going all the way green, I urge you to take a longer look into exactly what horse you’re backing here: it may well turn out to be a horse of [...]
Socialism, Nazism, Environmentalism
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008The National Socialist German Workers’ Party was founded in 1919 and abolished in 1945. It came into full power under Adolph Hitler in 1933, and proceeded at that time to slaughter a spectacular number of people in a relatively short span of years.
Socialists today are of course universally agreed that Nazism was many things, but [...]
Obama
Sunday, August 31st, 2008My grandmother was a typical white person (Barack Obama, 2008).
Obviously, one needn’t look long or hard these days to see just how far America has come from her philosophical roots, and yet it’s frankly difficult to imagine a greater perverter of America’s philosophy than Mr. Barack Obama.
The foundational premise of America is stated in no [...]