Human Irrationality is an Argument For – Not Against – Free Markets

Human Irrationality is an Argument For – Not Against – Free Markets

If everyone was irrational all of the time we would be in big trouble. You’d never know when someone was suddenly going to swerve off the road for no apparent reason and drive into a building, or start babbling to you in tongues over the phone when all you wanted to do was order a pizza.[1]

That being said – people are irrational enough of the time, that behavioral economists are never done telling us that they are not suitable for a market economy …

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The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

The Scottish National Party bribed their way into power with a manifesto promise to scrap student debt. This was perhaps one of the most flagrant displays of bribocracy ever seen in contemporary politics. 

Students are a sympathetic demographic and people value education. But what about working-class people who went straight to work from school and had to pay taxes for it? What about all the students who took an extra job at the weekend or stayed home with their parent, so they didn’t run …

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Why People Don’t Trust Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine.

Why People Don’t Trust Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine.

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?

Michael Shermer, a famous skeptic, was forced to admit that one of the reasons is that some of them are true. In his research he found that the fact that some conspiracy theories are real feeds people’s suspicion and makes them susceptible to the belief in others that are far less credible.

We are increasingly herded into taking a hard line on issues which are nuanced. One example of this is an apparent increase in two camps: some people are entirely …

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Something Worse Than Covid This Way Comes

Something Worse Than Covid This Way Comes

 

According to Dr. Sunita Gupta of Oxford University, 130 million people are at risk of starvation due to lockdowns.

The UN states that between 42 and 66 million children around the world will be reduced to “extreme poverty”. UNICEF predicts the death of 1.2 million children due to lockdowns. Other sources have observed that an unprecedented number of “deaths of despair” from alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide are resulting from the lockdown. Fear is not a just arbitrator of data, and it …

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The Irony of Marxist Class Consciousness

The Irony of Marxist Class Consciousness

(Article first appeared on Mises web page here:

https://mises.org/wire/irony-marxist-class-consciousness  )

 

Let’s set the scene.

You and I are at the local pub when we find ourselves thrust into a rousing debate with our neighbours regarding the vicious state of the world and how we ought to put it right. We say free the markets and spontaneous order will do the talking. They say socialism is the only way forward. As our third pints dwindle to their last dregs, it begins to look like it will be a while …

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What Libertarianism Can Do For The Poor

What Libertarianism Can Do For The Poor

Government intervention in our economy is currently taking a massive toll on living standards, especially for the poor, who do not have high disposable incomes and spend the majority of their cash on basic essentials. They take the brunt of rises in the cost of living. We can create a richer society where the costs of living fall, and living standards rise faster.

Here’s how we will do it.

Cheap Accommodation

The cost of housing has skyrocketed over the last five decades and with it the cost of …

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Universal Basic Income: For and Against

Antony Sammeroff gives a speech and answers questions about the proposed Universal Basic Income in Scotland.

 

Antony Sammeroff is a writer and life coach from Glasgow living in Edinburgh. He is the Scottish Libertarian Party’s spokesperson on economics and environment and hosts The Scottish Liberty Podcast weekly, with co-host Tom Laird. He also writes his own economics blog Seeing the Unseen.

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The Death of Castro

The Death of Castro

The death of Castro requires special comment as social media has been awash, over the last couple of days, with celebrations of the man who has presided over a country where doctors are paid $25 a month, teacher $15, and the best paid professions are taxi driver and prostitute. A nation where people need vouchers to buy food.

But what can you say to someone who loves Big Brother?

Some of his champions naively blame the U.S. embargo on Cuba for these conditions but, while the embargo …

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Misanthropic Myths about 3rd World Poverty debunked!

Misanthropic Myths about 3rd World Poverty debunked!

One of the most persistent myths about 3rd World Poverty is that if underdeveloped nations are allowed economic advancement and become wealthy it will be some kind of unmitigated environmental disaster. Is that so?

Wealthy countries can afford to clean up their water supplies after fouling them and treat their sewage properly. They can replant their forests, put recycling infrastructure into place, and farm sustainably. Countries without wealth can’t do that. In places like Bangladesh people must scramble to make a living with no long-term …

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Apologists for Obama Make the World Safe for Autocrats

Apologists for Obama Make the World Safe for Autocrats

In 2009 Obama went to Prague and stood before an adoring crowd saying, “The United States will help rid the world of Nuclear Weapons.” Under Obama Nuclear Warhead production is greater than under any post-Cold War president. $1 trillion was allocated build more nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and factories than any previous president. He visited Hiroshima on a public relations  campaign, but as a deep act of cynicism. He broke his campaign promise to work with Russia to move nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.

After winning The …

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