Free Trade and a Misty Moon

Popular entertainment is filled with heroes, superheroes, and messiahs, none of whom are in business.

Outside of the novels of Ayn Rand, the closest characterization I've been able to find of the businessman as hero is in the character of a smuggler -- a not wholly inappropriate place.

The lines below come from the only popular song to celebrate free trade. They are sung by Irish smugglers in the musical Eileen. The title of the song is "Free Trade and a Misty Moon."

While Heaven sends us a misty moon,
Sure, why not take it as a gracious boon?
If France and Spain have somethin' we can use,
Faith, 'twould be ungracious to refuse!
So, free of tax or duty
We'll fetch ashore our booty!
Let's drink to the mist o'er the moon!

How the World Has Changed

For the generation in college today, 1994 is ancient history. This clever spoof of the television series 24 reveals just how much has changed between then and now.

Notice that the differences are all in consumer products: pagers, telephones, Internet access, personal computers and printers.

Payday Lending

Is payday lending a scourge or consumer benefit? The debate is often tilted in favor of those who believe it is a scourge. However, here is an NPR broadcast that does a nice job of giving both sides of the story.

Listen to it here.

A Freer, Richer World

At a time when every politician in the United States promises to do something to get the economy moving, John Stossel reminds us what really works...

This week's newspapers are full of predictions of an impending recession, and maybe they're right. But the great untold story is the good news: the worldwide boom in economic growth.

"I think one of the best kept secrets is that the world is in the midst of an economic boom, and it is largely driven by increases in economic freedom," says economics professor James Gwartney, director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University. "The world has become more free, and, at the same time, growth is soaring to new highs. During 1995 to 2005, the growth rate of per capita GDP in 99 countries for which data are available has increased to 2.2 percent, nearly twice the rate of recent decades. Since 2000, the annual growth rate of per capita GDP has been even more rapid, 3.2 percent."

As the world gets freer, says Gwartney, it gets richer.

More on "Creative Capitalism"

From Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux of George Mason University...

Bill Gates's call, in Davos, for "creative capitalism" is getting much press. Here's a letter on this matter that I sent yesterday to the Wall Street Journal:

To the Editor:

I'm delighted that Bill Gates is reading the important work of the late Julian Simon ("Gates Calls for Kinder Capitalism," January 24). When he digests Mr. Simon's central idea - that human beings in market economies are "the ultimate resource" - Mr. Gates might then recognize that there is no need to change capitalism so that it becomes "creative." Capitalism has always been creative. It is inherently creative.

Everything from apparently mundane pencils and stocked supermarket shelves to obviously complex skyscrapers and personal computers are astonishingly complex artifacts created by human ingenuity unleashed, as only capitalism can unleash it, to experiment, cooperate, and compete. No philanthropist, no government body or commission, no Great Leader - no matter how "creative" or "kind" - has done one-trillionth as much to give dignity and comfort to ordinary people as has capitalism. It doesn't need re-inventing or to be made kinder; it just needs to be spread more widely around the world

Creative Capitalism

In today's Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates previews his speech on "creative capitalism" that he will give at Davos later today.

An excerpt and video...

Free enterprise has been good to Bill Gates. But later today, the Microsoft Corp. chairman will call for a revision of capitalism.

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the software tycoon plans to call for a "creative capitalism" that uses market forces to address poor-country needs that he feels are being ignored.

Outgoing Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talks to The Journal's Rob Guth about his concept of creative capitalism. (Jan. 23, 2008) "We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well," Mr. Gates will tell world leaders at the forum, according to a copy of the speech seen by The Wall Street Journal.



If I were at Davos and had a chance to chat with Bill, here is what I would ask...

By calling for "creative capitalism," aren't you implying that we now practice something else? Perhaps "shock capitalism" a la Naomi Klein, or "indifferent capitalism?"

If "creative capitalism" is not something entirely new, but really a wider application of the moral order of market forces, why discredit it by pretending it's something new?

In the 1960s, policy makers and intellectuals thought they could lift poor countries out of poverty by building big infrastructure and industrial projects like airports, steel mills and highways. Most of these failed. It was an expensive lesson. While technology is certainly important, have you considered the possibility that proposing technology as the first step to reduce poverty may be making the same mistake? Are there other issues that should be addressed first?

You've read Hernando de Soto's book The Mystery of Capital, yet you don't mention legitimizing property rights of the poor as the first step towards prosperity. Do you disagree?

You say the rate of improvement for the poor is very slow, while the rate of improvement for the well-to-do is very fast. However, from 1970 to 2000, 250 million people in China moved above the poverty line. During the same period in India, 140 million people escaped poverty. The rapid success at reducing poverty in these countries didn't come from technology, foreign aid, charity or philanthropy. It came from reducing internal controls that prevented an economy ordered by market forces rather than one ordered by mandarins and technocrats. Have you considered this in your philanthropic planning?

In the developed world, businesses that serve the poor are often vilified as greedy exploiters, e.g., pawn shops, payday lenders, check cashing services, and auto-title lenders. Why do you believe for-profit businesses operating in poor countries would be viewed favorably, when those kinds of businesses are often denounced as "predatory" when they are successful? Isn't the real problem a gross misunderstanding of the morality of exchange, not the lack of market opportunities for that exchange?

Waging the War of Ideas

One of the first free market think tanks in the world was founded by a businessman, Sir Antony Fisher. He founded the Institute of Economic Affairs in London in 1955.

In this audio file about his book Waging the War of Ideas John Blundell discusses the work, objectives and history of the Institute of Economic Affairs. The file can be downloaded and played on a computer or mp3 player. The the full text and summary of John Blundell's monograph, Waging the War of Ideas can also be downloaded.

Listen to it here.

It That Must Not be Named

Some historical perspective and humor from Bruce Yandle of Clemson University. So much for talking up the economy...

Funny thing about the R word ("Recession"). There was a time during the Carter Administration when fear of recession was more than the president could stand. Apparently, he believed a recession could be avoided if none of his officials used the word in testimony or discussion with the press. In a word, they were muzzled.

Bruce MacEwen, creator and host of Adam Smith, esq, (www.bmacewen.com) tells how Mr. Carter’s regulatory czar and head of the Civil Aeronautics Board Alfred Kahn dealt with the muzzle. Not one to be cornered when it came to talking, Fred Kahn was called to the Hill to testify about the economic outlook.

When asked point blank about the prospects for a recession, Fred, somewhat floored, remembered his instructions and noted that he could not speak directly to the question, but that he did expect there might be a “banana.” Banana then became the Washington code word for recession. Bruce MacEwen tells us that when the banana industry complained, Fred Kahn changed the code word to “cumquat.” The cumquat lobby was less effective in avoiding the hit.

Poor Stimuli

Political plans to stimulate the economy are frequently more popular than effective. Russ Roberts, an economics professor at George Mason University, offers commentary on NPR that puts campaign promises in proper perspective.

An excerpt:

The money has to come from somewhere. If you raise taxes to fund the plan, the people who are taxed are poorer and they'll spend less. If you borrow money to fund the plan, the people who buy the government bonds have less money to spend and that offsets the stimulus. It's like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool and dumping it into the shallow end. Funny thing—the water in the shallow end doesn't get any deeper.

A Good Clean Business

From Bruce Yandle of Clemson University, a story of entrepreneurial success that really cleaned up the human race.

"Mr. Kohler’s Tub"
I can’t end this special report without putting in a word for entrepreneurs who make life so much better for all us. This one is John Michael Kohler, an Austrian immigrant who settled in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1873.

Had a bath lately? This was quite a luxury for most of recorded history. In fact, it is said that only one percent of U.S. homes had indoor baths with running water in 1921. The Saturday scrub, if it came that often, was in a steel tub in front of the fire, or in the back yard for men.

All this had begun to change in 1883 when John Michael Kohler decided to add a coat of enamel to one of the cast iron horse troughs he made in his foundry. He then added claw feet to make the first enameled bathtub. With that, things began to get better on the home front. Well they at least got cleaner. Never satisfied and always creative, Mr. Kohler also invented the bubbler drinking fountain.

A visit to Kohler, Wisconsin, a model city and home of the company, sounds like a promising idea. Among the sites recommended is a museum that houses a full array of Kohler’s early plumbing products. The line up along one wall is called the Great Wall of China.

Evolutionary Economics, Part IV

Part IV of Michael Shermer's lecture on Evolutionary Economics...

Evolutionary Economics, Part III

Part III of Michael Shermer's lecture...

Evolutionary Economics, Part II

Part II of Michael Shermer's lecture...

Evolutionary Economics, Part I

A lecture by Michael Shermer at "The Amazing Meeting 5" on how the "invisible hand" of the market is to economics as "natural selection" is to evolution... or rather how they're actually the same.

Worse Than the Mob

Business is evil...

According to a study by the Media Research Center that examined 129 episodes of 12 major network shows during the May and November sweeps of 2005, corporate folks were 21 times more likely to commit a kidnapping or murder than mobsters, five times more likely than terrorists, and four times more likely than gang members. And if that's not enough of a black eye for the business community, Kevin Spacey -- one of a growing roster of Oscar winners who aren't ashamed of a comic book adaptation (and why should they be?) -- says he based his Superman Returns' villain, Lex Luthor, on Enron's Kenneth Lay.

Money and Capitalism

This well-done video makes an important distinction between the capitalism of free men and women, and "fraud ridden, government entwined" business.

Change We Can Believe In

Listening to all the candidates prattle on about "change," I am reminded of St. Augustine's prayer for chastity: "Lord, make me chaste. But not just yet."

I don't think these people really want change. If they did, they would be capitalists. Capitalists appreciate the kind of change that is most likely to bring the greatest benefits to the largest number of people. Capitalists understand how change comes from men who have the freedom to act, experiment, and make mistakes. If change is to be something more than a new set of rules administered by a new set of rulers, if it is going to truly be the discovery of something new and better, it must begin with confidence in a social order based on human freedom.

I don't hear any of these candidates talking about freedom as the first step to change. Their vision of change is dogmatic. It is not the change of free men. That would be ungovernable. What they offer is a change of masters.

The capitalist wants freedom first, and accepts change as a consequence. He knows that the only unacceptable outcome of freedom is the loss of freedom itself.

Treat Business Like Bees

Jonah Goldberg, author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, explains how government efforts to "fight" business end up blurring the distinction between the two.

From National Review:

What progressives, then and now, always fail to recognize is that the more government meddles in business, the more business meddles in government. The left thinks the rational response to the bear hug that business has around government is to hug back twice as hard. The real answer is to let go, let companies sink or swim. Don’t render them “too big to fail” because they provide health care or other benefits.

All of these people who want to “crack down” on big business are simply inviting companies into the tent, giving them incentives to buy politicians, votes and policies. Yes, end the subsidies. But also stop trying to use business as government by proxy. Of course, some minimal standards of conduct need to be enforced. But beyond that, it’s better to treat business like bees. If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.

What is the Bastiat Society?

Periodically, for the benefit of new visitors to this site, I like to explain the purpose of the Bastiat Society.

To put it simply, the Bastiat Society exists to remind business people that their idea of what is good must include, first and foremost, the noble work they do everyday, creating wealth, creating jobs, and solving the problems of other people.

A Positive Reading of American History

From an Economist review of Morton Keller's new book on American history, an encouraging conclusion for a populace suffering from a Presidential campaign that has gone on too long and with too little civility...

His conclusion is that: “This is still a Republic worth keeping, with a polity capable of doing the job.” Despite the waste and folly of its bureaucracy, despite the slander and polarisation of its election campaigns, America's system of government is extraordinarily robust and flexible. Though everyone grumbles that politicians are out of touch, both Republicans and Democrats in fact respond swiftly to shifts in the national mood. Mr Keller reckons that the biggest challenge facing the two parties is that young voters no longer inherit their parents' political loyalties. In 1984 voters under 30 were the most Republican age group; in 2004 they were the most Democratic. This is surely good: each generation should decide for itself.

Milton Friedman Smacks Naomi Klein!

The Five Sorry Rules of Lateness

From Michael Munger, Chair of Political Science at Duke University, something every business person can appreciate: The Five Sorry Rules of Lateness.

Rule 1. The busier the person, the less likely he or she is to be late.

Rule 2. The closer my office is to the room, the later I arrive at the meeting.

Rule 3. The first will be last.

Rule 4. If you've never missed a plane, you spend too much time in airports.

Rule 5. If you have never been early, it's no accident.

Late people are different. If you are always late, then that's bias, not error. How do you tell if this is you? It's not hard. Do you consistently walk into meetings breathing heavily, and say, "Oh, sorry I'm late. You wouldn't believe what happened this time. I had to [insert improbable events here]."

Of course, you were also late last time, for other improbable reasons. Since the reasons are different, you think there is no pattern. But there is. Oh, there is. Late-niks always time it so that if (a) there is no traffic, (b) they catch every light green, (c) they find a parking space right at the front door of the building, and (d) they left the meeting folder on top of their desk in plain view, then they would be just 10 seconds late.

But "something goes wrong:" traffic, red lights, no parking, folder under pile of papers. Now,these are all actually predictable parts of life, not hundred year floods. If you are always late, though for different reasons, then those reasons are no reasons at all.

So, rules 4 and 5 work together: If you have never been late, you are wasting your time. If you have never been early, you are wasting other peoples' time.

Unions

Colbert interviews "blue collar brute" Richard Freeman of Harvard University on unions, capitalists, chickens and eggs.

The Way Science Works

Modern science likes to think of itself as far above the superstition, intuition, and lucky hunches of the hoi polloi.

The reality is, scientists are fully paid-up members of the human race. They do, in fact, think like the rest of us. As Michael Shermer points out in Scientific American, many scientific discoveries begin with something like the thought, "Gee, that's weird." The resulting path of trial and error discovery, intuition, hunches and (yes) even superstition, in hindsight, gives the scientific process far more empirical certainty than it really had.

Shermer's article reminded me of F. A. Hayek's 1952 book, The Counter Revolution of Science, wherein he made the case that intellectuals were guilty of a terrible mistake when they tried to use what they thought was the methodology of science to explain complex social phenomenon like markets.

This "abuse of reason" was dangerous because, among other things, there was a considerable difference between the methods scientists said they used and the ones they actually used. In effect, Hayek argued, scientific method was developed ex post, not ex ante.

As Hayek wrote," The methods which scientists or men fascinated by the natural sciences have so often tried to force upon the social sciences were not always necessarily those which the scientists in fact followed in their own field, but rather those which they believed that they employed. This is not necessarily the same thing. The scientist reflecting and theorizing about this procedure is not always a reliable guide."

The Human Costs of Border Control

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto regularly makes the point that most people in developing countries don't want to live in the shadows of the legal economy; they are forced to do so by high social barriers that prevent them from acquiring legal title to property.

The same argument is true when discussing the topic of immigration. Very few immigrants want to be illegal. The vast majority would immigrate legally, if only the social barriers to legal immigration weren't so high.

Simply put, when the law does not accommodate human nature, human nature will seek accommodation outside the law.

Immigrants are not driven by the desire to cheat and steal something from another country. They are driven by the universal human desire to improve one's situation and the situation of one's family.

The solution to the problem of illegal immigration does not lie in making immigration more difficult or time-consuming. Such an effort will, in fact, only make illegal immigration more expensive and more dangerous. Consider this table from the Economist. Ten years ago, crossing the border from Mexico to Arizona cost about $350. Now, it costs as much as $3,000.

The solution to illegal immigration is to make it easier to immigrate legally. That is the only humane response to poor people from around the world who are willing to risk everything to build a better life in a new country.

Kathy Gornik on Free Trade

Kathy Gornik, president of co-founder, discusses the importance of international trade and how it has help grow Thiel Audio.

Thiel Audio on Why Lou Dobbs is Wrong

Kathy Gornik, president and co-founder of Thiel Audio, discusses why Lou Dobbs is wrong on trade.

Kathy is also the recipient of the first Bastiat Award in Business. The Bastiat Award in Business is given to a business person who demonstrates his or her commitment to the social and moral benefits of individual liberty and free trade.

Speakers 2007

January – Ben Rast, President of The Bastiat Society

Topic: “The Future of The Bastiat Society in 2007 and Beyond”

Ben Rast is the founder and senior partner of The Rast Group, a team focusing on financial planning and asset allocation in the Columbia office of Morgan Stanley. His team works with a limited number of individuals and institutions to develop appropriate investment and financial planning strategies.
He holds the title of Senior Vice President – Wealth Advisor, and is a Certified Financial PlannerTM professional. He is also an Estate Planning Consultant, through the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He completed executive education programs at the Stern School of Business, NYU. He ranks in the top seven percent of all Morgan Stanley financial advisors nationwide, and is a recognized leader in the firm.
Mr. Rast was formerly a weekly guest on NBC affiliate WIS-TV, the leading television news organization in the state. He hosted his own radio program for over thirteen years, and was a regular commentator on South Carolina Public Radio.
He has published numerous articles in local and national periodicals, including work for Barron’s. He is a member and past president of the SC Chapter of the Financial Planning Association. Mr. Rast frequently speaks to professional, civic, and fraternal groups on the topics of business, economics, investments and financial planning.
He has been an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College, has taught courses for the Department of Continuing Education at the University of South Carolina, and has served as an adjunct professor in the USC School of Business. Mr. Rast also has participated in continuing education for the South Carolina BAR.
Mr. Rast is a member of the Partnership Board of the SC Honors College, the Partnership Board of the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Palmetto Opera. He is a member of the Columbia Economics Club. He is Chairman of the SC Club for Growth.

February -Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Studies, Reason Foundation

Topic: “Commercializing Highways: A New Paradigm for 21st Century Roadways”

Robert Poole founded the Reason Foundation in 1978, and served as its president and CEO from then until the end of 2000. He was a member of the Bush-Cheney transition team in 2000. Over the years, he has advised the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations on privatization and transportation policy.
Poole is credited as the first person to use the term “privatization” to refer to the contracting-out of public services and is the author of the first-ever book on privatization, Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980. He is also editor of the books Instead of Regulation: Alternatives to Federal Regulatory Agencies (Lexington Books, 1981), Defending a Free Society (Lexington Books, 1984), and Unnatural Monopolies (Lexington Books, 1985). He also co-edited the book Free Minds & Free Markets: 25 Years of Reason (Pacific Research Institute, 1993).
Poole has written hundreds of articles, papers, and policy studies on privatization and transportation issues. His popular writings have appeared in national newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and numerous other publications. He has also been a guest on network television programs such as Good Morning America, NBC’s Nightly News, ABC’s World News Tonight, and the CBS Evening News. Poole writes a monthly column on transportation issues for Public Works Financing.
Poole earned his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and did graduate work in operations research at New York University.

March - Dr. Yaron Brook, President of the Ayn Rand Institute

Topic: “The Moral Foundations of Capitalism”

Dr. Brook is a prominent advocate for Objectivism, a pro-business philosophy originated by novelist Ayn Rand. As president of the Ayn Rand Institute, an educational organization based in California, he appears frequently on national TV and radio to discuss financial and economic issues from the Objectivist viewpoint. He is a regular guest on CNBC’s “On the Money” for his expertise on a wide range of questions and events related to the business world. Many of his recent interviews have dealt with business-related individual rights issues, such as property and patent rights violations in antitrust regulations and free speech rights violations in Internet censorship cases.
A popular speaker at corporations, universities and community groups, Dr. Brook is known for his pro-capitalist ideas and his passionate speaking style. His talk “Why Conservatives are Anti-Business,” challenges the common notion that conservatives are allies of business and capitalism. He has also developed a series of multi-day seminars on business ethics which he delivers to corporations in the United States and abroad.
As a writer, Dr. Brook has been published in several newspapers and business journals. His most recent editorial on CEO pay appeared in USA Today. His academic publications include articles in The Journal of Investing and The Journal of Corporate Finance.
Dr. Brook is also an expert on foreign policy in the Middle East and recently co-authored an article called “‘Just War Theory’ vs. American Self-Defense,” which appeared in the inaugural issue of The Objective Standard, a new journal on the culture and politics.
Before joining the Ayn Rand Institute, Dr. Brook lived in Israel. He served in the Israeli military intelligence and received his B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. In 1987 he moved to the United States and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his MBA and Ph.D. in Finance. For seven years he was a finance professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, where he designed an award-winning MBA and undergraduate class on “Ethics and Finance.” He later co-founded a conferencing business, Lyceum International, and in 1998 he co-founded a financial advisory firm, BH Equity Research, for which he is presently managing director and chairman.

April - Jane Shaw, executive vice-president of the J.W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a Raleigh-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and the nation.

Topic: “Putting Higher Standards Back into Higher Education.”

May - John Blundell, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, London. The IEA is the UK’s original free-market think-tank, founded in 1955. The IEA’s goal is to explain free-market ideas to the public, including politicians, students, journalists, businessmen, academics and anyone i nterested in public policy. The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analyzing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.
Topic: “Achieving Change: What We Can Learn From Margaret Thatcher.”

June - Dr. Ed Hudgins

Edward Hudgins is the executive director of The Atlas Society and publisher of that organization’s magazine, The New Individual.Topic: Why Americans Are Confused About Freedom and What We Can Do About It

July

“Jeremiah, Milton Friedman, and Liberty”

ABOUT BOB CHITESTER

Bob Chitester is President and CEO of the Palmer R. Chitester Fund, Chitester Creative Associates, Inc. and The Idea Channel®; and is managing partner of Free to Choose Enterprise. These companies produce television programs and program elements, create and operate web sites, create print and CD-ROM materials, and distribute curriculum materials to high schools and colleges.

In 1977, Mr. Chitester convinced Milton Friedman to undertake a project which became, Free to Choose, an award winning PBS TV series and an international best selling book based on the series. Over 25 years later the series and book are still in wide use and have been notably influential. Mart Laar, first Prime Minister of a free Estonia and recent winner of the Friedman Prize, used Free to Choose as a guide in setting policies that gave Estonia a thriving economy.

August

“Putting Sound Economics into Politics”

About Chad Walldorf

Chad’s first government experience came when he took a year off from college to serve in President Reagan’s Office of Political Affairs. After the 1988 election cycle, Chad left the White House to return to the University of Virginia. Shortly after graduating, he and two high school friends moved to Mount Pleasant to create the first Sticky Fingers restaurant.

Their original concept has grown to over 1000 employees in their sixteen restaurants, catering, mail order, and wholesale businesses. Chad and his partners have been named Ernst and Young “Entrepreneurs of the Year” for the Carolinas as well as the Lowcountry’s “Most Philanthropic Company.”

In 2003 Chad took a two-year sabbatical from his business to serve as a Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Mark Sanford.

September

The Bastiat Society was excited to host the South Carolina Premiere of Mine Your Own Business, by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinne, as our monthly Bastiat Meeting for September.

The film was shown at the American Theatre, 446 King Street in Charleston.

“Move over Michael Moore. You have competition in the art of political film making…but instead of advancing the cause of smug liberal hypocrisy, he’s [McAleer] debunking it.” – Wall Street Journal Online

www.mineyourownbusiness.org

October

Dane Starbuck, author of the official biography of James and Pierre Goodrich.

ABOUT DANE STARBUCK

James Goodrich (father) and Pierre Goodrich (son) built a successful business dynasty in Indiana during the first half of the 20th century. Pierre then used the family fortune to build a legacy of education and philanthropy, including the unique accomplishment of establishing the Liberty Fund, Inc. of Indianapolis, a non-profit educational foundation that promotes the study of a society of free and responsible individuals.

Every year, Liberty Fund sponsors hundreds of conferences around the world for professionals and academics. It also publishes an extensive list of classic texts on social theory.

Dane Starbuck is an attorney in private practice and member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Fund, Inc. His quest for knowledge has taken him from Huntington College (B.A. in English, magna cum laude) to Indiana University (M.A. in English Literature) to the University of Melbourne in Australia (M.A. in English Literature and Language with Honors) to Oxford University in England (B.A. and M.A. in Jurisprudence) to Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.).


November

The Separation of School and State: The Case for Abolishing America’s Government Schools

Brad Thompson from the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism.

Why do so many Americans support a compulsory system of government-run education? What role should the State play in educating America’s children? Are government schools compatible with a free society? Is it possible to have a free market in education?

C. Bradley Thompson will examine the destructive effects of “public” education in America. He will critique the principal assumptions behind government schooling, and he will call for fully private system of education.

Thompson will present a principled argument for a free market in education that begins with the rights and responsibilities of parents to provide for the education of their own children.

ABOUT BRAD THOMPSON

C. Bradley Thompson is the BB&T Research Professor at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of London.
Professor Thompson is the author of the prize-winning book John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. He has also edited The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader and was an associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. His current book project is on “The Ideological Origins of American Constitutionalism.”

Dr. Thompson is also an occasional writer for The Times Literary Supplement of London. He has lectured around the country on education reform and the American Revolution, and his op-ed essays have appeared in scores of newspapers around the country and abroad. Dr. Thompson’s lectures on the political thought of John Adams have twice appeared on C-SPAN television.

What Won't Work

Over at EconLog, Arnold Kling offers a short explanation of why a single-payer health care system won't work...

On health care, I am certain that a single-payer system will not produce enough efficiency to solve the financial problems of health care. After all, Medicare is more fiscally unsound than our private health care system. As an aside, while I was in St. Louis we had dinner with a retired doctor. She told of an incident where, as a patient, she went to see a dermatologist about a rash. The dermatologist looked at her and told she was fine. This proved to be correct. However, he billed Medicare for $700 for surgery. She called Medicare to report the fraud, and, after she finally got through after considerable time in voice-mail hell, the person told her that, "No, everything is fine. Our records show that you had the surgery."

The Barrier Between Capitalism and Democracy

Robert Reich, in a letter to the New York Review of Books, defends his new book, Supercapitalism, and posits his solution to the cacophony of business lobbyists that he says overwhelms the democratic process, and makes it impossible to hear "citizen values" in Washington.

He says the solution "...lies in erecting a more effective barrier between the economy and politics, between capitalism and democracy. That way, we as consumers can enjoy the benefits of the former, as informed by the citizen values we express in the latter.

The question left hanging in the air is who tore down the barriers between capitalism and democracy in the first place? In some cases, it was businessmen who successfully used the government to crush their competition and loot their customers. In other cases, it was ambitious politicians who used government to indiscriminately loot the wealthy. Either way, the barrier between capitalism and democracy never had a chance...so long as democracy possessed the power to make one group rich and another group poor.

Perhaps the best way to keep business out of government and government out of business is to limit the power of government, period. A healthy concern about the size of government may be the most important "citizen value" of all.

Power and Greed

Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards says corporate power and corporate greed threaten everything Americans hold dear.

Here is my comment, posted on The Nation's blog:

How can progressives insist that human nature is irredeemably corrupt when it works for a corporation, and then put all their faith in the belief that human nature becomes positively angelic when it collects a government paycheck -- so much so that it can be trusted with nearly unlimited power over the labor, property, and lives of others?

Corporate power and corporate greed are nothing compared to the nightmares of government power and government greed.

Millions and Millions Served

From George Will, a rarely heard and desperately needed cheer for one of the icons of American business: McDonald's.

McDonald's exemplifies the role of small businesses in Americans' upward mobility. The company is largely a confederation of small businesses: 85 percent of its U.S. restaurants -- average annual sales, $2.2 million -- are owned by franchisees. McDonald's has made more millionaires, and especially black and Hispanic millionaires, than any other economic entity ever, anywhere.

What Will doesn't mention is the hard work that goes into running a successful restaurant. It begins with the headaches that go with managing squadrons of mostly young people. Small business owners all say the same thing: finding, getting and keeping good employees is their biggest challenge.

What happens without good employees? Imagine getting the same call, every day at 4:30 am, explaining why yet another employee cannot make it to work. Now you have to scramble to fill holes in your staffing.

Imagine investing everything you have in a venture where you rely exclusively on the good will of customers who spend less than five or six dollars apiece, and who expect their orders filled in a few minutes and without error, sometimes for twenty four hours a day. Imagine being in a business where, just to pay your taxes, you must successfully conclude hundreds of transactions each hour. The hours are long, the work is hard, and profits accumulate very slowly. McDonald's didn't make those millionaires. They made themselves.

The story of McDonald's and its franchisees is yet another example of the truth in the statement that a profitable business, honestly run, is one of mankind's greatest and least appreciated achievements.

Evolution and Economics

From Scientific American, a nice summary of economics as a complex, adaptive process, with a hat-tip to Bastiat and von Mises.

Evolution and economics are not just analogous to each other, but they are actually two forms of a larger phenomenon called complex adaptive systems, in which individual elements, parts or agents interact, then process information and adapt their behavior to changing conditions. Immune systems, ecosystems, language, the law and the Internet are all examples of complex adaptive systems.

In biological evolution, nature selects from the variation produced by random genetic mutations and the mixing of parental genes. Out of that process of cumulative selection emerges complexity and diversity. In economic evolution, our material economy proceeds through the production and selection of numerous permutations of countless products.

Radical Chic

From Reuters, via Reason...

From Reuters, the tale of a stammering representative of the bolibourgeoise who treated reporters to a stinging denunciation of capitalism...while wearing a $180 Louis Vuitton tie and $500 Gucci shoes:

A video of a Gucci- and Louis Vuitton-clad politician attacking capitalism then struggling to explain how his luxurious clothes square with his socialist beliefs has become an instant YouTube hit in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Pedro Carreno was momentarily at a loss for words when a journalist interrupted his speech and asked if it was not contradictory to criticize capitalism while wearing Gucci shoes and a tie made by Parisian luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton.

"I don't, uh ... I ... of course," stammered Carreno on Tuesday before regaining his composure. "It's not contradictory because I would like Venezuela to produce all this so I could buy stuff produced here instead of 95 percent of what we consume being imported." The video clip had been viewed more than 15,000 times on Thursday, a day after it was posted on the YouTube Web site.

America's Best Companies

One of the things that is most exciting and challenging about business is how quickly things change. Consider the 2008 version of Forbes magazine's list of America's Best Big Companies. Of the 400 companies on the list in 2007, 165 did not make it to the list in 2008. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Cheap Socks

Not very long ago, darning socks was a valuable personal skill.

Today, outside of the company of eccentrics who enjoy things like dressing up in period costumes and pretending for a mercifully short time that they don't live in the 21st century, finding someone who actually knows how to darn a sock is a challenge.

Why? Because socks used to be too expensive to throw away. Now, socks are so inexpensive, we would rather buy a new pair than spend time mending an old one.

Lost a sock in the wash? Don't despair. They're so cheap, you can buy another pair without regret. Only the curious, not the needy, spend time looking for a sock match at Lonely Socks.

What brought the human race to the point where socks with holes are disposable items, not precious clothing in constant need of repair? It wasn't the might of armies or the wealth of kings. It wasn't the will of history. It wasn't charity. It wasn't grand theories self-sacrifice and service to humanity.

One thing and one thing only made socks cheap enough to lose and throw away: self-interested business, trying to make a profit in the manufacture, distribution and retail of something as simple as a pair of socks.

One of mankind's greatest and least appreciated achievements is a profitable business, honestly run.

"The Lives of Others"

At the beginning of the Oscar-winning movie "The Lives of Others," East German Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler is teaching a class on interrogating the enemies of socialism. To illustrate his point, Wiesler uses a tape of his interrogation of a suspect known only as Prisoner 227.

"You think we imprison people on a whim?" Wiesler asks. "If you think our humanistic system capable of such a thing, that alone would justify your arrest." With chilling efficiency, Wiesler breaks down Prisoner 227. He dismisses the class with the warning, "Your subjects are the enemies of socialism. Never forget that."

What happens next makes this a "must-see" movie for anyone seriously interested in the issue of individual liberty. The trailer below sets the mood.

Fascinating Uncertainty

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.”

Carl von Clausewitz, On War
(1780 - 1831)

International Business

We often hear that business must be more international -- or, to use a politically correct term, diverse -- or, to use another politically correct term, multicultural.

Whatever term you prefer, I offer the uniquely [insert preferred term here] world atlas, Our Dumb World, found at the humor-infested news site The Onion.

Warning: this atlas is designed to offend everyone.

This week's featured country:

"Iran: A Possible Threat to the Free World, Maybe"
"National Hazards: None. Just don't touch that button."

Disturbing Inventions

Business, at its best, is inventive. Sometimes we don't like inventive. It annoys us. It disturbs our social order, at least until we figure out where and when to use it. Take spam, for instance.

From the pages of the best magazine in the world, The Economist, here is the fascinating story of the invention of spam, and its social consequences. Hint: blame the dentists.

ON A May evening in 1864, several British politicians were disturbed by a knock at the door and the delivery of a telegram—a most unusual occurrence at such a late hour. Had war broken out? Had the queen been taken ill? They ripped open the envelopes and were surprised to find a message relating not to some national calamity, but to dentistry. Messrs Gabriel, of 27 Harley Street, advised that their dental practice would be open from 10am to 5pm until October. Infuriated, some of the recipients of this unsolicited message wrote to the Times. “I have never had any dealings with Messrs Gabriel,” thundered one of them, “and beg to know by what right do they disturb me by a telegram which is simply the medium of advertisement?” The Times helpfully reprinted the offending telegram, providing its senders with further free publicity.

This was, notes Matthew Sweet, a historian, the first example of what is known today as “spam”. It shows that new communications technologies have been prompting questions about etiquette ever since the advent of the telegraph in the 19th century. The pattern is always the same: a new technology emerges on the scene, and nobody can be quite sure how it will be employed, or the appropriate etiquette for its use. So users have to make up the rules as they go along.

Enjoy the entire article here. Learn calling etiquette in Sweden and whether or not to answer your phone on a train in Japan.

Specific Brilliant Visions

What is a corporation? Why does it exist?

The answers to these questions will determine your standard of living.

Brad Edmonds, writing for the Mises Daily Article, does a nice job summarizing the positive case for corporations.

Corporations owe their existence to the fact that, for hundreds of years, mankind has enjoyed technology that allows a single wily entrepreneur to improve the standard of living of millions of people. A single idea, such as the automobile, can bring about major changes for all of us. Many such important ideas are difficult to realize without the aggregated savings of hundreds or thousands of individuals. Hence the invention of the corporation: a fictional legal entity, a set of relationships governed by contract and statute, that makes possible great accumulations of wealth that can be focused on specific brilliant visions.

Simply stated, corporations allow us to enjoy the productive genius of our fellow humans in ways that would not otherwise be possible. A shackled corporation is shackled genius.

"The Great Global Warming Swindle"

Link: sevenload.com

Individual Rights and Terrorism

I posted the following comments at Reason, in response to an article on the Randian Congressman John Campbell of California. Although he's a strong proponent of limited government and lower taxes, Campbell has no problem supporting the government's request for easier surveillance.

Reason quotes him as saying, “I’m very much a privacy guy...It’s something I feel strongly about. But there’s something I feel even more strongly about: I don’t want to be blown up. I am willing to give them some limited access to my phone records because of this war on terror.”

Of course, voicing support for easier surveillance attracts the just wrath of civil libertarians. They are concerned that rights, once sacrificed, will not be restored. All too often, that has been the pattern in history.

On the other hand, which is worse, a permanent loss of privacy or the permanent loss of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent lives? And one thing is absolutely certain: fewer civil liberties will be lost preventing terror than will be lost after a terrorist event.

My comments:

The only justification for war, taxation, and loss of privacy is the prevention of even greater war, taxation, and loss of privacy.

Unfortunately, events don't often present themselves in the form of a simple calculation of cost and benefit. To a large extent, we make many of our most important decisions on the basis of hope more than on the basis of sure knowledge.

Only time will tell whether the war in Iraq was a mistake or a success. It certainly will be one or the other. The final measure will not be the process. It will be the result.

Big Business (Heart) Big Government

From Reason, the disturbing comments of Congressman John Campbell (R, CA), a "pork-busting Randian":

“Of the first 50 meetings I had after I was elected,” he tells me, “47 were with businesses asking me for money. I was just stunned. Gee, I didn’t know I was just an ATM machine for taxpayer’s money.”

During the floor debate over the defense appropriations bill, Campbell honed in on a $2 million earmark for Sherwin-Williams, a paint company that is developing a “paint shield” for military vehicles. In the process, he locked horns with the fearsome chair­man of the Defense Appropriations Committee, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). To everyone’s surprise, Campbell cleaned the 33-year congressman’s clock.

After Murtha rambled about how the military probably wanted the paint shield earmark even though it wasn’t on its “priority list,” Campbell pounced. “Mr. Chairman,” he said, “you said you’re ‘sure’ the military [wants it]. So you’re not aware if, in fact, the military has asked for this kind of technology?”

Campbell kept his eyes trained on the Democrat. Murtha didn’t have anything to say.

“I guess the answer to that is no,” Campbell said.

Of course, the House isn’t a debat­ing club. The earmark survived any­way.

"The Law," (Part 9 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 8 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 7 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 6 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 5 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 4 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 3 of 9)

"The Law," (Part 2 of 9)

Bastiat's, "The Law" (Part 1 of 9)

Here's a well-done online audio reading of Bastiat's, "The Law." If you'd like to read along, here's a pdf of the text from the Foundation for Economic Education.

The Man in the Street

Unless you are one of those people who has made a conscious decision to abstain from television, you have seen more than you want to of those "man in the street" commercials from British Petroleum (BP), where earnest men and women offer sixty seconds of commentary on bio fuels, solar power, or energy conservation.

These ads are expensive, but I am not concerned that someone at BP thinks it is a swell idea to spend millions of shareholder dollars to broadcast randomly collected snippets of energy policy from people who may have little or no energy industry experience. After all, CSPAN found a reason to exist by broadcasting what the people in Congress say, and it is hard to imagine a larger group of people who are ready to pontificate about everything.

No, it is not the possible waste of money that concerns me about BP's commercials. What worries me is the thought that someone at the company might actually take these ideas seriously. That would be like a surgeon walking up to a random person on the street and asking, "What do you think we should do about Mr. Jones' tumor?" Not exactly the best way to gather informed opinion, don't you agree?

If BP hopes its "man in the street" commercials will buy it some good PR before its next PR nightmare, good luck. If BP thinks its commercials will sell more stuff and make more money, good luck. But if BP actually tries to run one of the world's largest energy companies on the basis of what the "man in the street" thinks it should do, God help us.

Paris is (Still) Burning

When a country is free, prosperous, and powerful, it can count on a great deal of European carping about its success, especially from those countries that used to be free, prosperous and powerful, and perhaps even more from those countries that wanted to be be, but never made it.

In short, envy motivates much of the political and intellectual criticism directed against the United States. Not that the US is blameless. That title may rest safely on the act of an individual, but never on a nation. Get enough people together, and someone will behave badly, just like in college, only with real money and full responsibility. Unless you're a Congressman or an English professor. Then you get to pretend you're in college your entire career.

But I digress. Writing in Reason, Michael Moynihan takes down European hubris a notch or two by reminding them of their self righteous analysis of the Columbine massacre: "blame Charlton Heston."

I'm sorry. I missed something. Was he actually at Columbine?

Now people are rioting in France. Again. If it weren't such an abuse of common sense, it might actually be entertaining to see how French intellectuals struggle to differentiate violence in the United States from mob violence in France. Recall that it was the French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (image) who said of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, terrorism "is a terrible weapon but the oppressed poor have no others."

Subprime Humor

Subprime humor from the UK...

Fred Smith at December Meeting

Fred L. Smith, Jr., the President and Founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, will be the speaker at the December, 2007 monthly meeting of the Bastiat Society.

His topic will be "Corporate Social Responsibility."

Fred combines the intellectual and strategic analysis of complex policy issues ranging from the environment to corporate governance with an informative and entertaining presentation style. Well-known in academic and professional circles, Fred is a popular speaker at universities and conferences around the world.

Date: Wednesday, December 5th
Hors d'oeuvres: 5 pm
Presentation: 6 pm
Location: 175 King Street, Imaging Arts Gallery, Charleston, SC
RSVP: Stephanie.whitener@imagingarts.com

Kant, Revisited

Revisiting the discussion of the impact of the ideas of the German philospher Immanuel Kant on the way business ethics is taught, I received the following email from philosopher Nicholas Capaldi, the Legendre-Soule Distinguished Chair in Business Ethics at Loyola University in New Orleans.

Nick's email told me I have more to learn and like about Kant, but I'm not likely to learn it while reading books on business ethics.

"Business ethicists have misinterpreted Kant. Kant was a classical liberal; this comes out clearly in his historical essays. Most business ethicists are second-rate philosophers who invoke abstractions from philosophical literature without really understanding them.

One could argue, on Kantian grounds, that the redistribution of wealth is treating some individuals as means and not as ends."

In a sense, business ethicists who inappropriately borrow ideas from philosophy are like economists who inappropriately borrow equations from physics. Each tries to gain intellectual respectability for his own work by mimicking the terminology and methodology of another, more respected field of study.

Stakeholder Theory

One of the most influential ideas on modern business has been the stakeholder theory of the corporation, first proposed by William E. Evan and R. Edward Freeman in 1988.

Their idea was to replace the view that a firm has a primary obligation to its shareholders with the view that a corporation has a responsibility to every group affected by its actions. Evan and Freeman called these groups "stakeholders," and they included suppliers, customers, employees, stockholders, and the local community.

Far more than simply saying that a firm must be legally responsible for its actions, stakeholder theory gives these various groups legal claims on the resources of the firm, and powerful roles to play in its governance. Stakeholder terminology has been rapidly adopted by individuals and organizations that want to appear socially responsible, democratic, or progressive.

But before we make stakeholder theory the new norm for corporate governance, we should ask the questions: Is stakeholder theory logical? Is it possible to successfully run a firm using these ideas?

In a word, the answer to both questions is "No."

Stakeholder theory does not work because every decision quickly becomes political. First, it gives one group of people the privilege to control something owned by another group. Then, in a world where everyone has an equal claim on the resources of a third party, someone unequal must decide the outcome of competing and irreconcilable claims. That someone is almost always the state.

For example, if one group wants a plant to stay open because it fears rising unemployment, and another group wants the plant closed because it fears environmental degradation, who or what shall decide? Someone must, in the chilling words of Freeman, decide what is "in the interest of the collective." In a world ruled by the rights of owners, owners would decide. In a world ruled by the equal claims of all, only the government can decide.

If you want to see what a world looks like when it is run according to stakeholder theory, look at the defunct USSR. The picture that accompanies this post was taken during the collectivization campaign in the USSR during the 1930s. The slogan reads: "We kolkhoz farmers, on the basis of complete collectivization, will liquidate the kulaks as a class."

The kulaks were farmers who owned their own property. The kolkhoz were the stakeholders who claimed it, in the interest of the collective.

At its heart, stakeholder theory is a naive intuition about the way people should live, not a realistic version of the way they actually do. It is a diluted version of the old collectivist dream, dressed up for Western business schools, but as dangerous as ever.

Cartoon

From "Decline of the Old Right" by Murray Rothbard, available at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

What Moves Markets

Some useful thoughts on the mysterious forces that move markets from Roger C. Gibson, author of Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk:

"Thus, when it comes to predicting short-term stock market movements, it is not of any value to know whether we are at war or at peace, have a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, or have been in an economic expansion or a contraction. What, then, moves the market? It is moved by information relevant to the pricing of investments that was not previously known. In essence, it is the surprises that no one sees coming that trigger price movements to establish new equilibriums in the markets. These surprises themselves are random events. Occasionally there are more good surprises than bad, and we have a bull market. Other times the reverse is true, and we have a bear market. There will always be bulls and bears, but the evidence indicates that there is no consistent way to predict the turning points."

Kant Can't Be Right

Unbeknownst to many business people, their actions today are often evaluated by accredited experts according to the ethical theory of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804).

Kant maintained that people should always behave as if their actions were going to become universal law. He also stated that we should never think of other people as simply a means to our ends. We should deal with other people only as ends in themselves.

Kant's ethical theory has lead many a modern business ethicist to preach the idea that self-interested business activity is inherently unethical. These modern Kantians argue that business needs an ethical overhaul, and they are just the guys to do it.

However, there is a fatal logical flaw in their argument. Kant's insistence on a standard of "universal law" for ethical behavior assumes that man's rational mind can correctly identify each and every action that should be a universal law, and all of its consequences.

That is one great, big assumption. So big, in fact, that even a casual student of history must sardonically say to our dead German philosopher and all of his living disciples, "Viel Erfolg" ("I wish you success").

The reality is that the human mind is pitifully limited in its ability to discover universal laws, and even more limited in its ability to confidently predict the consequences of all of its actions.

Rather than theorize omniscience and god-like selflessness, business ethicists should look at what works in a world of limited knowledge and self-interested individuals.

A Mutually Beneficial Proposal

From the irrepressible economist, Don Boudreaux:

"Iran’s president Ahmadinejad insists that the dollar is "a worthless piece of paper." I'm happy to relieve him of the burden of holding valueless scrip. I invite President Ahmadinejad, and everyone else who shares his assessment of the dollar, to mail to me every one of their worthless pieces of paper. I'll even pay the postage. "

Entrepreneurs and Managers

Entrepreneurs are agents of change. They explore design space in search of something that works. Managers exploit a successful design. Together, they make modern business.

Modern Messiah

Something in human nature needs one person who personifies hope. Is it a good idea?

Ditch the Rich Hits

Writing in the National Review, Jonah Goldberg reflects on those who would improve the United States by taxing "the rich"...

"I don’t know what the best tax rates are, for rich or poor. But I’m pretty sure that it’s unhealthy for a democracy when the majority of citizens don’t see government as a service they’re reluctantly paying for but as an extortionist that cuts them in for a share of the loot."

Friedman Takes Donahue to School

In his book "Capitalism and Freedom" (1962) Milton Friedman (1912-2006) advocated minimizing the role of government in a free market as a means of creating political and social freedom.

An excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979.

Church, Dictator or Majority

"The political principle that underlies the political mechanism is conformity. The individual must serve a more general social interest -- whether that be determined by a church or a dictator or a majority. The individual may have a vote and say in what is to be done, but if he is overruled, he must conform. It is appropriate for some to require others to contribute to a general social purpose whether they wish to or not."

Milton Friedman, "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits," The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970

We Won the Peace

This report from CNBC is proof that in Vietnam, the United States lost the war, but won the peace. Vietnam today is more capitalist than communist.

The tourists, great beaches, luxury hotels, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and more cars than bicycles on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City all make me wonder: was capitalism inevitable in Vietnam because it is the economic system that fits human nature best, or did the death and destruction of the Vietnam war have anything to do with this outcome? Was the war utterly pointless, or did it provide some unintended cultural benefit for the prosperous Vietnamese of today?

The transmission of superior cultural institutions is not always pretty or painless. And one generation's agony quickly becomes another generation's dusty history.

The Ten Commandments

Jaroslav Romanchuk, Executive Director of the Scientific Mises Research Center in Minsk, Belarus, has ten commandments of real corporate social responsibility. They are:

1. Thou shall not ask for government subsidies.

2. Thou shall not use state officials to kill competitors.

3. Thou shall not ask for privileges for your business.

4. Thou shall not support trade protectionism.

5. Thou shall not take part in government programs.

6. Thou shall support political competition and an independent court.

7. Thou shall support transparency of your own finances and the public finances.

8. Thou shall live by law, not by its bureaucratic interpretations.

9. Thou shall support a man in need.

10. Thou shall be a partner of the local community.

The Mises Research Center is the winner of the 2007 Templeton Freedom Prize for Initiative in Public Relations.

Not Cadillac Care: Trabant Care

This short film, The Lemon, demonstrates how much single-payer health care systems have in common with the failed economic systems of Soviet-era eastern Europe.

It is written, directed, produced, edited and narrated by Stuart Browning

The Lemon is part of the Free Market Cure Video Series created by Browning to inform Americans about the dangers of collectivized medicine and the benefits of free markets in health care.

Browning states he has received no funding from the health insurance industry or the health care industry.

Empty Phrases

Thomas Sowell, in a column for National Review, unloads on two popular but empty phrases: "giving back" and "making a difference."

On "making a difference"...

"I would be scared to death to “make a difference” in the way pilots fly airliners or brain surgeons operate. Any difference I might make could be fatal to many people.

Making a difference makes sense only if you are convinced that you have mastered the subject at hand to the point where any difference you might make would be for the better.

Very few people have mastered anything that well beyond their own limited circle of knowledge. Even fewer seem to think far enough ahead to consider that question. Yet hardly a day goes by without news of some uninformed busybodies on one crusade or another...

Among those who make a difference by serving food to the homeless, how many have considered the history of societies which have made idleness easy for great numbers of people?

How many have studied the impact of drunken idlers on other people in their own society, including children who come across their needles in the park — if they dare to go to the parks?"

On "giving back"...

"Giving back” is a similarly mindless mantra. I have donated money, books, and blood for people I have never seen and to whom I owe nothing. Nor is that unusual among Americans, who do more of this than anyone else.

But we are not “giving back” anything to those people because we never took anything from them in the first place."

Business in the Swamp of San Francisco

Late in his life, the legendary Civil War general William T. Sherman remarked about his time as the president of a bank in real-estate-speculation-mad San Francisco: "I can handle a hundred thousand men in battle, and take the City of the Sun, but am afraid to manage a lot in the swamp of San Francisco."

The Tragedy of the Commons

From Econtalk...

Bruce Yandle of Clemson University and George Mason University's Mercatus Center looks at the tragedy of the commons and the various ways that people have avoided the overuse of resources that are held in common. Examples discussed include fisheries, roads, rivers and the air. Yandle talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the historical use of norms, cooperative ventures such as incorporating a river, the common law, and top-down command-and-control regulation to reduce air and water pollution.

They Will Remember My Carbuncles

From Scientific American, something you didn't know about Karl Marx...

"Workers of the world, unite!: You have nothing to lose but your—pustules!"
Karl Marx may have erred in predicting the "withering away" of the state under communism, but he got one thing right: "The bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying day," he wrote in an 1867 letter to his longtime collaborator Friedrich Engels, referring to painful boils on his rump and nether regions. In a paper slated for the January British Journal of Dermatology, dermatology professor Sam Shuster of the University of East Anglia concludes from Marx's correspondences that the radical 19th-century political theorist suffered from hidradenitis suppurativa, a blockage and chronic inflammation of the sweat glands in the armpits and groin that can cause painful boillike lumps, swelling and scarring. The unsightly pustules made it hard for Marx to work and may have contributed to the alienation and self-loathing expressed in his writings, Shuster told Reuters. The revolutionary consoled himself by noting that it was at least a "proletarian disease."

Liberation Technology

In some of the poorest nations of Africa, cell phone subscriptions are growing at a rate of 100% per year. This makes large parts of Africa a study in dramatically contrasting details, cell phone societies without running water.

As any successful innovation must, the mobile phone is transforming African society. In Kenya, a person living on $1 a day can buy an old cell phone for $10 in Cell Phone Alley, and instantly join a communication network that leaps from village to village. Before, news traveled at a walk or a run. Now, news about weather, crops, cattle, what people are buying and what they are not, travels around the country almost instantly.

The social transformation extends well beyond more speed and profits. Cheap phone calls and flash messaging make it nearly impossible for the governments in these nations to control opinions and information the way they used to. More than just a convenience, mobile telecommunication is a liberation technology.

"Science Isn't Special"

These paragraphs from Michael Crichton's new novel, Next, are classic Crichton: truth in the guise of fiction.

"Fraud in science is not rare, and it's not limited to fringe players. The most respected researchers and institutions have been caught with faked data. Even Francis Collins, the head of NIH's Human Genome Project, was listed as co-author on five faked papers that had to be withdrawn.

The ultimate lesson is that science isn't special -- at least not anymore. maybe back when Einstein talked to Niels Bohr, and there were only a few dozen important workers in every field. But there are now three million researchers in America. It's no longer a calling, it's a career. Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other. Its practitioners aren't saints, they're human beings, and they do what human beings do -- lie, cheat, steal from one another, sue, hide data, fake data, overstate their own importance and denigrate opposing views unfairly. That's human nature. It isn't going to change."

The Ultimate Resource

In the promo for a new documentary, see what happens when ordinary people are given the necessary tools to help themselves. Scheduled for broadcast on PBS stations November 2, at 8 pm Eastern.



From Free to Choose Media.