The Bastiat Society

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

"In Does Education Matter?, Wolf illustrates the absurdity of the increase-the-graduates/increase-the-growth logic by reference to the high remuneration of lawyers. That is, given lawyers’ high wages, having more lawyers would surely mean that there are more and more people earning more and more dough, and therefore in total, society is becoming more and more wealthy."

sp!ked review of books | Hollowing out the ivory tower

Diane Ravitch: Teachers' Hero or Education Hypocrite?

"Yet whatever one makes of her overall, the writing of both old and new Diane contain important and useful Hayekian insights that critics and fans (again, both old and new) who care about education would do well to consider."

Diane Ravitch: Teachers' Hero or Education Hypocrite? - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic

Our Untransparent President

"This is a lesson in “trust us.” Those in power are always certain that they themselves will act reasonably, and they resist limits on their own discretion. The problem is, “trust us” is no way to run a self-governing society."

Our Untransparent President - NYTimes.com

Capitalist Ideas May be Innate

"Americans have indicated avid opposition to property rights violations throughout the course of U.S. history, whether those violations take the form of taxation, eminent domain, or “open space” laws. According to one psychologist, that sense of being wronged when one’s property rights are violated may be innate, as property ownership may be a natural-born attribute.

Scientific Evidence Proves Capitalist Ideas May be Innate

Saturday, June 25, 2011

State Surplus Store

"Need a knife? A snow globe? A grenade-shaped belt buckle? Someone may have left one for you at a Texas airport."

State Surplus Store Has Your Dangerous Snow Globes, Belts - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Friday, June 24, 2011

Bastiat on Business - June 24, 2011

Frederic Bastiat on the redistribution of wealth, or what he describes as legal plunder.

In The Law, Bastiat explains that the redistribution of wealth is theft which has been legalized. He explains that anyone can identify legalized plunder by asking yourself the following:

"See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime."

The Law and Charity

Exerpt from "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat
Translated from the French by Dean Russell
Published by: Foundation for Economic Education - Irvington-on-Hudson, New York

You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in. If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law then plunders nobody. But this procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not promote equality of income. The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.

With this in mind, examine the protective tariffs, subsidies, guaranteed profits, guaranteed jobs, relief and welfare schemes, public education, progressive taxation, free credit, and public works. You will find that they are always based on legal plunder, organized injustice.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Obama Growth Gap

"America is becoming a European-style welfare state and it is unavoidable that we will suffer from European-style economic malaise."

Nobel Prize Winner Analyzes The Obama Growth Gap - Business in The Beltway - Money & Politics - Forbes

Price Gouging Laws Hurt Storm Victims

"Outrage is always cheap, disaster or no disaster, but a storm victim can’t rebuild a house with your anger. That requires labor, and it requires resources–labor and resources that don’t materialize when the price isn’t allowed to rise."

Price Gouging Laws Hurt Storm Victims - Art Carden - The Economic Imagination - Forbes

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Passionate Heart of Commerce - Doug French - Mises Daily

By: Doug French of Mises Daily

There are few movies or miniseries that depict day-to-day business as a central part of the story. Most screenwriters likely find it dull and uninteresting, believing audiences have no interest in watching how other people perform the duties that put food on their table. Moviemakers are loath to tell stories involving small-time entrepreneurs: the struggles, the long hours, the satisfaction of success, and possibly the unraveling. It's not easily done.

However, it turns out that the TV-watching public is interested in watching truck drivers haul mining equipment on Alaska's icy roads, fisherman catching crabs in the icy ocean, roughnecks working drill rigs, chefs cooking all sorts of dishes, and pawnshop dealers valuing esoteric items all the while wondering who they can sell the items to and for how much.

Entire Story HERE

ATMs = Job killers?

From: Forbes
By: Tim Worstall

Yes of course mechanisation of a task destroys the jobs of those who previously did the task. That’s the whole point of mechanising the task. So as to free up that valuable labour so that it can go and do something else. Which makes us all richer.

For now we’ve got the output from that newly mechanised task plus the outout from the new work that is being done by the newly freed labour. If our displaced teller now works in pre-school, changing diapers, then we’ve both a way of getting money from the bank and clean and smiling babies. As a society, we’re richer, for before we faced the choice of either banking services or smiling babies.

Read the entire Forbes Story HERE.

Read the original comment and contradicting employment statistics HERE.

Image Credit: Culver-Union Township website

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Bastiat Yesterday, Bastiat Today, Bastiat Forever

"Bastiat was and still is very relevant. There should be no doubt Bastiat’s writings have had an important impact on the world and it is up to us to make sure he still continues to do so."

Bastiat Yesterday, Bastiat Today, Bastiat Forever | Foundation for Economic Education

Retail Innovations in American Economic History

"The retail and wholesale trade sectors were especially important parts of productivity growth in the late 1990s, and by at least one estimate, the effect of modern discount retailers had an effect on the American economy that was similar in magnitude to the effect of railroads on the American economy in the nineteenth century."

Retail Innovations in American Economic History: Newsroom: The Independent Institute

Green Shoots Bustin' Out All Over

"Get all the stimulicious economic news you can handle"

Green Shoots Bustin' Out All Over: How Much More Awesome News Can One Economy Take? - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Chinese Prostitutes and Brazilian Cotton Farmers

"Stimulus dollars went to fund a study on teaching Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly....Every year, Uncle Sam gives about $150 million to Brazilian cotton farmers."

Chinese Prostitutes and Brazilian Cotton Farmers - Stossel's Take Blog - FOXBusiness.com

Yes, It Is a Police State

"Nope, I mean it. An accumulation of events in recent months leads me to no other conclusion than that we are in fact living in a police state in the good old US of A."

Yes, It Is a Police State | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

A Circle of Exchange is Better than a Circle of Protection

"A group of Catholic professors charged that John Boehner (and by implication every Catholic who agrees with his budgetary priorities) dissents from Church doctrine by favoring cuts to welfare programs."

A Circle of Exchange is Better than a Circle of Protection | Acton Institute