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Note: No, not me this time but from “Vindaloo Bugaboo”, also a frequent commenter at Treehugger who would fit in well here at GraniteGrok. I liked what he wrote at one of TH those posts and asked if he’d “translate” it for GraniteGrok. And no, I had no input in that commenting series as he was doing so splendidly well!
As a child, one of my favorite bedtime stories my mum would read me was the 1974 Scholastic Books classic, “Little Red Hen” by Paul Galdone.
Absent the three Ps of property, prices, and profit and loss, individuals will be devoid of the incentives and information required to continually innovate and coordinate their plans to realize the gains from trade and the gains from innovation.
I put this into the same category as “if they are threatening to kill themselves via a hunger strike, gimme a lawn chair, popcorn, and a great prime rib steak.”
Capitalism is an economy based on decentralized private ownership of resources and open markets; “based on” means that private ownership rights are acknowledged and respected. Most members of society must feel a duty to respect the private rights of others. Ownership rights must be exercisable without fear, ridicule, or disrespect from other members of society. … Read more
As Hayek frequently repeated, many intelligent and informed people of his day had been taken in by the claim that National Socialism was the next logical and historical phase of a collapsing capitalism. His point, one that most would accept today as evident, was that fascism and communism both represent totalitarian systems that have much more in … Read more
Achieving profits is a condition of survival. Consumers leave no alternative for producers. If the products don’t satisfy consumers, producers won’t cover costs and won’t survive. The drive for profits is compelled by consumer preferences for better or more economically produced goods. Over time, competition displaces less satisfactorily performing producers – those who don’t earn … Read more
The so-called global West has been defined (roughly) since the end of World War II, as the group of countries composing NATO’s member states. This is led by the United Kingdom, the United States, and France.
Capitalism provides many with the opportunity to display initiative. While the rigidity of a status society enjoins on everybody the unvarying performance of routine and does not tolerate any deviation from traditional patterns of conduct, capitalism encourages the innovator. Profit is the prize of successful deviation from customary types of procedure; loss is the penalty … Read more
Following a Presidential election, the Party out of power is supposed to win … or at least perform better than expected … in “special elections.” We have seen that happening everywhere across the country … EXCEPT in New Hampshire.
Once capitalism is seen as a profit-and-loss system, with everyone at the mercy of the sovereign consumer’s whims as he balances one marginal desire against another, the incidence of anticapitalistic criticism must shift.
Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting was noteworthy. Our Governor confused Socialism with Capitalism and our ill-prepared Executive Council failed to disabuse him of that mistake.
A socialist starts a socialist magazine, hires more Socialists that are “down with the Cause,” and then faces a revolt when his Socialist workers try to make it a “workers co-operative” and fires them. This is beyond hysterical.
Reformatted, emphasis mine: In the interventionist state it is no longer of crucial importance for the success of an enterprise that operations be run in such a way that the needs of the consumer are satisfied in the best and least expensive way; it is much more important that one has “good relations” with the … Read more
The cover page of the July 4th Union Leader read, “Poetry Returns with a Slam,” headlining the return of Slam Free or Die, a poetry club that had not met in person since the beginning of the COVID lockdowns.
Do you want to be in charge of your own economic choices, or are you in favor of others making those choices without your input? That’s really what’s at stake and what Friedman points out here.
Capitalism cannot just be summed up as voluntary acts of transaction in which both sides believe they have received the greater value.
Equality or Equity? This really is THE defining moment and point of the day. Normal Americans believe in the real history of how this Country was birthed and the Principles upon which we stand.
This comes to us from a post at FEE (The Foundation for Economic Education) that features Mike Rowe (of “Dirty Jobs” fame). It talks about the real damage caused by the minimum wage.
It may be the most common criticism of free enterprise, the economic system that has produced more wealth spread across by far the widest portion of people in all of human history: It’s all based on selfishness and greed.
There has been way too little defense of free markets. There are many ways in which business elevates humanity. Capitalism is based on doing things for others, things others find value in. Innovation and value creation are inherent in free-market capitalism.