Prof. Don Boudreaux Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Granite Grok

Prof. Don Boudreaux

Freedom-is-meaningless

Notable Quote – George Will, Prof. Don Boudreaux

Can a federal government that acknowledges no limits to its scope, and that responds promiscuously to the multiplying appetites of proliferating factions, make choices that serve the society’s long-term interests? The answer, based on the avalanche of evidence from current governance, is an emphatic “no.” The evidence is in the rise of the administrative state …

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Adam Smith on Self-Interest

Notable Quote – Dr. Don Boudreaux

Freedom of exchange and production within a regime of private property rights and freedom of contract harnesses self-interest to the public good. Admiration and endorsement of free markets is not – contrary to much uninformed commentary – admiration and endorsement of greed or materialism. It is, instead, the reflection of an acceptance of the reality …

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30 day trial of Socialism

Notable Quote – Jim Buchanan

Frank Knight could never have joined those of the self-selected elite who, in idea or practice, seek to plan, steer, or direct the lives of those who are excluded. He was a classical liberal, not because he predicted that only with widespread individual liberty would desired results be generated, but because the liberal order is …

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Price

Notable Quote – George Will

[Welfare] states presuppose economic dynamism sufficient to generate investments, job creation, corporate profits, and individuals’ incomes from which come tax revenues needed to fund entitlements. But welfare states produce in citizens an entitlement mentality and a low pain threshold. That mentality inflames appetites for more entitlements, broadly construed to include all government benefits and protections …

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Quotes

Notable Quote – a Twofer

The market has never tried to change human nature, and guardians of the market have never considered using the market to change human nature. Instead, precisely because human nature cannot be changed, the market economy exists, which is also the reason the market economy is necessary: It causes human actions to better conform to the …

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Quotes

Notable Quote – EXACTLY my complaint against the Gilford Selectmen

Emphasis mine: Careful observers often and correctly note that, for many of its adherents, environmentalism is a religion. Too many environmentalists disregard inconvenient truths that would undermine their faith that calamities are percolating just over the horizon. It might well be that humans’ “footprint” on the Earth is larger than ever; it might even be …

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Quotes

Notable Quote – Prof. Don Boudreaux

… I offer here a handy guide to common misconceptions about free-market “economic orthodoxy” – or to use a less-loaded term, “market economics.” – Market economics does not hold that money is all that matters. Quite the contrary. Competent economists understand better than most people that individuals have a large scope for, and a deep interest in, …

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Quotes

Notable Quote – Prof. Don Boudreaux

He [J.D. Rockefeller, Sr.] was also insistent that his massive philanthropy paled in importance beside the good he had done in creating jobs and furnishing affordable kerosene at Standard Oil. DBx: Rockefeller was correct. Wealth cannot be philanthropically given away unless it is first created. Nor can wealth be “redistributed” by the state unless it …

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Quotes

Notable Quote – George Will and Prof. Don Boudreaux

Modernity’s gift has been the ability and determination to sharply delineate private and public spheres, with the private being the zone of individual sovereignty. It is the realm of the household, the family, and the work that sustains both. This is the basis of the proposition that the Constitution of the first consciously modern nation, …

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