At his Facebook page, Bob Higgs exposes the immorality of protectionism. A slice:
Nearly everyone recognizes that murder, robbery, burglary, assault, battery, extortion, and fraud are wrong, and a strong argument may be made that if a government is to exist, it should occupy itself in preventing these wrongs and punishing those who perpetrate them.
But if I am simply buying from or selling to someone outside the national borders, what possible grounds may be advanced in justice to warrant the use of state force against me for doing so? To say that people should be punished merely for trading freely, by means of taxes or prohibitions, and threatened with prison terms if they violate prohibitionist laws, is an outrageous moral proposal, wholly apart from its economic counterproductivity. The “protectionists” and the state acting on their behalf are the true criminals here, not those who peacefully buy from and sell to whatever trading partners they choose.
Speaking of the illogic of protectionism, here’s Scott Sumner writing over at EconLog.
Shikha Dalmia is correct: most proponents of the minimum wage are out of their minds. (And David Henderson adds further to Shikha’s argument.)
Here’s Mark Perry on a terrible inequality in the workplace.
Want to reduce the supply of rental housing? Do what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is now doing.
Iain Murray and Ryan Young discuss genuinely useful ways to help America’s middle class.
Jeffrey Tucker asks if a Jewish baker should be forced to bake a Nazi cake.
