As George pointed out, trade is voluntary, driven by individual buyers and sellers. “Trade is not invasion,” he wrote. “It does not involve aggression on one side and resistance on the other, but mutual consent and gratification. There cannot be a trade unless the parties to it agree.”
(Several passages from George’s book have served as “Quotations of the Day” at Cafe Hayek.)
Steve Horwitz explains that those who benefit most from innovation-filled free markets are the poor. A slice:
The competitive market process has also made education, art, and culture available to more and more people. Even the poorest of Americans, not to mention many of the global poor, have access through the Internet and TV to concerts, books, and works of art that were exclusively the province of the wealthy for centuries.
Alberto Mingardi is rightly unimpressed with Douglas Rushkoff’s latest book.
Raise the minimum wage high enough, and its negative effects become visible even to some Democrats.
Speaking of the minimum wage, Cato’s Charles Hughes correctly reasons that
D.C.’s substantial minimum wage increases will make it much harder for many people, especially younger workers and people with limited job skills, to find any work at all.
On his Facebook page, Bob Higgs nicely expresses the essence of statism.
This recent New York Times report understandably reminds Greg Mankiw of the work of the late Elinor Ostrom.
Jane Shaw exposes the flaws in business schools.
