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Here’s a new and excellent essay by Deirdre McCloskey [2]. A slice:
The mechanism seems to be that, when a sensitive adolescent in a nonslave society first notices that some people are much poorer than her family, she is likely to conclude that the best remedy is to open Daddy’s wallet. (It is not an efficacious plan, because redistribution can give to the poor the mere 20 percent or so of the national income now in the hands of the wretchedly rich, and one time only, whereas trade-tested betterment under private property has given the poor, 1800 to the present, underestimated in the available measures, fully 3,000 percent, collected every year in now well-to-do countries filled with descendants of poor people.)
Creating wealth entails expanding the network of voluntary exchanges in the marketplace. Roberto Goizueta never forced anyone to drink a Coke, never expropriated anyone’s assets, and never forcibly drafted anyone into Coca-Cola’s service. Rather, he was a talented wealth creator who shared his wealth among many.
Dan Mitchell reflects on Will Wilkinson’s reflection on “Wagner’s Law. [6]” (This ‘law,’ by the way, is named after the late German economist Adolph Wagner [7].)
Here’s my colleague Larry White on India’s latest currency shenanigans [8].
George Will ponders Castro’s terrible legacy [9]. A slice:
Socialism is bountiful only of slogans, and a Castro favorite was “socialism or death.” The latter came to him decades after the former had made Cuba into a gray museum for a dead utopianism.