Tag: Freedom
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Myth: Markets only work when an infinite number of people with perfect information trade undifferentiated commodities
Abstract models of economic interaction can be useful, but when normatively loaded terms such as “perfect” are added to theoretical abstractions, a great deal of harm can be done. For the state to be the agency that would move markets to such “perfection,” we would expect that it, too, would be the product of “perfect”…
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Myth: Markets depend on perfect information, requiring government regulation to make information available
Markets do not require for their operation perfect information, any more than democracies do. Significantly, politicians and voters have less incentive to acquire the right amount of information than do market participants, because they aren’t spending their own money.
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Myth: Reliance on markets leads to monopoly
While many believe that free markets tend to produce monopolies, it is actually government that is the grantor and protector of monopoly rights. Market competition works against monopoly power.
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Myth: Markets promote greed and selfishness
Markets make it possible for the most altruistic, as well as the most selfish, to advance their purposes in peace, writes Tom G. Palmer.
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Myth: Markets are immoral or amoral
Are markets moral or immoral? Tom G. Palmer responds to the myth that there is no morality in market exchange.
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For Koch critics, facts aren’t part of the equation
A newspaper editorial begins with “What is it, or why is it, that the name Koch, particularly here in Lawrence and Kansas, seems to trigger such angry, passionate and negative responses from a certain segment of the community, particularly among some at Kansas University?” It’s a good question.
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Kansas may again resort to government art
Kansas may be ready to restore some state funding for the arts. But for reasons economic, human, and artistic, we ought to keep Kansas government out of art. Kansas should allow people themselves to decide how to spend their own money on what they think is important to them. To implement government funding of art…
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Who has the economic power?
Though there is often much focus on the richest private individuals in the United States, the U.S. Congress actually has far more economic power.
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‘Occupy Koch town’ ignores the facts
As director of corporate communication for Koch industries, I’ve read and heard much about this company and its shareholders that is dishonest, distorted and derogatory. And while we continue to try to bat down the falsehoods, as quickly as we quash one, another rears its ugly head. As Winston Churchill once said, “A lie gets…