A Complex Economy

Imagine the Rube Goldberg machine as a complex modern economy.

How many of you think this worked the first try?
And how many "unforeseen circumstances" still remain within the mechanism?
Is it appropriate to believe the economy can be managed efficiently?

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The Economic Debate

The domestic debate, which I and many other libertarians have addressed several times in the past, involves the question of what has caused America’s economic woes.

One side — the statist side — claims that the problem lies in freedom and free enterprise.
The other side — the libertarian side — contends that our nation’s economic woes lies in the failure of the welfare-state, regulated-economy way of life that America has embraced since at least the 1930s.

The different diagnoses lead to two completely different solutions.

The statists say that since the problem is rooted in too much economic freedom and not enough regulation, the solution is to establish more government control over economic activity.

The libertarians say that since the problem is rooted in socialism and interventionism, the solution is to dismantle the welfare-state and regulatory programs (and the taxation funding them) and let genuine economic liberty reign...

What is that motivates U.S. statists to blame America’s economic woes on “freedom and free enterprise” rather than on America’s 70-year experiment with welfare-statism and regulation.

read the entire essay

Cartoon: Central Planning

Cartoon: Mugabe and Economic Disaster

Proof that government central planning can't create prosperity, only catastrophe.

The Result of Socialism and Central Planning

Robert Mugabe "who famously despises “bookish economics”, has decided to outlaw inflation. Price freezes have only been enforced through the arrest of scores of businessmen who are accused of profiteering. The result: shops are bare of basic goods, as businesses refuse to sell more than a minimum of flour, sugar, maize and other items at a crippling loss. There has been panic buying all over the country. In Harare, the capital, crowds wait outside supermarkets ready to rush in and grab whatever they can. Where basics such as cooking oil are available they are rationed by shopkeepers. Fuel is in short supply, with long queues of cars reappearing outside Harare’s petrol stations. As factories prepare to close operations their owners, in turn, are being arrested and forced to keep operating."

Desperate Times in Zimbabwe