Russell Roberts's Blog, page 346

Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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… is from page 123 of my late, great colleague Walter Williams’s 2015 book, American Contempt for Liberty, which is a collection of many of Walter’s columns and essays; this quotation specifically is from Walter’s February 19th, 2014, syndicated column, “Concealing Evil”:

This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, confiscation and intimidation, to accomplish what are often seen as noble goals — namely, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need by reaching into one’s own pockets to do so is laudable and praiseworthy. Helping one’s fellow man through coercion and reaching into another’s pockets is evil and worthy of condemnation. Tragically, most teachings, from the church on down, support government use of one person to serve the purposes of another; the advocates cringe from calling it such and prefer to call it charity or duty.

DBx: A hissing viper isn’t transformed into a lovely songbird by calling it “nightingale.” And this reality isn’t altered in the least if the hissing viper is brought on to the scene by someone who, in his or her ignorance, truly believes that vipers are lovelier than nightingales and safer to be near.

Principles of International Trade

(Don Boudreaux)

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In my latest column for AIER, I discuss three principles of international trade. This column is the first in a four-part series to be completed before January 20th, 2021. A slice:

If no one bats an eye when your neighbor in Nashville trades in the 2011 Chevy that he bought ten years ago in order to buy a 2021 Ford today, why should anyone bat an eye if your neighbor today buys instead a 2021 Toyota? In both cases your neighbor acts to get the most value for his money; in both cases a seller voluntarily satisfies your neighbor’s demand. And in both cases the trade is carried out by individuals. There’s no special involvement of governments or any collective. Your neighbor buys, and the auto-dealership’s owner (using a salesperson as an agent) sells.

That the Toyota vehicle is assembled in Japan, while the Ford vehicle is assembled in Michigan, is irrelevant. No one who observes the single transaction through which your neighbor purchases an automobile from Toyota would describe the exchange as “America trading with Japan.”

Your neighbor, of course, isn’t the only American to buy an automobile from a foreign manufacturer. Each day, many Americans do so. Likewise, many Americans daily buy other kinds of goods and services from foreign suppliers, just as many foreigners daily buy a wide variety of goods and services from American suppliers. Yet each such exchange is its own event, conducted voluntarily by flesh-and-blood buyers and sellers. These exchanges differ in no essential respects from your neighbor buying a vehicle from Toyota. If in none of these individual exchanges there is any evidence of “America” trading with “Japan,” summing these exchanges together does not result in “America” trading with “Japan.”

It’s just people trading with people. Period.

Remembering Walter Williams

(Don Boudreaux)

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Thomas Sowell remembers his “best friend for half a century.” Here’s his conclusion:

We may not see his like again. And that is our loss.

My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy remembers Walter.

GMU Econ student Dominic Pino remembers Walter, his teacher. A slice:

Never trying to wow students with his credentials, Williams taught the principles of economics, which he thought of as common sense. Every year, upon completing his Ph.D.-level microeconomics class (no easy feat), Williams treated his students to food and drinks. He was impatient with nonsense, but he was never impatient with the process of learning. The number of students who benefitted from his genius are too many to count. Many of them are now teachers themselves, passing on Williams’ teaching to even more minds.

As Williams persisted well beyond retirement age, his passion for economics undimmed, he was the kind of man that made you say, “He’s going to teach until the day he dies.” On Dec. 1, he taught his last class of ECON 811 to complete the semester, ending the 7:20-10:00 p.m. block around 30 minutes early, as was typical. Fewer than 12 hours later, he died, aged 84. R.I.P.

David Henderson remembers Walter.

GMU Econ alum Jayme Lemke remembers Walter.

Nick Gillespie remembers Walter.

Alex Tabarrok remembers Walter.

GMU Econ alum Mark Perry remembers Walter.

Peter Jacobsen remembers Walter.

David Boaz remembers Walter.

Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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.… is from page 363 of my late, great colleague Walter Williams’s 2015 book, American Contempt for Liberty, which is a collection of many of Walter’s columns and essays; this quotation specifically is from Walter’s April 18th, 2012, syndicated column, “Good Economists”:

How many times have we heard that “if it will save just one human life, it’s worth it” or that “human life is priceless”? Both are nonsense statements. If either statement were true, we’d see lower speed limits, bans on auto racing and fewer airplanes in the sky. We can always be safer than we are. For example, cars could be produced such that occupants could survive unscathed in a 50-mph head-on collision, but how many of us could buy such a car?

DBx: Far too many intellectuals – including too many economists – value displays of cleverness and novelty over the ability to reveal under-appreciated truths plainly, in ways that non-intellectuals can easily understand. Walter Williams was no such self-indulgent or unwise intellectual. Although he did pioneering research, he devoted most of his career to the task of conveying basic economic truths – principles and empirical realities – that remain widely ignored. Walter knew that for ordinary people to be prosperous and to have opportunities for meaningful lives they had to be free.

No one has been more courageous and talented than Walter at making the case for liberal individualism.

My Inadequate Tribute to One of the Greatest Men I’ve Ever Known

(Don Boudreaux)

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Over the next few weeks I will write much more about my late colleague and cherished friend Walter Williams. I will do so not merely as an exercise in self-indulgence, but also – I’d like to think chiefly – as a deserved tribute to a uniquely talented, influential, and courageous human being. Walter was a special man, a dear man, a lovely man. He was, in fact, a truly great man. Walter was also an incredibly insightful economist, one whose brilliance he himself hid in plain sight within the disarming clarity of his prose.

Walter’s kind is ever rare, and in these days especially rare.

While I’m always happy for an opportunity for my own ponderous prose to appear in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, I would sacrifice much to have never had the opportunity to write my remembrance of Walter that will appear in tomorrow’s print edition. Here’s my concluding paragraph:

The author of 13 books, dozens of academic papers and countless popular essays, Walter was a scholar’s scholar. He was one of America’s most courageous defenders of free markets, constitutionally limited government and individual responsibility. I will miss him as a friend. The world will miss him as a tireless champion of American values.

Walter, my dear, dear friend and long-time colleague: Do rest in well-deserved peace. We who are left behind will be inspired by your words and your unexcelled example to carry on the good fight. “In Liberty” – as you signed so many of your letters and autographs.

Walter Williams

(Don Boudreaux)

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Devastating news: Walter Williams died last night (or early this morning).

Walter has been my colleague and friend for more than 35 years. He is one of my few heroes. I will write more later, but I am now in no condition to say more.

Some Links

(Don Boudreaux)

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Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins continues to be a courageous voice of calm, reason, and humanity amidst today’s raging epidemic of Covid Derangement Syndrome (CDS-20). A slice:

The time-honored prophylactic for panic is actionable information. Unfortunately, in their own panic, our officials encouraged the first surge by suggesting they could control the disease, then tried to redress their error with unsustainable lockdowns. We’ve been on the seesaw ever since.

Jeffrey Tucker writes eloquently about the damage that CDS-20 is doing to churches and to the many people who rely on them. A slice:

Incredibly, in New York Hasidic Jews – who heroically resisted at every step – were singled out by the mayor and governor, reviving medieval scapegoating myths. And what evidence is there that Hasidic services were spreading the virus with severe outcomes? There was none. Not one shred of evidence.

So too with other religious events. Not one bit of evidence that I could find demonstrates that the worship of God in the presence of others would lead to death. Many churches have openly defied the orders and rightly so.

On his Facebook page, Alan Reynolds continues to do battle against CDS-20. Here’s his conclusion:

What does all this have to so with several hubristic Governors’ periodic on-and-off lockdowns and social restrictions?

Nothing. There’s no connection.

Also on Facebook, Phil Magness reminds us of just how very unreliable is Anthony Fauci.

Fiona Harrigan reports that 2020 has not been a good year for progress in fighting HIV/AIDS.

Like the late Hans Rosling, Arnold Kling understands the unfortunate biases in our filters for information. A slice:

Signal vs. noise. What draws our attention? Think of two dimensions: threats vs. positive developments; sudden vs. gradual. We seem to be most attract[ed] to the sudden and to the threat. A hurricane is a great story for the media. The way that our houses have become stronger and more secure is not a great story.

Zaldy Dandan laments the immortality of certain myths.

Here’s Alberto Mingardi on the great reset.

James Pethokoukis talks with Michael Clemens about immigration.

Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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… is from page 107 of George Will’s 1992 book, Restoration:

The sensible worry about democracy in America today is that the public is being degraded by the government’s constant concern for the public’s happiness.

DBx: The pursuit of happiness is exclusively for individuals. Looking to the state to make you happy is a fool’s hope. The state – its officials ever-eager for votes – will go through the motions of trying to make you happy (if you are in a significant coalition of voters). But your happiness is your responsibility and yours alone. For you to attempt to farm out responsibility for your happiness to others – especially to strangers – is for you to reject your human agency and, in the process, to infantilize yourself.

Bonus Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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… is from page 111 of University of Glasgow Senior Lecturer Craig Smith’s 2020 book, Adam Smith:

Exchanges are mutually beneficial and voluntary: we exchange because we are able to supply our needs by serving the needs of others.

DBx: What could be more civilized, more humane, more sociable, more egalitarian? ‘We are able to supply our needs by serving the needs of others.’ This reality is at the heart of free markets.

And what do statists offer as an alternative? Answer: Coercion. Always coercion.

The recipe followed by statists of all ideological stripes is this: ‘We supply our needs by compelling others to do as we command – by threatening to cage them if they refuse our orders. Of course, we deploy our coercive threats for the greater good; by “our needs” we obviously mean the benefit of our fellow human beings, or at least our fellow citizens, including the benefit of those whom we coerce. Our intentions are soaring and lovely. And so if you oppose us, your intentions must be foul. It’s really quite simple.’

You can trust in the widespread use of coercion and its threat, or you can trust in mutual agreement and voluntary interactions, including (but not limited to) commercial exchange. If you think the person who gets to threaten you at gunpoint is more likely to take your interest into account than is the person who can gain your cooperation only by enticing you to agree with him or her, you are – let me describe you as nicely as possible – a fool.

Putting Stock in Competition

(Don Boudreaux)

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Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Editor:

A satisfying, if sad, irony lurks in Nasdaq’s decision to require companies listed on its exchange to have at least one female board member, plus one from an underrepresented minority (“Nasdaq Proposes Board-Diversity Rule for Listed Companies,” Dec. 1).

Bigoted companies that allow their attitudes toward people’s genitalia, sexual preferences, or ethnicity to skew their business decisions are eventually out-competed by companies that ignore such superficial and economically irrelevant facts. This reality is a happy one. And so as long as Nasdaq’s competitors – exchanges such as the NYSE and the Chicago Stock Exchange – resist the bigotry of wokeness to which Nasdaq has succumbed, Nasdaq’s insistence on skewing its business decisions with considerations of irrelevant criteria such as people’ genitalia, sexual preferences, and ethnicity will ensure that more enlightened and capable exchanges gain market share as Nasdaq deservedly loses it.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux

Professor of Economics

and

Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA  22030