Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 56

Sorry, Innocent Bystanders

The world is full of problems, and most people want government to solve these problems.  When government solves problems, however, they usually create some new ones.  If you’re lucky, the victims of the new problems are the very bad guys who created the original problems.  Serves them right!  Yet more often, the victims of the new problems are innocent bystanders.  They’ve done nothing wrong; they’re just caught in the crossfire.

Like who?  Let’s start with babies in Nazi Germany.  The babies...

A Short Hop from Bleeding Heart to Mailed Fist

When Hugo Chavez began ruling Venezuela, he sounded like a classic bleeding-heart – full of pity for the poor and downtrodden.  Plenty of people took him at his words – not just Venezuelans, but much of the international bleeding-heart community.  By the time Chavez died, however, many admirers were already having second thoughts about his dictatorial tendencies.  Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked successor, amply confirmed these fears.  Almost everyone now plainly sees the mailed fist of t...

Government Needs No Money to Curtail Pollution

People often complain that government isn’t spending enough money fighting pollution.  Even many economists repeat this complaint.  That’s very odd, because standard market failure theory tells us that governments don’t need any money to fight pollution.

Why not?  Simple: In standard market failure theory, governments are supposed to tax pollution!  Such taxes simultaneously reduce pollution and collect revenue.  As a result, fighting pollution is one of any efficiently-managed government’s t...

The Unearned Compliment of Neoliberalism

Most free-market economists take “neoliberalism” as a term of abuse.  Rather than actually respond to our arguments for smaller government and less regulation, the hard left just switches to name-calling.

I disagree.  People who denounce neoliberalism are unintentionally paying free-market economists a great compliment.  But sadly, we don’t deserve this compliment.

How so?  Well, free-market economists have two kinds of views.  Some are distinctive, such as:

 

1. We should sharply increase im...

Why I’m Optimistic About Venezuela

If there were mass protests against the government of Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. decided to recognize the opposition as the legitimate government of Saudi, I would expect disaster.  Why?  Because…

1. Supporters of the Saudi monarchy remain powerful and confident enough to aggressively fight back, plunging the country into hellish civil war.

2. If the monarchy loses, its most likely replacement will be a revolutionary Islamist dictatorship.

3. Even if the new Saudi government sticks to democra...

Is “Intentions=Results” a Straw Man?

I was struck by this passage in the recent WaPo profile of the Federalist Society:

The newly solidified conservative majority on the court will inevitably decide more cases in line with the society’s ideals — which include checking federal power, protecting individual liberty and interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning. In practice, this could mean fewer regulations of the environment and health care, more businesses allowed to refuse service to customers on religious...

Immigration as a Civil Right

Here’s a short essay by my co-author Zach Weinersmith in honor of MLK Day.  Highlight:

Many today who oppose open immigration, despite having immigrant antecedents, say things like “Well, my grandparents came the right way.” Sure. That’s because they were allowed to. In the 1920s, Ellis Island was sometimes referred to as “The Island of Tears.” Why? Because back then 1-2% of immigrants were turned away. Today, the numbers are reversed. The vast majority of would-be immigrants know that the wa...

Reflections from my Panama Cruise, II

[For Part I, click here.]

Our ports were Falmouth (Jamaica), Cartagena (Colombia), Gatun Lake (Panama), Limón (Costa Rica), and Grand Cayman.  Reactions to each:

7. Falmouth had the most lavish port shopping area; I’d compare it to Reston, Virginia.  The area beyond, though thinly inhabited, was fairly poor, but with quite a few middle-class homes mixed in.  Our tour guide said that many Jamaicans spend years building their own homes so they can live rent-free (but not property-tax-free) for...

Reflections from my Panama Cruise, I

I just returned from my Panama Canal cruise.  Reflections:

1. As I’ve mentioned before, cruises are in one sense a great test case for open borders.  Workers from all over the world come together to run some of the world’s most sophisticated technology and please some of the world’s most demanding customers.  Most of the workers’ lives are harsh by First World standards but great by Third World standards.  And wherever they’re from, the staff work together like Prussian officers.  It’s a marv...

The Reformer’s Plight in The Great Idea

I’m a fan of dystopian fiction, but I overlooked Henry Hazlitt’s The Great Idea (subsequently republished as Time Will Run Back) until last December.  I feared a long-winded, clunky version of Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, but I gave it a chance, and my gamble paid off.  I read the whole thing (almost 400 pages) on a red-eye flight – feeling wide awake the whole way.

The book’s premise: Centuries hence, mankind groans under a world Communist government centered in Moscow.  People live in...