Economics

Capitalism is awesome because it makes us think historical flukes are normal

Café Hayek explains why Capitalism is Awesome – the amazing performance of capitalism fools us into thinking that wonderful living standards we see today are the world-wide norm across history instead of an aberration compared to what happened during preceding thousands of generations.

Wish I could quote the full comment, but that isn’t right, so consider just this. The free market can

..fool us modern folk into thinking that the lives we lead are normal – fool us into thinking that poverty (rather than wealth) has causes; fool us into supposing that people my age (almost 55), because we still have all of our teeth and aren’t remotely yet decrepit, are “middle-aged” rather than old, ancient, nearly dead by historical standards; …

We also forget that (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

Capitalism is awesome because of incremental changes

It’s not just the huge leaps that make capitalism so incredible. It is also the constant, small, incremental changes that make products better, cheaper, tastier, stronger, and lighter. So explains Chris Berg in Why Capitalism is Awesome.

He explains that Ikea’s idea to pack and ship flat reduces shipping costs to about 1/6th of shipping full-sized stuff. They have staff who obsess over reducing weight while increasing strength, which in turn drives down prices further.

(more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

Q: Was the middle class created by federal law or large, profit-hungry corporations?

A: It wasn’t the generosity of Congress.

Instead, Large, Profit-hungry Corporations Helped Create the Middle Class, as explained by Voices for Reason.

Big companies looking to make a buck created large supermarkets containing refrigerated produce and a large selection of dry goods. The article quotes The Great A&P, which points out before the age of large supermarkets: (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

Looking for the cause of poverty? It isn’t capitalism. Look for some other Cs – corruption, collusion, and cronyism

It’s not capitalism that has crushed millions of people into the dust of poverty across Africa and many other places and times around the world. Capitalism lifts people out of the dust.

What keeps the poor in grinding poverty?

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger’s column Capitalism’s Corruptions discusses the real causes of poverty (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago

Q: Did the New Deal end or extend the Great Depression?

A:  Extend.

That’s the conclusion of Dr. Lee Ohanian, Professor of Economics at UCLA, as explained in his video Did FRD End or Extend the Depression?

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7KYn5xCyCI&feature=player_embedded]

The primary reason cited by the Professor is artificial increases in prices and wages driven by federal policy, specifically the National Industrial Recovery Act. (more…)

By Jim Ulvog, ago