Donald J. Boudreaux

Covid Is Not Categorically Different

“Many people today seem almost eager to be misled about the danger posed by Covid. Much of humanity today appears to perversely enjoy being duped into the irrational fear that any one of us, regardless of age or health, is at the mercy of a brutal beast categorically more lethal than is any other danger that we’ve ever confronted.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

A Curveball Isn’t an Existential Threat

“Too many people over the past six months have taken leave of their senses. We, our children, and our grandchildren will long live with the consequences of this foolish panic – consequences that almost surely will inflict on humanity harms far worse than any that Covid could possibly have ever inflicted.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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Human Gullibility

“Economic reasoning, facts, and the actual history of industrial policy and antitrust, compared to that of free markets, do nothing to quell the fervor for vastly enlarged and more vigorous state control over the economy. As Niemietz thoroughly documents, zeal for replacing commerce and cooperation with coercion and commands does not come from a rational place in the human mind. This zeal is not the product of reason; it’s an instance of religion.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Sos, Venezuela

Coase and Covid

“An implicit assumption undergirding the mandated NPIs is that ordering people to be confined at home and ‘socially distant’ from each other, despite the resulting massive disruption of economic and social activities, is the lowest cost means of protecting individuals from covid. But even if we grant here that mandated NPIs are an effective means of reducing the physiological harm caused by covid, they are not the only means of achieving this worthwhile outcome.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux & Lyle D. Albaugh

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Material Benefits Are Not Merely Material

“Had this material wealth been produced in less abundance, the range of higher goals that ordinary Americans would today be able to pursue would be narrower. And this material wealth would indeed have been produced in less abundance had Americans been saddled with more of the tariffs, subsidies, and other government interventions for which Oren Cass tirelessly pleads.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Employment Options, Not Labor Unions, are the Real Source of Bargaining Power for Workers

“If America really is filled with underpaid workers, before letting politicians and pundits who express this belief put other people’s money where their mouths are, let them put their money where their mouths are by launching new businesses that can profitably employ today’s underpaid workers. If these politicians and pundits are correct, they have nothing to lose and – along with American workers – everything to gain.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Fear Is a Viral Monster

“If a large enough number of us can be convinced that an unseen, vile monster lurks in everyone else, the resulting widespread fear empowers government officials to do what government officials do best – and what they’ve done so horribly over the past five months: destroy.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

On “You Didn’t Build That”

“Unethical redistribution occurs to the extent that the taxes an individual pays are paid without his or her consent, for such ‘payment’ implies that the value of the benefits gotten from government by this taxpayer are less than the cost this taxpayer is forced to pay. Yet these complexities do nothing to justify the claim that provision by government of some goods and services creates among citizens indebtedness to the state.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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My Covid Cri de Cœur

“I cannot explain why the public reacts rationally – that is, without much concern – to news of famous young people testing positive for COVID but, to other news about COVID, reacts irrationally. This discrepancy itself only causes me to worry further about our ability, or willingness, to put COVID in proper perspective in order to restore some semblance of civilized modern life.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

angry businessman

Three Ways that Workers Can Be Underpaid

“The bottom line is clear: government is the largest cause of worker underpayment and open, free markets for labor are the best protection against any kind of underpayment.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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