“Firms can do anything they want. Just as long as they don’t charge a price that’s more than consumers think they should have to pay, the same as competitors, or less than other firms can match.” ~ Michael Munger
“Remember, transaction costs are triangulation, transfer, and trust.” ~ Michael Munger
“Wealth taxes are premised on the idea that since security services make wealth more valuable, the wealthy have to pay a share of the value ‘created’ by the state. But that’s ridiculous.”
“People often complain about the ‘irrationality’ of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.” ~ Michael Munger
“Power, by which I mean political power, is always zero-sum: if the intellectual elite has it, you and I don’t have it.” ~ Michael Munger
“The unseen cause of gentrification is the knee-jerk NIMBYism of affluent leftist neighborhood associations. And that causes the elimination of almost all affordable housing in the city, quickly.” ~ Michael Munger
“Having resources taken from you against your will, and then accepting the return of some of those resources, in the form of a monopoly road system, does not make you a free rider.” ~ Michael C. Munger
“Far from representing an outcome chosen behind the veil of ignorance, political pressures will always be driven by full knowledge of the benefits realized by self-interested actors, even if they mouth formulaic invocations of ‘social justice’ while they do it.” ~ Michael C. Munger
“If you force much higher wages — and a ‘living wage’ of $15/hour for an entry-level job in fast food is much higher — then you will ‘gentrify” jobs.’ ~ Michael C. Munger