Posts Tagged ‘free market’
“Seinfeld” Free Market Economics
Jerry examines a his less-than-desirable 'doo in "The Barber."
It’s not a very good time to be a free market right now. Everyone blames you for their lost jobs, their foreclosed homes, and corporate exploitation. Although this blame is misplaced, most people are fearful of the free market and don’t take the time to learn and understand that the free hand of the market benefits the consumer. The theory is simple: good products/services thrive, bad ones fail, and consumers are left with the cream of the crop.
Here’s a site with an interesting look at the economics of the popular sitcom, “Seinfeld.”
The Barber: (Competition) Jerry gets a bad haircut but refuses to change barbers because he is loyal. Eventually, he is convinced to leave his barber of 12 years for the barber’s nephew. Bad quality doesn’t persist in the marketplace; it is competed away. Perhaps the answer to bad haircuts is not more regulation, but more competition.
At last, A free market example to which everyone can relate! There’s lots of other interesting economic concepts presented here using Seinfeld. Since the show is a comedy, many of the examples are not only humorous, but memorable and can be useful in understanding free market principles.
This should come in handy during the inevitable fight over the Barbers Bailout of 2011.
(via kottke.org)
James Robertson currently attends the University of Mississippi, where he plans to receive degrees in Political Science and English. He is the President of the Ole Miss Chapter of Young Americans for Liberty.
Great speaker this Friday! Come out and hear!
The Ole Miss Young Americans for Liberty are thrilled to host Dr James Lark speaking on campus this Friday, October 16. Come on out to Bishop 209 at 5:30 PM to hear some stimulating and thought-provoking ideas.
Dr Lark serves as adjunct professor in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering and visiting lecturer in the Department of Applies Mathematics at the University of Virginia. He is also a director of the Financial Engineering Research Group at UVA. Dr Lark has been a foot soldier in the battle for individual liberty, limited government, and constitutionalism since his college years, having been active in the Libertarian Party, Advocates for Self-Government, International Society for Individual Liberty, and the Institute for Health Freedom.
Dr Lark’s speech is entitled “Warning: Governmentally-Mandated Safety Measures May Be Hazardous to Your Health.” He will argue that while well-intentioned, government safety measures generally fail to protect consumers and actually increase danger.
Come out this Friday and spend an evening with a great free-market speaker.
Regulation Can’t Solve our Problems
How many times have we heard the mantra that the free market is incapable of regulating itself? This claim has been exposed as false many times, yet we still have people whipping up arguments that have been used for centuries to limit economic freedom and steal the power from the citizen and place it in the hands of the government.
What is most troubling is that history is always invoked as being on the side of the government. As if without Big Brother stepping in to save us from ourselves, the population would be in such a state of economic chaos we would certainly be unable to progress as a society. Of course, anybody willing to actually sift through the history will find that the main culprit in almost any economic, and especially social, catastrophe is the government itself. The same is true for the current economic downturn.
Somalia’s Problems: Big Government?
Big government supporters have been quick to point to Somalia as what happens when government is relinquished and the free market is allowed to run wild. Well as it turns out, these big government supporters are not paying attention to history (surprise, surprise). Go here
to read Jesse Walker’s article for Reason Magazine discussing the bloody history of Somalia. The article is a series of questions he answers dealing first with the pirates of Somalia, and then the history involved with how the piracy came to be such a large problem. As the article explains:
Let me get this straight. To combat communism in east Africa, the United States propped up a Marxist dictator. After sending troops to battle the warlords, it intervened again to assist the warlords. It did this about-face to stanch the growth of Islamism, but the effect was to put an Islamist group in charge of the country. And after Washington backed an invasion and occupation of the nation to end the Islamic Courts Union’s control, the result was a government run by a former commander of the Islamic Courts Union?
You can see why I’m skeptical about a war on the pirates. It’ll probably end with Obama dedicating a 60-foot statue of Blackbeard in the middle of Mogadishu.
So how do we fix the problems on the mainland, if we don’t invade and don’t send aid?
We butt out. If we can’t solve Somalia’s problems, we can at least refrain from making them worse. The closest the country has had to a period of optimism and growth came when the international community—with the ignoble exceptions of the fish thieves and waste dumpers—largely left the place to its own devices.
It is not lack of government that causes these type of massive humanitarian disasters. As the 20th century shows, with over 100 million murders to their names, big governments are a plague on society. They always seem to promise safety and comfort, but bring pain, death, and suffering.
Thomas Woods Speech
We would like to thank all those who attended Thomas Woods’s speech. We will be posting his speech on youtube or some other video site as soon as possible. In the meantime, visit his website here.
When we do get it posted online, we will post the clips to this website. Be checking in with us for that.
Blame the Market, Everybody’s Doing It
I think it’s safe to say that our country is going through some very challenging times. As if a war half way across the world isn’t enough, we have now been hit with a recession touted as being the worst since the Great Depression. While the US has weathered other recessions that could arguably be considered worse than the current one, none of those were near as threatening. The US has never been in such terrible financial shape while going through such a crisis. This is not to say that we were in good shape at the time of the Great Depression. However, our current national debt, which makes the debt of the early 20th century seem like chump change, is threatening this country in ways never before experienced.
There is a lot of finger pointing going on, mainly by our politicians who don’t want blame to fall on their shoulders. The government’s main culprit thus far has been the greed of corporate executives. Our situation has transformed into another blame game where the free market is destined to lose. The strategy of big government during recessions is to blame capitalism in order to gain support for more governmental regulations. If the market gets better, the politicians cheer the effectiveness of the new regulations. However, if the market should go deeper into recession, the government claims it is because not enough regulations were instituted. Do you see how this is a tad bit unfair to capitalism? How will the free market ever get a chance under these unjust critiques?
Anybody claiming the free market caused this crisis should seriously reconsider. The US is not a free market economy. We haven’t had a free market since the Federal Reserve (a.k.a. the Fed) was established in 1913. A free market cannot exist in a society where interest rates are controlled by a central bank.
Thomas Woods Speaking at Ole Miss
MEDIA ADVISORY
For April 15, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: YAL – Ole Miss Chapter
WHEN: Thursday, April 23, 2009
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
WHERE: Bishop Hall Room 209
University of Mississippi
501 Fraternity Row
University, MS 38677
WHO: University of Mississippi Young Americans for Liberty
University of Mississippi Constitutionalists
WHAT: Public Speech by Thomas Woods, author of Meltdown.
WHY: The University of Mississippi Young Americans for Liberty have teamed up with the UM Constitutionalists to attract Thomas Woods to speak on the Ole Miss campus. Woods, author of the New York Times Bestseller Meltdown: A Free Market Look at why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, will be offering explanations on what caused our current recession and free market approaches to fixing the problem. The two on-campus organizations hope to stir up some discussion among the student body and in the local community on the costs and consequences of what the US government is currently doing to combat the ailing economy. His book has already gained popular recognition with his harsh criticism of government bailouts and the Federal Reserve’s monetary expansion policies. Mr. Woods will be explaining how these government bailouts will make things worse and the effect they may have on the state of Mississippi.
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