In our evaluation of the conflict between industrial greenhouse gas emitters and coastal property owners—as in all others—economics serves as a complement to considerations of justice. And the Coasean approach affords us a valuable one.
Regulation
Canadian Government Should Abolish Import Tariffs and “Supply Management” Regulations
Those most harmed by the government initiation of force which the supply management represents, are the Canadian consumers.
The Ethics of Legalizing Recreational Drugs
Cannabis companies, like alcohol producers, voluntarily trade with others, including their customers who want to consume their products.
Government Regulations Protect Bad Banks From Competition
The best way to spur ethical conduct by banks—trading value for value with their customers—is to deregulate banking.
The Perils of Financial Over-Regulation
Financial systems, like economies generally, are organic entities. They must be allowed to flourish in a natural way.
Government Regulation of Business: Protection or Harm?
Government should get out of regulating business at all, including regulations on product safety, emissions, and dealing with industrial waste.
Profit motive and private property—keys to preventing forest fire damage
While it is too late to prevent the damage in Fort McMurray now, the solution to minimizing losses from fires in the future is to sell the government forests and let private owners manage them for long-term profitability—by protecting their own property and respecting the property rights of others (through good property management to reduce the fire hazard).
Taxi Deregulation Is On a Roll
The taxi lobby had called for everyone to be equally regulated. Instead, the commissioners made everyone equally free.
Innovation vs. Regulation: Cutting Red Tape
America became the most innovative and prosperous nation in history because many Americans were adventurous, individualistic people willing to take big risks to discover things that might make life better.
Securities Regulation Harms Businesses
The problems startups have in raising capital caused by securities regulation.
Product Quality and Safety: Government Regulation or Free Competition?
In free markets with a strong protection of individual rights by the government, competition weeds out bad products and bad companies.
Regulations Impede Rationality
Regulations force individuals to act contrary to their own judgment. This applies to both irrational and rational decisions.
Trust Reputation, Beware of Regulation
Trust — society depends on it.
Reputation Protects Better Than Regulation
Regulators call themselves “consumer protectors,” but often their main role is to ban better options.
Does Government Regulation Make Us Safe?
Proper protection of individual rights by government and private licensing and certification programs would make us safer (100% safety for fallible and mortal beings is impossible)—no regulations and government inspectors needed.
Reputation Versus Regulation: Why Is The Government Concerned With Whom You Eat With?
Most regulation is useless. It’s the need to maintain one’s reputation that does most to keep us safe.
Abolish the TSA
The TSA is a failure.
Unemployment: A Deadlier Disaster for the Third World
As wage rates rise, workers can more and more afford to accept lesser increases along with improved working conditions of a kind that must be at their expense.
Selling Horse Meat as Beef: Buyer Beware, Too?
In my last article I wrote about stores selling products past their best before date—such as the expired canned lobster pate, which raised demands for legislation against selling expired food products in Canada. I argued that such legislation would be a violation of...
Consumer Protection: Regulation vs. Reputation
A Canadian woman recently bought a can of lobster pate at a Wal-Mart store. The pate was about a year and half past its best before date, and the woman claimed that she felt ill about four hours after consuming some of the pate. In this era of the nanny state, the...
Post-Sandy: A Man-Made Disaster
It is intolerable that their people be made to suffer the effects of disastrous legislation piled on top of a natural disaster and thereby needlessly enlarging and extending the effects of the natural disaster.
The Protection Racket of Occupational Licensing
Across the nation, millions of entrepreneurial Americans seek to create jobs, pursue their passion, or simply make a few extra dollars by starting their own business. But often, they are forced to abandon their dreams, not because they lack talent or capital, but...
Building Safely without Government Building Codes
Most people accept building codes as a necessary government intervention. One Website states: Codes provide minimum standards for building construction in order to safeguard the public’s safety, health, and welfare. Another Website states: If we searched we could find...
According to the FDA: Americans are Idiots
As an adult, have you ever been forced to eat or drink anything against your will? Have you ever been coerced into eating a bacon cheeseburger and a mountain of fries? Have you ever been compelled to drink one more beer than you should? What you put into your mouth...