On the Primacy of the Consumer-Welfare Standard
“Production is a means; consumption is the end. The consumer-welfare standard is nothing more, nor less, than an understanding and acceptance of this fundamental economic reality.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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How Individuals Enable Tyranny
“Mill, Havel, and Kundera all point us to a terrible truth: our moral weakness, desire to evade responsibility, and illusion that the majority makes right have led us down the slippery slope of forfeiting our freedom.” ~ Barry Brownstein
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Conquistadors and Indian Rights
“Though this counters today’s understanding of colonialism generally, and the conquest in particular, the fact is that Spanish treatment of Indians in the Americas was not the monolithically brutal affair it is so often portrayed to be.” ~ Paul Schwennesen
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Happy 2023: Adam and God
“What is the place of God in our ethics? What is our nature? What is our civilization? Which way is up? The Smith tercentenary is a special opportunity to come together in Adam Smith.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
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Freedom’s Future Requires Understanding the Past
“When confronted with issues regarding the necessary extent of the state, liberty-lovers need not rely solely on economic theory, nor hypotheticals, because the historical record often can light the proper path towards smaller, more-efficient government.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The American Heritage of Freedom in the Liberal Arts
“The study of human nature through the liberal arts will help us in this return. As the student studies man’s capabilities, he learns to preserve liberty rather than trampling on others’ or relinquishing his own.” ~ Paul D. Moreno
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Communicating Economics to Young People
“Among the most satisfying of my professional duties as an economics educator is communicating, mostly by email, with students from around the country, and sometimes from abroad, about economics and liberalism.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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The Governmentalization of Social Affairs
“More liberty means less government, and less government means less miserableness, servility, fickleness, hypocrisy, denial, mendacity, baseness, and degeneracy. Liberal backbone checks the evil that is the governmentalization of social affairs.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
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The Case for Bringing Back Neckties (and Classical Liberalism)
“Liberalism—or, to clarify, classical liberalism, which developed a few centuries ago and cherishes free markets, limited government, and flourishing social institutions—is (like the necktie) a bit out of favor.” ~ Bruce Rottman
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Educating the Founders
“It is both the type of education one receives and how one receives it that explains the disparity between our recent presidents and the American Founders.” ~ Lee Trepanier
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When Giving Is Smart and When It Isn’t
“If a charity proves to be ineffective or corrupt, its donors vanish; when the welfare department squanders public money and perpetuates social problems across generations, it usually gets more tax revenue.” ~ Lawrence W. Reed
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Economic Liberalism’s Uncertain Future
“The market liberal cause needs more of a rare commodity: economists with the breadth and depth of knowledge that gives them the capacity to mix it up with historians and philosophers peddling left-populist or economic nationalist narratives.” ~ Samuel Gregg
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