How much does income redistribution help the poor? First, the official data systematically overstates the inequality in incomes, implying that the poor are becoming worse off, when in fact, they are becoming better off. Second, government has done little to reduce poverty by transferring income...

For more than one hundred years, noble concerns have persuaded well-meaning people to favor more government to promote the public interest, and others have exploited those concerns to grab political privileges at public expense. Contrary to conventional thought, however, the history of...

A persuasive case for the market process cannot ignore the issue of morality. Unfortunately, while markets and market behavior depend on a moral foundation, it is one that seems inconsistent with the prevailing view of morality. This apparent inconsistency obscures in the minds of many the...

For more than one hundred years, noble concerns have persuaded well-meaning people to favor more government to promote the public interest, and others have exploited those concerns to grab political privileges at public expense. Contrary to conventional thought, however, the history of...

The most important cost of saving lives can be that it increases the number of people who die. An interesting case in point concerns government attempts to rescue mountain climbers on Mt. McKinley. Here government agencies are caught in Gordon Tullock's "transitional gains trap." Rescue policy...

One controversial aspect of the current Social Security system has been the relative distribution of its net costs and benefits between employers and workers. Using simple supply and demand analysis, we demonstrate that proponents and opponents of the current system are making arguments that...