- Blunt Object, Malthus, Simon, 'nuff said. And the pictures rock.
- Kevin Carson on before-tax inequality...referencing the recent news that before-tax inequality is LOWER in the USA than elsewhere. Why? Crony Capitalism. RTWT.
- Phrase of the day, and can I join? The GMU Libertarian Mafia.
- Rod Long @ Cato Unbound responds with property-rights absolutism, and finds my QoTD
- QoTD:
In a late interview, [Hayek] admitted that were he a younger man, he would probably be a libertarian anarchist
- Standard, but always useful commentary on the history of child labor laws @ Volokh.
- FDA decisionmaking. Seems like a step up.
- Sumner, runner up QoTD: "It's the stupidity, stupid"
- Wilkinson expanding on Cowen's maxim. My commentariat won't like the end, but the rest is well worth reading.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
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3 comments:
Agreed on the FDA decision making step up, although the cure is pretty bad too. This is like the Microsoft vs Ticketmaster lawsuit. Who do you root for?
I RTW Carson T and I don't see how you've concluded that he believes crony capitalism has lead to less inequality in the US when compared to the rest of the world.
Is all copyright really cronyism?
BYF,
Carson's been writing on IP for years now...he's reached a stable conclusion (that I largely share) that IP as a whole is among the most pernicious forms of crony capitalism in the world today (and almost IP's only purpose), competed with only by the federal transportation subsidy (insterstate highway system massively distorts the market away from local companies, and in favor of giant conglomerates with fabulous logistics systems -- Walmart, Apple's outsourcing to China, etc. ).
Certainly, there is no purpose whatsoever to IP in Software, besides to grant profits to large incumbent firms. And...it's not hard to make a historical argument that this is largely true throughout all industry and all history.
Tabarrok has made a more nuanced argument in his short ebook, as has Mokyr in his longer book....but it seems pretty clear that except in strange circumstances (US's highly regulated drug market, for instance), Intellectual Property is at best neutral for innovation, and probably damaging. If it doesn't help innovation, what does it do? Crony Capitalism.
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