by Dan Mitchell | Feb 18, 2022 | Blogs, Crime, Society, Taxation
My friends sometimes tell me that libertarians are too extreme because we tend to make “slippery slope” arguments against government expansions. I respond by pointing out that many slopes are very slippery. Especially when dealing with politicians and...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 17, 2022 | Blogs, Economics
I’ve written columns about wonky economic concepts such as “deadweight loss” and “public goods.” Today’s topic is “rent seeking,” which is part of “public choice” and is described by Professor Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University. To elaborate, here’s a video from...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 16, 2022 | Blogs, Free Market
When I first wrote about the Index of Economic Freedom back in 2010, the United States was comfortably among the world’s 10-freest nations with a score of 78 out of 100. By last year, America had dropped to #20, with a very mediocre score of 74.8....
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 15, 2022 | Big Government, Blogs, Taxation
It is not difficult to understand the economics of taxation. Simply stated, the more you tax of something, the less you get of it. You can show the adverse impact of taxation with supply-and-demand curves (very helpful for understanding “deadweight loss“). But...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 14, 2022 | Blogs, States, Taxation
Last year I shared a very encouraging map, which identified the many states that have been cutting tax rates. After the November elections, I wrote a couple of encouraging columns about voters making sensible decisions when given the ability...
