by Dan Mitchell | May 3, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market, Socialism
In a column for the New York Times, Jochen Bittner writes about how a rising star of Germany’s Social Democrat Party wants the type of socialism that made the former East Germany an economic failure. Socialism, the idea that workers’ needs are best met by the...
by Dan Mitchell | May 2, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Socialism
Since I think comparative economics can be very enlightening, I’m quite pleased to see a new study by David Burton of the Heritage Foundation, which uses several metrics to assess the relative merits of socialism and free enterprise. This is not necessarily an easy...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 25, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Free Market, Socialism, Welfare and Entitlements
I’ve repeatedly dealt with the argument over Denmark’s supposed socialism. My core argument is that Denmark is very bad on fiscal policy, but very laissez-faire on other issues such as regulation. The net effect is that Danes have about the same amount of economic...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 17, 2019 | Blogs, Economics, Socialism
Every Thanksgiving, I share the story of how the Pilgrims nearly starved to death because of their experiment with collectivized agriculture. Once the settlers shifted to a system based on private ownership, however, their problems disappeared. The obvious moral of...
by Dan Mitchell | Apr 16, 2019 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Socialism, Taxation
Bernie Sanders demonizes the rich and argues that millionaires need to pay higher tax rates in order to finance a bigger burden of government. Which presumably means that he should surrender more of his income, since he is part of the gilded class. The New York...