Socialism has always possessed considerable moral appeal. Its advocates commonly appeal to equality of opportunity, social justice, fairness and the desire to prevent poverty and exploitation. Those are legitimate moral concerns. But there is an important distinction between socialism as an ethical aspiration and socialism as an economic system. There is also an important distinction between socialism and […]
The Problem with Socialism
Mamdani’s unworkable proposal for NYC-owned grocery stores
31 Jul 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: economics of socialism, regressive left, rent control, useful idiots
Democrat Zohran Mamdani is likely to be the next mayor of NYC, as he proffered a number of campaign promises that delighted progressives young and old. (This is besides his pro-Palestinian stand on the Gaza war, which is irrelevant to his actions as NYC mayor but still delighted the benighted.) Here are a few of […]
Mamdani’s unworkable proposal for NYC-owned grocery stores
The curse of socialism
27 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, health economics, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice Tags: economics of socialism, The Great Escape
Why Socialism Won’t Die
26 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice Tags: economics of socialism
“to employ a hundred people is… exploitation, but to command the same number [is] honorable.” That’s an actual book by the way, explaining that although communism has failed in the past across different nations, races and cultures, it might work in the future where machines can create anything we want. Think Star Trek’s replicator technology. […]
Why Socialism Won’t Die
A Socialist Explains Why Socialism Can’t Work
13 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: economics of socialism, regressive left
Not that the socialist in question, Professor Richard D. Wolff, realises that’s what he’s doing in the Q&A video below – and he’s not talking about traditional Communist Command and Controlled Economies. What he’s actually describing is a very pure form of socialism, the sort only vaguely imagined by Marx, Engels and other communists when […]
A Socialist Explains Why Socialism Can’t Work
Reflections on the TCU Capitalism versus Socialism Debate
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of socialism, Sweden
Two days ago at Texas Christian University, I debated Scott Sehon, chair of Bowdoin College’s Philosophy Department, on Capitalism versus Socialism. (Video forthcoming eventually). My opening statement was a slight variation on the one I wrote for an earlier debate on the same topic with Elizabeth Bruenig. Sehon’s opening statement was adapted from his Socialism:…
Reflections on the TCU Capitalism versus Socialism Debate
Who booed when the wall fell
15 Aug 2023 Leave a comment
in liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: Berlin wall, economics of socialism, fall of communism
#OTD communism fell
26 Dec 2022 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, history of economic thought, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: economics of socialism, fall of communism, USSR
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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