On Profit In his economic theory, Karl Marx defines profit as the difference between the sale price of a product and the total cost of manufacture of the product, including fixed costs and worker wages. Because of his theory of labour value, he wants the workers to be paid all… Read More »Demythologising Profit and Competition
Every state makes theft illegal: if I cosh you in the street and steal your money, I am breaking the law, and should expect to go to prison for it. Yet, curiously, there are numerous examples of the state legalising theft. 1) William the Conqueror In 1066, William of Normandy… Read More »State Legalisation of Theft
When analysing the effect of a National Minimum Wage (NMW), the first point to consider is whether the mandatory NMW is higher or lower than the market wage for the same work in the same location. Setting a national level minimum wage is therefore problematic, in that the market… Read More »Effects of Minimum Wage laws
Is Green Capitalism a Contradiction in Terms? Certain voices lay the blame for the incipient climate crisis at the door of capitalism. In this view, it is the very system of capitalist economics which is the proximate cause of the pervasive environmental degradation, which poses a threat to future food… Read More »Green Capitalism?
There is an apparent paradox in the relative values of water and diamonds, which has been analysed by numerous authors over the centuries, including Plato, Adam Smith and John Locke. This so-called “paradox of value” notes that while water is essential to life and diamonds are not, the market price… Read More »The Paradox of Value
Economic Growth is frequently pitched as the objective of politicians (esp those on the right) and their nations. But much of what we perceive as economic growth is actually an illusion. Notably….. 1a) Faulty Measurements – GDP Economic growth is usually measured as an increase in GDP, where GDP is… Read More »The Illusion of Growth / A Green Economics
On page 169 of Man, Economy and State, Murray Rothbard asserts that “the origin of all property is ultimately traceable to the appropriation of an unused nature-given factor by a man and his “mixing” his labor with this natural factor to produce a capital good or a consumers’ good.” He… Read More »On Rothbard
I assert that long duration government borrowing is “taxation without representation” which is forbidden by the English Bill of Rights of 1689. Governments have three choices to fund their programmes: taxation, borrowing, and money printing (such as QE). Taxation requires the current generation of taxpayers to pay for the current… Read More »Taxation without Representation: Stealing from our Children
A 16 year old girl is murdered in Warrington, UK, by two 15 year olds, who had been watching violent content online. My heart goes out to the family of the dead girl: it’s a tragedy to lose your daughter, and wonder whether there was something, anything, you could have… Read More »Pointless Violence?
As with so many other aspects of economics, the origin of money gets caught up in politics. Many theorists want their preferred model of political economy to become self-evident from their analysis of what money is. Libertarians want to exclude the state from control of money and therefore assert that… Read More »The Origin of Money in Sumer