Let’s make the country poorer!
One of those rallying cries which we don’t think would gain all that much support if people understood it.
Edwin J Feulner Jr
We at the Adam Smith Institute are saddened by the death of Edwin J Feulner Jr, one of the leading intellectual organisers behind America’s conservative movement, who led the Heritage Foundation for 37 years.
Poe’s Law becomes ever more expansive
Poe’s Law: without a clear indicator of the author's intent, any parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of those views.
It’s the howling ignorance that is so painful
Tax them, tax them over there to pay for what we want!
AI Prospects
AI is becoming the story of the decade. Past industrial revolutions have featured water, steam, railways, electricity, internal combustion engines and computers.
Must subsidise demand. Must subsidise demand
Red tape is a “boot on the neck of businesses” and risks undermining the UK’s dash for growth, Rachel Reeves has said.
Catching the bounty
“The bounty to the white-herring fishery is a tonnage bounty; and is proportioned to the burden of the ship, not to her diligence or success in the fishery; and it has, I am afraid, been too common for vessels to fit out for the sole purpose of catching, not the fish, but the bounty.”
The things some people will believe
The first chart is what government spends - largely and roughly and good enough. The second - largely, good enough etc - is that spending plus the varied redistributions of income performed.
Public goods
Once upon a time, the concept of the “public good” carried a noble meaning. German philosopher Immanuel Kant further developed the original conception of a public good, building upon the ideas of Plato and Aristotle.
The new mercantilism
The mercantilism that Adam Smith denounced in the Wealth of Nations seems to be having another ascendency.
Your compensation for being employed is the cost of employing you
This is something that all too many - sadly including all too many who rule us - fail to grasp.