But There's More Room for Squirrels
15 September 2007
News Editor, WTOP Radio
To the Editor:
I waited in vain for you to draw your listeners' attention to the connection between two of your reports today. The first report - delivered in a grave voice - was of how rising rents are financially squeezing low-income families. The cause you give for these rising rents is a "housing shortage."
The second report - delivered in an upbeat, almost triumphant voice - was of how Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has set aside yet more land in that state as a nature preserve.
As government declares more and more land off-limits for development, it reduces the potential supply of new houses and apartments, thereby causing housing prices and rents to rise. More nature preserves might be desirable, but people should be made aware of their long-term costs.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Then Privatize It
14 September 2007
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson assures us that "The premiums that F.H.A.-backed homeowners pay go directly into our insurance fund, which allows us to be self-sustaining. This ensures that borrowers, not the government, remain responsible for the loans they sign" (Letters, Sept. 14).
If Mr. Jackson truly believes that the F.H.A. is self-sustaining, he should propose that it be privatized. Government need not run any operation that pays its own way.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Indeed -- Let's Have Competition
13 September 2007
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
National Education Association president Reg Weaver demands that salaries for teachers be "competitive" ("Opposing view: Reject federal pay mandates," September 13).
Mr. Weaver's request should be considered only after he and the NEA abandon their long-time opposition to making schooling competitive.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
What Is a Libertarian?
12 September 2007
Editor, Commentary
To the Editor:
Kay Hymowitz correctly insists that a society will be peaceful and prosperous only if its denizens are guided by norms promoting decent behavior ("Freedom Fetishists," September). But she mistakenly argues that this fact lives in tension with libertarianism.
Libertarians agree that each individual is morally obliged to follow social norms such as "Don't take other people's stuff," "Respect others," "Don't hit other people," and "Keep your promises." Libertarians are distinguished by their realization that the moral obligation to abide by these (and other) norms applies to persons acting collectively - to voters and to government officials - just as strongly as it applies to individuals.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Civilization Is Not Created by Force
11 September 2007
Editor, The New York Post
To the Editor:
George Will is the rare conservative voice of reason on the war in Iraq ("A Bitter War of Choice," September 11). Unlike editorialists at the Wall Street Journal and on your pages, Will correctly understands that foreign societies can no more be engineered into peaceful prosperity by dictates and arms than can our own domestic society. Will also understands that the same government that conservatives rightly distrust to regulate business and educate children here at home is the same untrustworthy agent attempting to build a civil society in Iraq.
What the disconnect?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Just Look at Easily Discerned Facts
23 June 2003
Editor, Washington Post Book World
1150 15th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Reviewing Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black
Market, Phillippe Bourgois quotes favorably author Eric Schlossers assertion
that Left to its own devices, the free market always seeks a work force that is
hungry, desperate, and cheap (Vice Grip, June 22). This assertion which
was also quoted favorably by the reviewer for the New York Times Book Review
is simply untrue.
About 80 per cent of foreign direct investment flows to developed countries,
where workers are skilled and well-paid.
Book authors and reviewers should rely less on hackneyed myths and more on
facts.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
More than a Little Shocked
10 September 2007
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Patricia Cohen reports that Naomi Klein quotes economist John Williamson's remark that "One will have to ask whether it could conceivably make sense to think of deliberately provoking a crisis so as to remove the political logjam to reform" ("Free-Market Mischief in Hot Spots of Disaster," September 10). The implication is that Ms. Klein has smoking-gun evidence that market-oriented scholars - seeking to choke the globe on markets - are eager to manufacture crises in developing countries.
Ms. Klein takes Mr. Williamson's remark out of context. This remark occurs in the opening essay of a book featuring case studies of policy reforms. It refers to Mancur Olson's thesis that crises often make policy reforms politically easier to achieve. Far from advocating such crises, Mr. Williamson merely alerted readers to the possibility that some pre-reform crises might have been deliberately provoked. Note further that the example Mr. Williamson used of a such a crisis (namely, hyperinflation) is one whose occurrence becomes more likely the more closely an economy resembles the centrally controlled one that Ms. Klein is so keen on.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
How BEST to Regulate
9 September 2007
Editor, Washington Post Book World
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Reviewing "skeptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg's new book, Tim Flannery describes Lomborg and other advocates of free markets as "those who believe that markets should not be regulated" ("Is It Hot in Here?," September 9). This description is incorrect.
Those of us who advocate free markets believe that markets should be tightly regulated, and that such regulation is best achieved by maximum possible consumer choice along with freedom of producers to enter and exit all industries and freedom of consumers and suppliers to determine the terms upon which they will trade. We believe also that government regulation of markets too often shields producers from competition and, hence, from the need always to pay close attention to consumers' wishes. Such "regulation" by government makes markets less, not more, regulated.
Perhaps we're mistaken; perhaps we're correct. Either way, it is inaccurate to say that we "believe that markets should not be regulated."
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
