The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism.
Title:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism.
Author:
Murphy, Robert P.
ISBN:
9781596986176
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (189 pages)
Series:
The Politically Incorrect Guides
Contents:
Title Page -- Dedication -- ARE YOU A CAPITALIST PIG? TAKE THE QUIZ AND FIND OUT! -- Chapter One - CAPITALISM, PROFITS, AND ENTREPRENEURS -- So what is capitalism, anyway? -- Laissez-faire versus regulation -- Free to starve? -- Mass production for the masses -- Central planning versus the "anarchy" of production -- We won the Cold War! Or did we? -- Chapter Two - THE PRICE IS RIGHT (BY DEFINITION) -- Prices are signals -- The big fuss over "Big Oil" -- Running out of gas . . . -- Rent control (or, How to destroy a neighborhood) -- Chapter Three - LABOR PAINS -- Baseball players make more than teachers! Where are our priorities? -- Even bad CEOs deserve the big bucks -- Child labor laws are unnecessary -- The minimum wage (or, How to create unemployment) -- Unions hurt the working man -- Give me a break! -- Chapter Four - THE CASE AGAINST ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS -- The free market's "racist fee" -- Discrimination is bad for business -- The "discriminating" customer -- Private property and the freedom of association -- There's nothing "affirmative" about affirmative action -- So everything's hunky-dory? -- Chapter Five -- Government protects slavery -- Slavery was declining before state interference -- Slavery: Immoral, yes, but also inefficient! -- The rising price of slaves -- If slavery is so inefficient, then why did it exist at all? -- Chapter Six - HOW CAPITALISM WILL SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT -- Rhinos versus cows -- Conservation for whom? -- We'll cross that bridge when we get to it -- The ultimate bet: Ehrlich bombs -- Recycle? Or dump? -- The pollution of activist government -- Chapter Seven - ENSURING SAFETY: THE MARKET OR BIG BROTHER? -- There's always a trade-off . . . -- Market safety -- The regulators: Third-party guarantors -- Is there a doctor in the house? -- Safety: Taking it to the streets.
Good intentions with deadly consequences -- Chapter Eight - SETTLING DEBTS -- Deficits don't cause inflation -- Deficits crowd out private investment -- Raising taxes isn't "responsible" -- Burdening our grandchildren? -- Reagan's record -- Clinton's budget -- Chapter Nine - MONEY AND BANKING -- Barter is barbarous -- Nobody invented money -- We're from the government and we're here to help -- Printing more money makes prices rise -- Banking basics -- "Wildcat" banking -- Chapter Ten - GROWING PAINS -- The business cycle: Courtesy of the government -- The "progressive" Herbert Hoover -- The New Deal didn't fix the Depression -- Did World War II get us out of the Depression? -- The whole is not the sum of the parts -- A (government) penny spent is a penny earned -- Chapter Eleven - BREAD AND CIRCUSES: POPULAR GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS -- NASA: Needlessly dangerous -- Outer space: Too big for the private sector? -- Capitalists: Just out for a buck? -- LBJ's war on taxpayers -- Sacrosanct Social Security -- Chapter Twelve - RUNNING GOVERNMENT LIKE A BUSINESS -- Profits versus bureaucracy -- Amtrak -- Going postal over poor service -- Public utilities -- Government in a jam -- Chapter Thirteen - TRUSTING THE FEDS ON ANTITRUST -- The myth of the robber barons -- The infamous case of Standard Oil -- The case against antitrust -- The case for Microsoft -- Chapter Fourteen - TRADE WARS -- Tariffs are taxes on Americans -- Protecting jobs? -- Classical wisdom -- Debunking the deficit -- The trade deficit: Follow the money -- Chapter Fifteen - MAKING MONEY IN THE GLOBAL VILLAGE -- Manufacturing a crisis -- Outsourcing destroys jobs? -- Outsourcing makes America richer -- The high-tech sector: Another phony crisis -- Capital export is a capital idea -- We're from the world government and we're here to help.
Chapter Sixteen - THE INVESTOR CLASS: IN OTHER WORDS, YOU AND ME -- Interest: Sooner is better than later -- The importance of middlemen -- The farsighted speculator -- Futures and other derivatives: To each according to his ability... -- Raiders of the lost corporation -- A TWELVE-STEP PLAN FOR UNDERSTANDING THE FREE MARKET -- Acknowledgements -- NOTES -- INDEX -- Copyright Page.
Abstract:
Most commonly accepted economic "facts" are wrong Here's the unvarnished, politically incorrect truth. The liberal media and propagandists masquerading as educators have filled the world--and deformed public policy--with politically correct errors about capitalism and economics in general. In The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Capitalism, myth-busting professor Robert P. Murphy, a scholar and frequent speaker at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, cuts through all their nonsense, shattering liberal myths and fashionable socialist cliches to set the record straight. Murphy starts with a basic explanation of what capitalism really is, and then dives fearlessly into hot topics like: * Outsourcing (why it's good for Americans) and zoning restrictions (why they're not) * Why central planning has never worked and never will * How prices operate in a free market (and why socialist schemes like rent control always backfire) * How labor unions actually hurt workers more than they help them * Why increasing the minimum wage is always a bad idea * Why the free market is the best guard against racism * How capitalism will save the environment--and why Communist countries were the most polluted on earth * Raising taxes: why it is never "responsible" * Why no genuine advocate for the downtrodden could endorse the dehumanizing Welfare State * The single biggest myth underlying the public's support for government regulation of business * Antitrust suits: usually filed by firms that lose in free competition * How tariffs and other restrictions "protect" privileged workers but make other Americans poorer * The IMF and World Bank: why they don't help poor countries * Plus: Are you a capitalist pig? Take the quiz and find out! Breezy, witty, but always clear, precise, and elegantly reasoned, The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Capitalism is a solid and
entertaining guide to free market economics. With his twelve-step plan for understanding the free market, Murphy shows why conservatives should resist attempts to socialize America and fight spiritedly for the free market.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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