I noted that one reason we buy so much health care is that the price to us is artificially low; if we paid the full price for health care, we would m… - David R. Henderson

It is not always easy to define property rights. What is striking, though, is how often government legislation and court rulings have prevented the common law system from handling pollution problems even when common law seemed to be working well toward resolving them.

Many people at various points on the political spectrum have claimed that the U.S. thirst for oil is so great that, unless we change our habits (the left emphasizes conservation, and the right emphasizes drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge and elsewhere), the U.S. government will find itself drawn into wars to maintain access. This thinking shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how energy markets work. There is no good case for going to war over oil.

There are two main differences between Ponzi’s original scam and the Social Security system. The first difference is that Social Security is run by the government and, whatever its constitutionality and its questionable ethics, is legal. The second difference follows from the first: Whereas Ponzi had to rely on suckers, the government can and does use force.