Peter's Blog

Defenders of big government often argue that roads, courts, and national defense prove the state is indispensable to prosperity, but this reasoning contains a fatal flaw. The state has no independent source of wealth: it first expropriates resources from private producers through taxation, then provides services with those resources, and finally points to those same […]

Many forms of regulation have an origin story rooted in a historical example of a business damaging everyone around for quick gain. These examples of negative externalities show something that can apparently only be fixed by regulation. If a business is allowed freedom and they used it to damage the common good, the government that […]

In an unsurprising move from the interventionist state of California, a new tax proposal threatens to take an even larger share of wealth from the state’s wealthier inhabitants, and – even worse– the act would enforce ex post facto taxation against recent emigrants from the state. Despite state propaganda to the contrary, this won’t make […]

The Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case that could impact your individual liberty. And you probably haven’t heard about it. The case began in November 2022, when Loper Bright Enterprises, a fishery based out of Cape May, New Jersey, appealed a district court opinion to the Supreme Court. The conflict between Loper Bright and […]

While the efficiency of the free market is very often accepted in the realm of industry, the environment is often used as an example of the government’s necessary role in the economy. Public goods are used as an example of the problems with market allocation. Short-sighted business owners are apparently unable to see or account […]