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Archive of posts published in the tag: John Tomasi

Dimensions of Wealth

As societies become wealthy Progressives believed, welfarist (or even socialist) policies would gain ever more popular support. To the dismay of (Richard) Titmuss’s followers, however, something very close to the opposite occurred. In liberal societies across the world, wealth made

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The Growth in Per Capita Wealth is Greatly Underestimated

… the average American family in 1875 spent 74 percent of its income on food, clothing, and shelter; compare to a mere 13 percent spent in 1995.  … a three-minute phone call across the United States in 1950 cost ninety

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The Dangers of Social Justice

Hayek argues that the term “social justice” is “empty” and lacks “any meaning whatever”- at least within the context of a society affirming traditional liberal values.  He compares a belief in social justice to a belief in witches or ghosts. 

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Private Wonders

“The skyline of New York is a monument of a splendor that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or approach.  But America’s skyscrapers were not built by public funds or for a public purpose: they were built by the

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Is Collective Liberty an Oxymoron?

Socialists sometimes define the economic liberties differently.  For them, economic liberty involves the right to participate in collective decision making about the issues of socially owned property.  There are complicated issues here, but speaking generally, classical liberals are skeptical of

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Accidental Social Justice

John Tomasi wrote Free Market Fairness in an attempt to find common ground between the classic liberals that created the basis of capitalism and the ‘high’ liberals (liberals as we commonly think of them today) that place a higher emphasis

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