Posts in Economics
Of capitalism and serfdom

In my contribution to the National Post’s defence of capitalism, I say economic freedom is the victim of its own success, having delivered the promised prosperity but not the freedom from personal responsibility some misguided zealots thought it should, allowing them to rush us along the Road to Serfdom by blaming capitalism for not doing something it never attempted and never should have.

Words Worth Noting - December 1, 2021

“The term nearest to being synonymous with pleasure is volition: what it pleases a man to do, or what he pleases to do, may be far from giving him enjoyment; yet shall we say that in doing it, he is not following his own pleasure?… A native of Japan, when he is offended, stabs himself to prove the intensity of his feelings. It is difficult to prove enjoyment in this case: yet the man obeyed his impulses.”

John Hill Burton, “Bentham’s editor”, quoted in I.A. Richards Principles of Literary Criticism and sourced to Jeremy Bentham’s Works, vol. I