Disqus - Latest Comments for rlorenc

Re: Deal Alert: Biz Class Flights to Europe $1,299+ Round-Trip

rlorenc — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 17:53:02 -0000

I'm trying to combine the AARP and Chase deals, but when I try to input the AARP2019 promo code, the system tells me I need to login...even thought I am logged in already. Any tips? (Am I already getting AARP rates when I search via their link--no code needed?)

Re: Proxima b Aliens Horrified by Spectacle of U.S. Presidential Race | Foundation for Economic Education

rlorenc — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 09:14:09 -0000

Yes, I am.

Re: Market Fundamentalism Is Dead. Introducing Activist Laissez-Faire

rlorenc — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 14:14:48 -0000

When the authors think of a "renowned free-market newspaper columnist" involved in FEE's founding, they may be thinking of Henry Hazlitt, a founding board member of FEE and long-time columnist for Newsweek, The Nation, and the New York Times (member of the editorial board). He was also the author of the excellent book Economics in One Lesson: http://fee.org/resources/ec...

Re: Market Fundamentalism Is Dead. Introducing Activist Laissez-Faire

rlorenc — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 14:08:50 -0000

If you're interested in complexity theories, consider polycentric law, something we've published on recently at the Foundation for Economic Education: http://fee.org/freeman/what....

A few factual corrections to your article:

• The title is "I, Pencil."

• Leonard Read is spelled Read. FEE's current president is Lawrence W. Reed (no relation).

• Although his work appeared in newspapers, Leonard Read was not a newspaper columnist professionally. He was an entrepreneur as well as general manager of the L.A. Chamber of Commerce before founding FEE. More info on Leonard Read is here: http://fee.org/freeman/leon...

We've also addressed the "I Pencil Revisited" concept directly here: http://fee.org/anythingpeac...

-Richard Lorenc, COO, FEE

Re: The Libertarian Delusion

rlorenc — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:11:45 -0000

Because it is not self-evident to me, I invite the author to provide evidence for this: "Of course, nearly all of these regulations are there because of some market failure or corporate abuse that resulted in citizen pressure on Congress for reform."

Re: Fellow Economists Call David Brat's Academic Résumé "Not Impressive" and "Unusual"

rlorenc — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 15:08:30 -0000

Ayn Rand was not a libertarian ("Libertarians are a monstrous, disgusting bunch of people"). Neither is Brat.

Re: Chicago teachers say they’ve been handed an ultimatum

rlorenc — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:00:38 -0000

The figure cited in this article–average Chicago teacher salary of $59,000–is inaccurate. It includes private tutors and teachers who are not Chicago Public Schools employees/Chicago Teachers Union members. The true average salary of a CPS employee/CTU member is $74,839. Add another $30,000 annually for benefits, and the average CPS teacher makes over $100,000 in total compensation. Liberal blogger Ezra Klein has confirmed these salary numbers (http://www.washingtonpost.c....

Re: Credit Spiral

rlorenc — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:38 -0000

You know, they don't even use the word "trillion" in Britain. (They say "one thousand billion." Certainly conveys the scale better, eh?)

Re: Liberals Against Libertarians

rlorenc — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:40:10 -0000

I don't think that liberals have really ever "gotten" libertarians. To left-wingers, libertarians sound cool when they talk about the social issues (even if they envision a different ways to achieve the aims of equality under the law), but they then talk about the "free market" and "self-regulation" taking place under a "minimal state" and the warning bells go off. "Libertarians are cold-hearted," they'll say. The very idea that people are knowledgeable to make the best decisions for themselves is anathema to everything they've learned about humanity. The masses must be led by people who know more than they.

Another common misconception is that libertarians are utopians. Just look at Jacob Weisberg's latest column in Slate (and published in Newsweek, too): http://www.slate.com/id/220...

Problem is, libertarians aren't utopians. Far from it. We are realists.

Take it from Milton Friedman, perhaps one of the most famous libertarian free market economists of all time:

"The society that puts equality before freedom, will have neither. But the society that puts freedom before equality will enjoy a great degree of both."

Thing is, free market capitalism is the best economic system we have. It goes hand-in-hand with liberty in general, which validates people's rights and responsibilities like nothing else.