Jed may think he's writing about economics, but he's actually writing about morality and politics, because people pursue their economic policies in their quest for morality.
For instance, Venezuela is falling apart. Venezuela is falling apart. http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/07/what-has-hugo-chavez-done-for-venezuela http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/08/24/venezuela-imports-oil-despite-having-huge-reserves/ Another experiment in socialism leads to where every other experiment has led. That people continue to try this social experiment, is evidence that people will follow their moral conscience despite all the empirical evidence in the world against it. People desperately need to discover morality, and not just any morality, but the only morality possible which is universal and treats everyone equally. This the key: morality must be universal, and the only moral principle possible which treats everyone as equals, is the non-aggession principle. All others break universality in some way, shape, or form, and create extra-moral agents, like governments, which create the moral rules which we are all then required to follow. When people respect others, and do not threaten violence against them to achieve desired social and political goals, then the resulting economic system is capitalism. Craig