John R. Lott Jr. - Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Dont
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How free-market economies really work (and why they work so well) Are free market economies really based on fleecing the consumer? Is the U.S. economy truly just a giant free-for-all that encourages duplicity in our everyday transactions? Is everyone from corporate CEOs to your local car salesman really looking to make a buck at your expense? In Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Dont, economist and bestselling author John R. Lott, Jr., answers these and other common economic questions, bravely confronting the profound distrust of the market that the bestselling book Freakonomics has helped to popularize. Using clear and hard-hitting examples, Lott shows how free markets liberate the best, most creative, and most generous aspects of our society--while efforts to constrain economic liberty, no matter how well-intentioned, invariably lead to increased poverty and injustice. Extending its rigorous economic analysis even further to our political and criminal justice systems, Freedomnomics reveals: ? How the free market creates incentives for people to behave honestly ? How political campaign restrictions keep incumbents in power ? Why legalized abortion leads to family breakdown, which creates more crime ? Why affirmative action in police departments leads to higher crime rates ? How womens suffrage led to a massive increase in the size of government Why women become more conservative when they get married and more liberal when they get divorced ? How secret ballots reduce voter participation ? Why state-owned companies and government agencies are much more likely to engage in unfair predation than are private firms ? Why the controversial assertions made in the trendy book Freakonomics are almost entirely wrong Entertaining, persuasive, and based on dozens of economic studies spanning decades, Freedomnomics not only shows how free markets really work--but proves that, when it comes to promoting prosperity and economic justice, nothing works better.
John R. Lott Jr.: author's other books
Who wrote Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Dont? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
Scott Beyer
John A. Allison
Jacob Soll
John Tomasi
Bernard E. Harcourt
Ha-Joon Chang
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Table of Contents
MORE PRAISE FOR FREEDOMNOMICS
Despite abundant evidence from around the world to the contrary, too many of our nations elitesincluding academics, journalists, politicians, and authorsclaim that free enterprise does not work. Instead, they advocate increased government regulation and central planning. In Freedomnomics, John Lott dispels the myths and shatters such conventional wisdom. Based on fact, not ideology, he demonstrates how free market principles produce the greatest success, whether it involves business, labor, crime control, or public policy. This book is essential to those who seek to understand liberty.
Edwin Meese III, former U.S. attorney general under President Reagan
Freedomnomics is a terrific exposition of matters pertaining to political economythe interaction of politics and economics. Truly, this is a perspective that is enlightening and worthy of presentation. As Thomas Jefferson once uttered, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. John Lott has meaningfully contributed to the necessary vigilance toward the preservation of freedom with the tales of his professional journey.
John Raisian, Director and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
To Milton Friedman, not only among the greatest economists of all time, but also
the heroic, often lone champion who fought for freedom with
gusto and a smile on his face. He helped many understand
how freedom makes us better off.
the heroic, often lone champion who fought for freedom with
gusto and a smile on his face. He helped many understand
how freedom makes us better off.
Introduction
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
The free market works. This notion was clear to Adam Smith in the early days of capitalism, but since then it has come under a great deal of skepticism. These criticisms are nothing new, of course. As far back as 1848, Karl Marx published a Communist Manifesto, advocating an alternative economic system that would replace the market with state planning. Communism was adopted in countries ranging from Russia to North Korea, but somehow the outcome was always the samemass shortages. Most Communist regimes eventually scrapped their dysfunctional economic system, if their populations didnt rise up and do it for them. Today, there are only a few remaining Communist countries, and the only ones that have any kind of economic successlike Chinaare the ones that are reestablishing free enterprise.
Meanwhile, countries that stuck with the free market have prospered. There is a simple reason for thisas Smith observed, the free market is based on the pursuit of economic self-interest. The market acknowledges that peoples behavior is largely determined by incentives, whether in the form of carrots or sticks. Allowing people the freedom to improve their own economic condition helps to make society wealthier overall. Smith understood that free trade takes place because both parties in an exchange profit from it. Whether a person buys a new car, a computer, or a movie ticket, the customer values the good he purchases more than the money that he pays for it. The seller, for his part, values the money that he receives more than the product.
Yet, despite its proven success, a profound distrust of the free market has spread even among the citizens and governing elites of wealthy, free nations. In the United States, politicians convene hearings to rail against oil companies, accusing them of ripping off consumers and insisting on the need for price controls or higher taxes on the firms profits. Newspapers denounce corporate greed, arguing that the only thing keeping any big company from turning into another Enron is the watchful eye of government regulation. The general public grumbles that high medicine prices mean that drug companies are getting rich at their expense.
As a telling example of the prominence of this view, the book Freakonomics achieved phenomenal popularity, selling over a million copies. In it, authors Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner purport to unveil the obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit that pervades our everyday life.
But are free market economies really based on fleecing the consumer? Is the U.S. economy truly just a giant, Hobbesian free-for-all that encourages duplicity in our everyday transactions? Is everyone from corporate CEOs to your local car salesman really looking to make a buck at your expense?
The analysis presented in this book, based on dozens of economic studies spanning my entire career, hardly fits in with the conventional wisdom these days. Sure, some people will always lie or cheatthats just human nature. But a close study reveals that these problems are by no means systemic in the marketin fact, theyre relatively rare. For every Enron, there are thousands of companies of all sizes in America that play by the rules, simply trying to make a profit by supplying people with something they want. As we shall see, there is a reason why gas prices spike even before a natural disaster hits, why monopolies exist in our economy, and why liquor is so expensive at bars and restaurants. The answer is a little more complex than corporate greed, but all these examples are really just instances of a free market acting efficiently.
This reflects one great benefit of a free marketit creates incentives for people to behave honestly. Consumers dont like to be cheatedwhen they think theyre being swindled, they take their business elsewhere. Companies and individual entrepreneurs who treat consumers right, however, stand to make big profits from satisfied, repeat customers.
A major deterrent to cheating, often overlooked by critics of the free market, is the importance of maintaining a good reputation. When a company commits fraud, most of its lost revenue stems from its damaged reputationnot government fines or legal actions. So even without the threat of criminal charges, there are big incentives for corporate shareholders to keep their executives and accountants honest. As technology improves, companies are developing incredibly inventive ways to profit from their reputations. For example, consider eBay, the Internet auction site. Even in its anonymous forums, sellers develop reputations by allowing customers to rate their transactions. Studies show that having a good reputation allows an eBay seller to charge higher prices. Whether on-line or on the street, there is money to be made by behaving honestly.
Reputations keep people honest in all kinds of realms besides business. This is even evident among politicianspossibly one of the few professions that popular opinion holds in lower esteem than corporate executives. Conventional wisdom holds that politicians en masse are subservient to special interests that provide the money to ensure their re-election. But do politicians really base their votes on the wishes of their donors? If that were the case, shouldnt we see retiring legislators in their last term break away from special interests, whose money they no longer need for re-election?
Yet, we do not see this at all. Politicians tend to vote the same way throughout their career regardless of the onset or ending of donations, even in their final terms. Could it be that politicians, deep down, believe in the special interests they support? Is it really impossible to imagine that a congressman from Michigan supports the automotive industry not because of its donations, but because he actually believes that the industry is critical to Americas future?
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