Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Prosperity: Prosperity encompasses not just material abundance, but also well-being, happiness, and the flourishing of individuals and communities. It includes economic security, education and opportunity and social and political freedoms. See also Society, Community, Economy, Education, Freedom._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Friedrich A. von Hayek on Prosperity - Dictionary of Arguments
Boudreaux II 52 Freedom/prosperity/Hayek/Boudreaux: (…) the policies which are nowfollowed everywhere, which hand out the privilege of [economic] security, now to this group and now to that, are (…) rapidly creating conditions in which the striving for security tends to become stronger than the love offreedom. The reasonfor this is that with every grant of complete security to one group the insecurity of the rest necessarily increases.“(1) >Liberty/Hayek Prosperity/freedom: Indispensable to the creation, maintenance, and growth of widespread prosperity is an economic system that uses scarce resources as effciently as possible to create goods and services that satisfy as many consumer demands as possible. To the extent that the economic system encourages, or even permits, productive resources to be wasted, that system fails to achieve maximum possible prosperity. Free market/capitalism/Hayek: The system that best ensures that resources are used as effciently as possible is free-market Capitalism - an economic system based on transferrable private property rights, freedom of contract, the rule of law, and consumer sovereignty. This last feature of free-market capitalism is the right of each consumer to spend her money as she sees fit. She can spend as little or as much of her income as she chooses (in order to save whatever she doesn't spend), and she can change her spending patterns whenever and in whatever ways she likes. In short, consumer sovereignty means that the economy is geared toward satisfying consumers, not producers. >Consumer sovereignty. Boudreaux: This aspect of a market economy is important to emphasize because we are often told otherwise, namely, that a market economy is geared to benefit mainly producers. >Markets, >Markets/Hayek, >Free market. Production: The freedom of producers to respond to, and even to anticipate, consumer demands is so vitally important for the success of the market economy that people often regard the case for economic freedom to be chiefly a case for the freedom of business. This is a mistake. At root, the case for economic freedom is a case for the freedom of consumers. Boudreaux II 53 Innovation/inventions/progress/technology: Of course, because maximum possible consumer freedom entails the freedom of entrepreneurs and businesses to compete vigorously for consumers' patronage, the defense of free markets often requires the defense of profits as well as of business's freedom to experiment with different ways of earning profits. Upstart entrepreneurs prevented by licensing restrictions from entering a profession will be unable to offer their services to consumers who might find those services appealing. Business freedom: The defense of profits and business freedom, though, is a defense primarily of the chief means that the market uses to ensure that consumers are served as well as possible. >Innovation, >Inventions, >Progress, >Technology, >Technical progress. 1. Friedrich Hayek (1944). The Road to Serfdom. In Bruce Caldwell (ed.), The Road to Serfdom, II (Liberty Fund Library, 2007): 153. _____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Hayek I Friedrich A. Hayek The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2) Chicago 2007 Boudreaux I Donald J. Boudreaux Randall G. Holcombe The Essential James Buchanan Vancouver: The Fraser Institute 2021 Boudreaux II Donald J. Boudreaux The Essential Hayek Vancouver: Fraser Institute 2014 |
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> Counter arguments against Hayek
> Counter arguments in relation to Prosperity
