Beautiful Anarchy

The Economics of Life Itself : Beautiful Anarchy is the writing platform of Jeffrey Tucker, in which he covers economics, art, popular culture, and politics from a pro-liberty, anti-state point of view.
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What Silly Putty Teaches Us about Invention and Marketing Jun 22, 2017

Earlier this month was the 9th annual Silly Putty Drop at the North Carolina State science and engineering summer camp. Campers watch a 100-pound ball of silly putty fall 141 feet and splat on the ground. The results are not very interesting actually. It breaks into a gazillion pieces. Here’s the video from a few years ago. What is actually interesting is how a huge cultural impact this product has. Looking at its history, you can learn many lessons about product innovation and consumer culture. You can learn so much about the way the world works just by looking at...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 0

Class and Race Are Never an Excuse to Gloat Over State Atrocities Jun 21, 2017

Even with all the news of terrorism around the world, there is something especially chilling and horrifying about the case of 22-year-old Otto Warmbier. Hearing the news of his death wounded me, and, I admit, more so than the usual litany of suffering around the world. If there is anything redeeming to come of this, it should be a wake-up call to all of us to change the way we think about human rights and stop a terrible trajectory of public rhetoric. It tells you all you need to know that the regime believed that this was a high crime....

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote4 4

To Whom Does This Thing Belong? And How Do We Know? Jun 20, 2017

What’s the single greatest invention in human history? I would argue that the answer is private property. If you understand why, then you should also have a profound appreciation for another great invention in human history: the blockchain. They are mutually reinforcing. In fact, humanity has never had a better tool for keeping up with property claims under complex, globalized, digital economic structures. We need people to agree on what belongs to whom.Let’s go back in time, say 150,000 years ago, when there were plenty of berries and slow-moving animals around to feed the few people around who needed to...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 0

Envy Kills Jun 15, 2017

The gunman who attempted to slay Republican Congressmen at a baseball practice had a Facebook feed. Before it was deleted, everyone could read his vitriolic attacks on the rich, his denunciations of capitalism and corporate culture, his calls for high taxes and wealth redistribution, and, of course, his push for Bernie Sanders to be the ruler of us all. We all know the litany of gripes that drove him. When was the last time you heard a sermon against envy or observed a media figure casually recognizing its evils?And yet, when the folks at National Public Radio were reflecting on...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote11 4

Leonard Read, Font of the Liberty Movement Jun 14, 2017

FEE is enormously pleased to announce the first-ever Collected Works of Leonard Read, a single download of all his books and articles, a literary legacy of one million words and 10,000 pages, fully searchable and unrestricted by digital rights management. Thanks to the genius of digital distribution, it is a speedy download and can be carried around on any digital device. Any version of the modern history of libertarian ideas that excludes his role is incomplete.In ways that are not fully appreciated today – and perhaps this effort will change that – Leonard Read was the font of the liberty...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote1 0

It Would Have Been a Massacre Jun 14, 2017

The horrifying scene at a practice field in Alexandria, Virginia, at which Congressman Steve Scalise was shot in a shocking flurry of gunfire, could have been much worse. Rand Paul pointed out that “it would have been a massacre” had a member of the House leadership not been there. His presence guaranteed that the heavily armed Capitol Police could take him down. Many others present expressed similar feelings. They were sitting ducks. If the offensive gunfire could not be met by defensive gunfire, the bloodshed would have been far worse. As this case shows – and there are millions more...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote4 0

Cleaning Wipes: The Greatest Innovation of My Adult Life? Jun 13, 2017

Oh sure, I remember window-cleaning hell all too well, and so do you.This product took drudgery and made it joyful. My lifetime dream of the perfect bathroom mirror is mine. Of course, at the time, I didn’t fully know how horrible it was. Now I do, thanks to the innovation of Window Wipes: disposable moist towelettes for cleaning glass. It solves a massive, lifetime problem/annoyance I didn’t know I had. Now I absolutely love cleaning mirrors, oven doors, chrome handles, anything that needs to shine. This product took drudgery and made it joyful. My lifetime dream of the perfect bathroom...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 0

Five Essential Hacks for Summer Jun 12, 2017

One of the joys of life is outsmarting the bureaucrats and regulators. They are constantly seeking to ruin our lives with demands that we comply. Free men and women must resist. The bureaucratization of our lives has created strange anomalies. In the physical world, the government has never been more coThe digital world is mostly unregulated. Hence, our digital devices are ever-more amazing. We can adjust our thermostats with voice commands. We can see who is standing at the front door, even if we are vacationing overseas. We can listen to any music from any era instantly. Meanwhile, in the...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote5 3

The Joys of Getting Fired Jun 10, 2017

Former FBI head James Comey was grumpy about being fired but he handled it well, at first. Then his boss took after him and publicly characterized the event in a way that Comey found offensive. So Comey ramped it up and disputed the account in an attempt to get his boss fired. Now they are involved in an angry tit for tat of mutual recrimination. Getting fired inspires you toward a higher degree of excellence, and it teaches you important lessons about getting overly attached to a single path for your career.In the private sector, this is not unusual but...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote6 3

How Much Is Race Affecting the Atlanta Elections? Jun 8, 2017

I was sitting at the Department of Motor Vehicles when I was tagged in a tweet from an Atlanta newspaper. “Atlanta could elect its first white mayor in 44 years,” it says. “Would the character of the city change?” I didn’t have enough information to say. In fact, I hadn’t even thought much about how a black mayor has actually shaped this city. How will a white mayor change things? Seems like it shouldn’t matter. And yet, race politics has been a huge factor in Atlanta’s history. No one wants to go back to the divided past.According to the linked...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote4 1

As a Music Consumer, You Are Ridiculously Fortunate Jun 7, 2017

Touching nothing, I can summon forth music from any era to fill up the room. I merely need to say aloud the name of any composer or performer of the last 500 years. I have a small device that listens and complies. It happens in an instant: the perfect performance with perfect sound. The whole experience takes my breath away. It seems too good to be true.Monteverdi! Done. Lady Gaga! Done. Tallis, Bieber, Josquin, Schubert, Frescobaldi, Joplin, Maynard Ferguson, Mahler! It’s all done by this astonishing little machine that streams music on command. Bach cantata number 20. Fantasy by Earth,...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote7 1

My Morning In the Muddy Ditch of Traffic Court Jun 6, 2017

Government, from time immemorial, has been bureaucratic, maddening, and often cruel. You can read about this in the ancient manuscripts. Chuang Tzu in the 4th century B.C., for example, wrote: “I would rather roam and idle about in a muddy ditch, at my own amusement, than to be put under the restraints that the ruler would impose.” Government has become our muddy ditch. Well, now you don’t have to make that choice. Government has become our muddy ditch. The reason is peculiar: we live in a digital age, when millions of providers are clamoring constantly for our attention, striving desperately to...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote7 2

This “Privatization” Is Fine but Uneventful Jun 6, 2017

“Welcome to the beginning of a new era for American infrastructure,” said Vice President Mike Pence while introducing Donald Trump for a press conference. “Starting today,” Pence continued, “this president will take historic steps to keep his promise to rebuild America.” Wow, that’s some serious hoopla. Excited? Well, curb your enthusiasm. What’s happening is not awful, and it is probably even essential, but it marks no new era. It was a memo with a signature but has no force of law. Trump was announcing… what exactly? It was a memo with a signature but has no force of law. Still,...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 0

Is Industry For or Against the Paris Climate Agreement? Jun 4, 2017

In his speech withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, Donald Trump cited an econometric study by National Economic Research Associates. The study, which is both credible and alarming, speculated that meeting the emissions targets could cost 2.7 million jobs, with manufacturing hit particularly hard. Overall growth would suffer. To be sure, professional economists today (in contrast to 50 years ago) have doubts about such studies, and are quick to add enough caveats to cover their tracks. The authors of this one did so.  To be “friendly” to “industry” is enough to discredit what you say.Yet you don't even have to read...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote10 1

The Amazing Arrogance of the Paris Climate Agreement Jun 1, 2017

It was December 12, 2015, when headlines in the world’s leading newspapers, in implausibly bold type, celebrated the “historic” agreement in Paris between all nations of the world to curb carbon emissions and thereby stop climate change: or so they said, as if elites get to say what is and is not historic.  The spin, like the agreement itself, was crammed down our throats. Energy stocks weren’t affected in the slightest by the diplomatic agreement.I read the stories that day, and the next and the next, and the continuing coverage for weeks that nearly every reader – apart from a...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote8 1

Five Huge Differences between Work and School May 31, 2017

13 Reasons Why is a grueling emotional drama of how high school student Hannah Baker ends up taking her own life. The social scene at her school inflicts worsening wounds and ever-deepening pain. The school itself becomes associated with the torment of her heart and soul, as her peers drive her ever further into the pit of despair. The commercial scenes are few but they are universally safe, affirming, and happy. Life is not all grim. Her home is a respite. There are also three commercial settings that play an ameliorating role. Her father’s drug store is a happy place....

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote9 1

Why Does the Afghanistan Quagmire Never End? May 29, 2017

What exactly is the US military doing in Afghanistan? I’m hardly alone in wondering. The confusion is so widespread that opposition has bled into public indifference. After a decade and a half – six years longer than the US had troops in Vietnam – it’s just something we do.   What we are doing and why is another matter. Initially, the invasion had something to do with finding those responsible for 9/11. After that, there was never a clear answer, and so people who care turn to conspiracy theory, and understandably so. Actually, Afghanistan has been on my mind much...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote10 3

How To Survive a World of Instant Feedback May 27, 2017

I first started writing before the Internet existed. We all wrote for an audience we mostly had to imagine in our minds. It seems as long ago as the War of the Roses.The only way to give an author feedback was to write a letter, put it in an envelope with an approved stamp, and give it to a government employee who would slog across the land and then drop it at the writer’s physical locale a week after he or she wrote the initial piece. People did it but not that often. Yes, I know there are people reading...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote13 1

My Short Life On a Real Ranch May 27, 2017

Why do we eat three meals per day? Why do we consume so many carbohydrates? Why do we think it is good to rise early? Why do we look down on morning drinking? At least the dogs seemed enormously happy. And where do we get the idea that pie is the greatest single American treat?  I suspect much of this comes from our landed past. Eighty percent of us worked in agriculture and ranching in the early 19th century. Then everything changed; now only one percent of us do. It is now a highly specialized profession.   So what’s it like...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote6 1

Yes, it Is a Virtue to Reject Charity May 24, 2017

There is a moment I found a bit startling in the new Anne of Green Gables series on Netflix. The farm is in trouble and the bank is talking foreclosure. The family starts to panic. Anne suggests that many people will chip in and help the family through these hard times. We should bring back the ethos and ethic of self reliance.The mother reacts with firmness and conviction: “Absolutely not. We do not accept charity.” How old fashioned! The statement alone reveals we are talking about the past here. I vaguely recall people in my own extended family – at...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote16 4

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