Tag: Free Market Foundation

The Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) has called on government to regulate Airbnb in South Africa. TBCSA claims that Airbnb is threatening the viability of conventional lodging providers such as hotels and could lead to job losses.

The law is supposed to fulfil two important functions in society: protecting people’s persons and property, and conflict avoidance. When the law steps outside of these functions, the law itself becomes a source of conflict, as we have seen throughout history, especially in contemporary South African history.

The world is fast approaching an incredible milestone in human development: for the first time in history more than half the world’s population will be middle class.

The tragedy unfolding in Venezuela serves to prove a point long-settled by the failures of communist China, the USSR, Cambodia, Zimbabwe etc.

'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' is a Latin phrase used by the Roman poet Juvenal, which can be translated to mean 'who will protect us from our protectors?'

Reality can be avoided for only so long. The South African economy has slipped into its first technical recession since 2009. Cyril Ramaphosa’s confidence in growth for the economy has proven hollow. Without a change in the size and the amount of control the state has grasped over the lives of South Africans, without a change in policy from socialism to free markets, this recession was inevitable.

In 2005, former President Mbeki committed his government to an economic growth target of 6 per cent, but only after 2010. For the interim five years a more modest target of 4.5 per cent was envisaged.

Ann Crotty, in the Financial Mail (The price we pay for Apple’s greed) paints Apple as a blight upon our civilization, an entity that only takes and gives nothing in return. Apart from the assumption that businesses must ‘give back’ (which goes unexamined in articles attacking capitalism and profit), the biggest problem with Mrs Crotty’s argument is that it rests on the idea that Apple held a gun to its customers’ heads and forced them to hand over their money.

South Africa and other societies spend untold millions on combating the scourge of corruption. Conferences are held on how to fight it more effectively and entire academic fields are dedicated to analysing it. We tend, however, to overthink and complicate corruption.

Paul Ehrlich says the collapse of civilization is a 'near certainty' within decades – again. Well, given how awful his track record has been, I’m happy to hear it. Ehrlich has about a 0% correct rate on all his other predictions. But, he plays the same role to the Left that religious fanatics on the Right play – they predict the end of the world to rile up the faithful.