Friedman Friday

In honour of the great man, once a week i will scour the blogosphere for stories that might bring a wry smile.

i) Markets are like weeds. Despite the best efforts of government bureaucracies to nail them down, they will spring up where you least expect them. Hit & Run reports that due to punitive and unfair driving laws, a market has opened up for French licence points .

ii) Chris Dillow thinks that us liberty-lovers are complete pussies at marketing our cause. He has five suggestions for us to become more evangelical.

iii) The man who is neither a Bishop nor a Hill makes a promising start at a UK Bill of Rights.

iv) New blogger, Mark Wadsworth, discovers that British single mums are paying a 70% tax rate.

v) We all know that 'it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner', but the argument against corporate social responsibility (CSR) is so much more powerful when sung... I give you the Milton Friedman choir.

'The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits'
Milton Friedman

vi) Question; What is the only telecoms market in the world without any government regulation? Answer; Somalia. And guess what - it's thriving. Funny that. The BBC are astonished,
'but how do you establish a phone company in a country where there is no government? In some respects, it is actually easier. There is no need to get a licence and there is no state-run monopoly which prevents new competitors being established. And of course there is no-one to demand any taxes, which is one reason why prices are so low.'

mmm.... penny dropping?