The Darwin economy
by Robert H. Frank · first published 2011
3mentions
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3HN commenters
2011–2020first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
"The premise of economist Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'--a tenet of market economics--is that competitive self-interest shunts benefits to the community. But that is the exception rather than the rule, argues writer Robert H. Frank. Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection is a more accurate reflection of how economic competition works ... because individual and species benefits do not always coincide. Highlighting reasons for market failure and the need to cut waste, Frank argues that we can domesticate our wild economy by taxing higher-end spending and harmful industrial emissions."--Natur
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…absolute terms. I don't even think it's a "capitalist meme", in some sense it is a core tenet (and at times a major problem) with capitalism. Bob Frank wrote a great book about this: http://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Economy-Liberty-Competition-Com...
on “Most Ordinary Americans in 2016 Are Richer Than Was John D. Rockefeller in 1916” ↗> The government's duty to protect your life does not extend beyond protecting it from the use of force by other people. You are mistaken: http://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Economy-Liberty-Competition-Har... Chapter 1: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9509.pdf
on “The Government's $200,000 Useless Android Application” ↗This reminds me of "The Darwin Economy" by Robert S. Frank (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12035503-the-darwin-econ...) where he proposes a tax on super expensive luxury consumption precisely because its main utility is social signalling.…
on “How to Escape the Modern Rat Race” ↗