What if the Market for Vaccines Were Free?

What are the benefits of a free market for vaccines? While such a market is unrealistic in the current political environment, it is important to understand how the free market could improve the development, production, sale and distribution of vaccines.

The libertarian cannot describe accurately the particular consequences in the long term of a market liberalization. The nature of the free market - its plurality, its decentralization - makes it difficult to make that kind of prediction. However, it is possible to make more general observations concerning a particular market, based on the principles of Austrian School of Economics.

Why We Must Oppose a Covid Health Pass

The rumors surrounding the introduction of a Covid-19 health pass are getting more or more concrete. There are signs that it likely will happen; France and UK are already considering it.

Though the details are still sketchy, it would be a kind of laissez-passer, which would allow only those in possession of it to visit places like cafes, restaurants, museums, exhibitions, etc. In order words, anyone without such a pass would still be denied access to all those establishments that were closed during the numerous lockdowns.

The Lockdown in the West Also Comes From China

The Western reaction to the Coronavirus pandemic has been nothing short of hysterical. Most of the populations in the West have been confined to their homes and whole countries have been locked down, at an economic cost that goes beyond belief. It is difficult to find historical examples of such draconian measures being adopted by Western nations anywhere and anytime, even during war.

The Disastrous Healthcare Plans of Sanders and Warren

The ideas for healthcare reform of the statist and left-wing politicians in the USA are so disastrous and so foolhardy, that they should be severely and frequently criticized. In particular, the healthcare plans of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren reflect quite well what a lot of economically and politically uneducated progressives in the USA think should be done about healthcare. They want change the current system in order to lower the costs of healthcare and provide "free" or almost "free" healthcare. It is true that the healthcare system in the US must be dramatically transformed and that its costs to end-users (patients) should go down significantly, but not at all in the interventionist way these people think. The way to go, as usual, is to expand the free market.

The SAS Commercial : An Outrageous Definition of Scandinavian Culture

Recently, a controversial commercial from SAS, the Scandinavian airline company, was published on social media. It attempts to portray Scandinavian culture as basically non-existing. The message is that because all typical Scandinavian cultural traits and imagery can supposedly be traced to external sources, Scandinavia has "nothing", as the commercial repeats, in many languages. SAS obviously is trying to be politically correct in these globalist times, in which the Nation is looked down upon. At the same time it wants to encourage Scandinavians to use SAS to fly to faraway lands to bring back more valuable things (such as meatballs?), so these too may in the future be transformed and become part of what represents Scandinavia. 

What Macron Can Learn From Putin

In France, the strike over a pension reform project is over, but it had gone on far too long. Millions of people have been affected by the refusal to work of a few thousand civil servants, but Macron remained invisible and silent for several weeks in December 2019. This public transport strike was the longest since 1986. Many French people were struggling to get from their home to their workplace, but Macron did not really address the subject until his year-end wishes – a strange occasion for such a topic - more than three weeks after the start of the strike. 

Taking Advantage of the Welfare State

Many people living in the generous modern Welfare State do everything they can to take advantage of the system; they try to reduce their tax bill and claim as many subsidies and benefits as possible.[1] The question is whether they should be blamed for doing so? In other words, is such behaviour morally acceptable?

In fact, such behaviour is generally considered immoral, which is somewhat paradoxical since it is so pervasive.

The Real Success of the Nordic Welfare State - Part II

It may not have been true in the past, but today there is a real reason to admire the Nordic welfare states. Since the late 90s, after the banking crisis of 1991 in Sweden and Finland and the recession of the early 90s, these welfare states have been radically transformed. It is even possible to speak of a “reinvention” of the welfare state.[1] 


The Nordic countries, and in particular Sweden, have shown a remarkable amount of political will to carry out reforms whose aim has been to ultimately preserve - not destroy - the welfare state.

The Real Success of the Nordic Welfare State - Part I

The Nordic welfare states were for decades considered role models; they were supposedly the proof that a highly developed welfare state could coexist successfully with an economically free society. Indeed, the Nordic countries, especially Sweden and to some extent Denmark, were recognized for pushing the welfare state further than other countries, for having developed social-democratic “universal” welfare states, and at the same time managing competitive economies with high rates of growth.[1] Though there is some truth to these perceptions, they require some important amendments that might somewhat tarnish this rosy view.