Actually, I misstated things. Rights are RECOGNIZED and protected from encroachment by the Federal Government via Amendments. They are rights regardless. The Amendments prohibit the Federal Government from infringing - they in no way grant power to determine rights to the Federal Government.

All that aside, a contract is not a right.

You are correct in pointing out that our economy is a mess. And contrary to what you assert - economies are entirely rational. I think what you meant to say was that the market manipulations (via government policy) prevent the market from acting in a rational manner, and I agree. This can not last forever, however. It is like an earthquake building up pressure along a fault line - they are trying to prevent the slippage from happening and actually creating a much worse disaster when it does go! Even the Federal Reserve Board has admitted as much when they admitted that Quantitative Easing could not be used as an indefinite solution to the problem of too much debt.

Our economy is a mess because we are using fiat currency which can be (and is being) manipulated by the Federal Reserve and the politicians. They are propping up the banking industry and their own deficit spending. The only reason the money hasn't made it into the economy in general is two reasons I can see: one: it is fake money that only the Fed can use, and they are using it to buy up US debt, therefore the majority never makes it into the general money supply - it sits as an asset on the balance sheets of the Fed! Second, banks and businesses alike are hoarding cash because there is no investment vehicle right now which presents a favorable risk for return - especially in the long-term markets - and the interest rate is so low right now that there is literally zero (and sometimes even a net loss) in in short-term investments. Businesses aren't even investing in capital (property, plants, equipment) or people either because of the general volatility introduced by the aggregate of all these policies and the additional taxes and wage uncertainty (minimum wages + insurance) are such wildcards that the only hedge against these risks is to stockpile funds.

The general result is that in order for businesses to return to business as usual, the whole environment for business has to stabilize - money printing must stop to stabilize currency value. Debt must stop accruing - especially given the inevitable rise in interest rates. Capital costs can not be made subject to the whims of central planners - ie Obamacare must go.

Barring those, I am afraid that it is only a matter of time before the faultline slips and reminds us that we can not neglect the laws of nature - whether economic or natural without reaping the consequences. And the consequences keep building at an alarming pace.

The federal government does not have the power to decide what constitutes a right - rights are explicitly enumerated as Amendments. If it is NOT explicitly enumerated as a right, the Tenth Amendment specifically reserves the right for all such matters to be defined by the States until such time as another Amendment is added enumerating a specific right and designating the Federal Government as the arbiter of such.

This was the great debate between Hamilton and Jefferson over Federalism and it is the primary reason why the Constitution initially deferred to the States. Over the passage of time, the Federal Government has usurped the powers once exercised by the States by misapplication of either the Supremacy Clause or the Commerce Clause, but these usurpations are not justified by the Constitution itself.

What better reason to change the current system? I suppose I'm wandering in the realm of not what is, but what could and should be.

Welcome to the Gulch, LorinIrvine.

we are in agreement. Unfortunately, von Mises et al are off the ranch on IP. Very frustrating! Glad to have you in the gulch.

"Actually, a worker on a mechanical harvester is an example of the use of technology. An example of specialization for a farm laborer would be one who only picks tomatoes or strawberries."

You misunderstand the concept of labor differentiation, then. Differentiation is based on HOW you do the job - such as utilizing technology or machines - not what job you are doing. It doesn't matter whether you are picking strawberries or carrots - if you are doing it by hand, you are not differentiated at all from another laborer using their hands. Differentiation is a matter of process control, not inputs or outputs.

Yes, the uber rich are less affected by a temporary market downturn. Their reserves allow them to weather temporary fluctuations, there is no doubt. For the middle and lower classes who have substantially lower reserves, they are affected to a greater degree, and so are the businesses whom they serve.

The problem with your argument is that you fail to take into account an economic measure known as elasticity. Elasticity is a measure of the change in demand for a given product or service relative to a price change. A purely elastic good's price responds immediately and commensurately with the increase or decrease in demand: increase in demand leads to increase in price and vice-versa. Consumer electronics are an example of an elastic good. Luxury products such as automobiles are an outstanding example of an elastic good.

Inelastic goods are priced mostly based on supply, as the demand for such is relatively stable, such as fuel and food. Every economics textbook I own uses gasoline as the quintessential example of an inelastic good because there is relatively constant demand regardless of the price of the good. It takes a pretty substantial price increase to force us to decrease our consumption of fuel. Fuel has doubled in price in the past 10 years, yet consumption has remained on a pretty consistent upward trajectory. http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_...

The same can be seen with food, whose prices have similarly gone up, as with this example of milk: http://nypost.com/2014/03/17/milk-prices... This despite the government subsidies being given to milk producers to artificially keep prices low. As a derivative, check out cheese prices, as they are the highest they've been in decades. Bacon prices are over $6/lb, and beef prices are up as well even though supply is only slightly down (demand hasn't substantially changed).

I work in the food service industry and see billions of dollars in transactions. If what you were saying was true, there would be a lower demand given the economy and prices would be stable in areas of falling supply and falling in areas of excess supply. That simply is not the case, and all one has to do is look at their grocery bills over the past 10 years as further proof. (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost) Have you been out to eat lately? It's pretty hard to go to a restaurant for <$25 a couple - before drinks and tip.

I highly recommend that you reassess your premises and their sources.