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249 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 24 Nov 2023 \ on: Meta Econ Takeover Day 39 meta
And the lesson more generally:
By Per Bylund
How Government Meddling Makes Us Poorer
"Regulations imposed on production or consumption place the economy on a lower value-creative trajectory and therefore a lower standard of living."
There's a piece of this where PB is talking about monopoly, and the prospects of giant firms hoovering up small competitors to keep their advantage:
It’s really a way of outsourcing research and development. A0nd they’re also casting a much wider net in terms of imagination and ingenuity because they are not limited to the people they have employed. What’s wrong with that?
Nothing, except for things like patents, which create artificial monopolies of ideas. So large corporations might buy small businesses to get their hands on the patents, either to get the right to use them—or, probably more commonly, to kill the ideas. If there was no patent, it would not be possible to stop an idea because anyone could copy or adapt it and make new products.
Is this a canonical Austrian position against patents in particular and intellectual property in general?
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I hesitate to say it's the canonical position, because neither Mises nor Rothbard held it. It is pretty widely held now, though.
The important voice on this is Stephen Kinsella, who's given tons of talks about IP in addition to writing Against Intellectual Property.
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