Conceived in Liberty or Conceived in Sin? Exploitation and Modern Prosperity

Source: EconLog
by Art Carden

Economics in One Lesson author Henry Hazlitt said that good ideas must be re-learned every generation. As I tell my economic history students, we’re contending for the values of the Enlightenment — life, liberty, equality, and the resulting prosperity. Contrary to what we are often told, we owe our prosperity to liberty, not exploitation, and a flourishing future for all requires that Adam Smith’s ‘liberal plan of equality, liberty, and justice’ be extended more broadly. People need freedom, and to the extent people have had it, they’ve made themselves — and others — very rich.” (11/04/24)

https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2024/cardenexploitation.html