The Realities of Socialism and Essential Scholars projects are key to learning from the past and building a better future
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As 2024 dawns, the outlook for both the United Kingdom and the world appears uncertain and gloomy. But where challenges arise so do opportunities, and IEA has a crucial role in warning about the current trajectory and articulating the alternatives.
Through the Realities of Socialism ([link removed]) and Essential Scholars ([link removed]) projects, we have been doing just that. Both are multinational projects led by our long-time friends at the Fraser Institute in Canada (with whom we share a co-founder in Sir Antony Fisher) in conjunction with the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia, the Foundation for Economic Education and the Fund for American Studies in the United States.
As Realities of Socialism polling ([link removed]) has shown, socialist ideology is alarmingly popular across the English-speaking world, particularly with young people. It is therefore necessary to communicate the catastrophic consequences of those ideas. Case studies on Poland ([link removed]) and Estonia ([link removed]) , lay bare the brutality and deprivation of Soviet bloc communism. Mercifully, the prospect of totalitarian communism in the ilk of the Soviet empire looks remote. But the experiences of Denmark ([link removed]) and Sweden ([link removed]) may hit closer to home. After a century of embracing liberalism and free markets, both countries’ taxes and spending grew, as did the power of regulators and trade unions. With it came stagnant growth, wages, and productivity.
What these publications do show, however, is that there is a way out. All four countries have recovered from their experiences with interventionist economics and embraced markets. Taxes in Sweden and Denmark are high, but they are nonetheless prosperous nations with economies rooted in free markets. Since lowering taxes, opening markets, and fostering trade in the early 1990s, Poland and Estonia have become two of Europe’s developing economic powerhouses.
So many of those reforms were inspired by the work of thinkers like Milton Friedman ([link removed]) , F.A. Hayek ([link removed]) , and James Buchanan ([link removed]) . Essential Scholars ([link removed]) is a key resource in our efforts to bring their ideas back to the forefront of public debate.
The projects have reached millions of people on social media in 2023 and more podcasts, videos, and a publication on Singapore’s economic history are still to come. We look forward to continuing this vital partnership in 2024.
Harrison Griffiths
IEA Communications Officer
The Road to Freedom: Estonia’s Rise from Soviet Vassal State to One of the Freest Nations on Earth ([link removed])
Peter J. Boettke, Matthew D. Mitchell & Konstantin Zhukov
The latest instalment in the Realities of Socialism ([link removed]) series focuses on Estonia’s journey from Soviet socialism to free market prosperity.
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Sweden: Road to Socialism and back? ([link removed])
Communications Officer Harrison Griffiths and Head of Political Economy Kristian Niemietz discuss The Mirage of Swedish Socialism ([link removed]) by Johan Norberg, which charts Sweden's complex economic history.
The Essential Adam Smith by James R. Otteson ([link removed])
The Father of Economics… So many of the ideas that power modern prosperity were popularised by Adam Smith ([link removed]) . His 1776 book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is ranked among the most important works of the last millennium
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** CEO pay does not warrant more regulation
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This week the High Pay Centre announced that it took just three days for the average FTSE 100 boss to earn the average salary. In response, Editorial and Research Fellow Professor Len Shackleton highlighted the risks of trying to restrict high pay:
* Cracking down on CEO pay would undermine British competitiveness and burden all of us with higher tax bills without even benefitting workers.
* The difference between top CEOs and average pay is an obvious feature of a free society where high pay is usually, though admittedly not always, associated with greater responsibilities. A CEO can make, or break, a company and therefore it’s unsurprising they are paid generously.
* UK FTSE-100 CEOs are paid roughly in line with their counterparts in other European countries such as Germany and France, though considerably less than equivalents in the USA. In relative terms their pay has not increased significantly in recent years.
* Top earners pay stonking amounts in taxes: the top one per cent of all earners in this country pay almost 30 per cent of income tax.
* If we somehow stopped these people earning large amounts, many of them would leave the country and we would all have to pay higher taxes to compensate. If FTSE-100 CEO pay was redistributed to workers, it would mean just around £200 a year extra before tax for a company employing 20,000 people.”
** In defence of ‘fat cat’ chief executives ([link removed])
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Len Shackleton, The Spectator ([link removed])
Unintended consequences… If we somehow stopped these people earning large amounts, many of them – footballers or CEOs – would leave the country
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** FTSE 100 bosses earn UK average salary in three days, says High Pay Centre ([link removed])
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Len Shackleton, BBC ([link removed]) & The Telegraph ([link removed])
But but but… Prof Len Shackleton from free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs said that cracking down on chief executives' pay would "undermine British competitiveness" and lead to higher tax bills for everyone.
IEA Latest.
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A chainsaw-wielding radical has cut his way through to the path to prosperity ([link removed])
Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh, The Daily Telegraph ([link removed])
Viva la libertad carajo!… Argentina’s economy was once free and prosperous before being undermined by collectivism. Can President Javier Milei return it to its former glory?
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A new age of prohibition ([link removed])
Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon, Spiked! ([link removed])
Dark days ahead… The post-Covid era has been unfriendly to lifestyle freedom and that trajectory looks set to continue.
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Can the Private Sector Boost National Defence? | IEA Podcast ([link removed])
Matthew Lesh interviews Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of York Keith Hartley, IEA YouTube ([link removed])
Unusual bedfellows… Markets rarely feature in discussions about defence policy, but recent IEA research ([link removed]) shows that there could be an opportunity to reset that reality.
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Why did it take so long to give Tim Martin a knighthood? ([link removed])
Christopher Snowdon, The Spectator ([link removed])
Arise Sir Tim… Weatherspoons has been key to shielding pubgoers from the nanny state and the cost-of-living crisis.
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Free trade vs national security: insights from Adam Smith ([link removed])
IEA author Edwin van de Haar, IEA Blog ([link removed])
A new world order… Post-Cold War optimism about globalisation and trade fostering peace may have been misplaced. But we can protect free trade whilst tackling national security threats.
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Debunking degrowth ([link removed])
Christopher Snowdon, The Critic ([link removed])
Doublespeak… Economists already have a word for degrowth: recession. It means people being poorer and less free.
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