I would say that statement is true regardless of whether the state intervenes or not. Gresham’s rule, broadly speaking, tends to apply to everything. In other words, when things become easily accessible they become common and standards tend to fall.

It should be noted that this outcome is not always a negative for society. In fact, many businesses succeed because they cater to this outcome.

Take for example mises.org. I’ve noticed a big drop off in comments …especially from people I have blogged with over the last few years. Most of those people were hardcore anarchists like myself. Even the well-versed minarchists seemed to have left. Why?

From a mises.org perspective, you’re not going to grow your business catering to the hardcore anarcheo-libertarian. If you want to attract a broader audience, you need to change the types of articles you post, change your format, and hope you attract fewer hardcore libertarians; replace them with a broader (though less passionate) audience and henceforth increase donations as well as spread the message. (There’s no point in preaching to the choir.)

In the end, Gresham’s Law operates all the time and everywhere with good and bad outcomes. Though when applied in a sociological sense, one needs to be careful in their interpretation of what is superior and inferior. Subjective analysis like “manners and superior personal image” can lead one down that slippery slope called fascism.

It’s just a step from that to “we gotta do something”, like forcing people back into those abandoned public spaces.

“He chased the lowlifes out of Times Square and made it family friendly”.

Actually, it was the Fed-fueled boom that drove Manhattan real estate valuations through the roof and priced the scumbags out of New York and into Paterson.

But yes, Times Square IS nicer. (or less bad).

This phenomenon is unquestionably a result of a socialist mentality which is not unrelated to the ego-driven interpretation that occurs as a result of empiricism. And to go further, economics that is separated from ethics is unscientific since it removes the true nature of the human reality; with the consequence being a lack of validity, thereby opening the door wide for the ambitious ego-driven interpreters and interventionists.

That is why free market economics is more than laissez-faire. It is not just a principled argument, and in fact it is beyond mere intellectual argument because it is in its true nature a divine institution that is subject to corruption by any and all human economic intervention.

That corruption shows up as bad fruits such as the ones noted above with regards Gresham’s Law of Manners.

My current home town is starting to experience this, too.

Tick tock, it’s a matter of time.

Does anyone know of a work on economics of this time from an Austrian perspective.