NP: No gov't; best gov't..from John Lanchester LRoB

[Paul Mackin]

On 9/6/2011 3:38 PM, Richard Fiero wrote:
> Paul Mackin wrote:
>> On 9/5/2011 10:07 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>>> Since other reads are faltering, maybe we all ought to read some good
>>> n-fic along the financial lines so many have been talking about...
>>>
>>> I did a bit of 'refutational' reading a while back with Von 
>>> Mises'--grandaddy
>>> of all of them there Viennese witchdoctors--Human Action......it was 
>>> easier
>>> than I thought to show-up his supposed premisses and first 
>>> principles, if I say
>>> so myself, and I have to, since i had no one to challenge me and 
>>> don't know how delusional
>>> I was....
>>
>> Well, the very fact you're considering the possibility means you're 
>> not delusional.
>>
>> But, practically no one is totally wrong about everything.
>>
>> No matter how problematic it is, the market system at least has  a 
>> mechanism for setting prices and allocating resources, while the 
>> socialist system must rely on central planning, which is even more 
>> problematic.
>>
>> Too bad everything's not as free as cyberspace, although THAT 
>> unlimited resource does produce a lot of clutter.
>>
>> P
>
> Certainly von Mises and Hayek are an ideology without evidence.

They may be almost medieval  in not bothering about empirical evidence.  
Doesn't Austrian School mean NOT German? Nevertheless deductive 
reasoning does have its uses.  It just isn't enough by itself. But if A, 
therefore B is still a necessary, if not sufficient, way to reason.

> If one doesn't like central planning, then Mexico may be one's favored 
> model. Otherwise Brazil and China might be examples of successful 
> economies. 

Brazil has a moderately free market economy and a huge stock market.  
China has free markets.  They operate however at the pleasure of the 
Party.  I'm betting the market will win.

> The US which is becoming a right-to-work state may consider Canada a 
> better model. Canada has a higher standard of living than the US. Its 
> citizens pay their takes and get far more services than US citizens 
> and US non-citizens that form its permanent working non-voting 
> underclass.

True but both economies are very market oriented. Social programs much 
less so for Canada and everyone but the Republicans think that is a good 
idea.

> It's very important that US citizens vote their interests in spite of 
> our dumbed-down news reporting.

If only. But the point is,  von Mises et al were not incorrect in 
emphasizing the flaws in socialist economics.

P


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