May 2012
11 posts
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“Wise and discipled men refuse to indulge in immediate pleasures when the...”
– Henry Hazlitt
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“Incidentally, I find it strange to recall that my education was utterly...”
– Matt Ridley
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“The answer to constraining rent-seeking expendtures is to constrain the ability...”
– Allen Dalton
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Typical Exchange
Me: Could you possibly iron my shirt? It takes me a lot longer than you and I need to shower.
Dad: Could you possibly do the dishes? It took me a lot longer than it would take you if you did some.
Me: I'll try to remember. But my shirt needs to be ironed now. I'm hopping in the shower.
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Rent Seeking
Brain: We must prepare for tomorrow night.
Pinky: What are we doing tomorrow night?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky—seeking out some rent!
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“In scholarship it is not perhaps necessity, but prejudice, that is the mother of...”
– Mancur Olson
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Be Wary
The invisible hand will smite you.
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“Then I ask you, I plead with you, I beg you all, walk out of here [the Fed] with...”
– Robert Wenzel
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“The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then...”
– Harry Browne
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Comparative and Absolute Advantages in Task...
This is a short analysis of task distribution within my own profession, hanging wallpaper.
A simple way to think about how different agents are assigned different tasks is by looking at solely two agents, A and H, and two tasks, 1 and 2, with the level of output, y, governed by y=ƒ(τ1, τ2), where τ1 and τ2 are the amounts of task 1 and 2 carried out. To understand which agent would perform...
April 2012
28 posts
2 tags
“In their intense meditation the hidden sound of things approaching reaches them...”
– C. P. Cavafy
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“For the gods perceive things in the future, ordinary people things in the...”
– Philostratus
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On Bourgeois Logic
likeagswift:
freemarketliberal:
Left-wing theory of economics? What is that even supposed to mean? Economics isn’t “left” or “right” wing. There are Socialists who are Austrian. There are Republicans who are Keynesian. There are Democrats who are Neo-Classical (though it’s more rare). … In fact, most the Democrats and Republicans tend to be Neo-Liberal in their economic beliefs (just look at...
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“Suppose the tax were levied by the town … and the full value on the amount...”
– Charles Lane
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“Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be...”
– Henry David Thoreau
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“Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and...”
– Percy Shelley
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“Loyalty to ideas is not a good thing for … anyone.”
– Nassim Taleb, Fooled by Randomness
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“An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having been the...”
– Benoit Mandelbrot (via likeagswift)
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“I resent the person who, without having done much homework in libraries, thinks...”
– Nassim Taleb, Fooled by Randomness
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“Grønt Gras står for en antikapitalistisk og antiautoritær politikk, basert på en...”
– Anarchy.no/green
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On Bourgeois Logic
likeagswift:
freemarketliberal:
So Mises is hinting at comparative institutional analysis and the utility possibilities of different institutional structures.
I fail to see how there’s anything comparative in terms of institutions in any Austrian economics. The most extreme case being big L anarcho-capitalists like Rothbard. They systematically seek to prove ’the state’, or any left-wing...
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Who's in Arizona?
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On Bourgeois Logic
Interesting take if only for its interpretive differences. Obviously the quote Dave presented lacks the full context. However, the summation accurately represents that section of Theory & History. There are other portions of the text that I feel should be included to elaborate further and benefit interpretation.
Mises is talking about Marxist class analysis and differentiates between the...
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Her: I don't like Nutella
Me: I can no longer believe anything you say
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“I don’t dispute the internal truth of economic mechanisms ceteris paribus”
– Benjamin Charnock
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“If the utility to the individual cannot be measured, it would seem to be at...”
– Knut Wicksell, A New Principle of Just Taxation, 1896
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The Fundamental Principles of a Pure Theory of...
I wish I could link to this article for you guys to see it. I haven’t been able to find a PDF of it and I don’t have the time to type it all out. Maybe I’ll scan my copy. This is a great read though. It’s a Positive Theory of the State
An entire community consists the political enterprise and participates in it:
Is the [political] entrepreneur the community, and must...
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“Write hard and clear about what hurts”
– Ernest Hemingway (via kellyhasadventures)
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Market Anarchy: Is voting consent or immoral for a... →
Hey there. I’m pretty sure you should research what the primary axiom “libertarianism” is based on is: the non-aggression principle.
shoveitupyourpipe:
Just do a simple definition search on the word Libertarian and you will see.
That libertarianism is based on minimization of the State? No. Libertarianism is based on not initiating force against anyone, including their...
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An Open Letter to my Friends on the Left →
I really enjoyed this.
My friends,
In the last week or two, I have heard frequently from you that the current financial mess has been caused by the failures of free markets and deregulation. I have heard from you that the lust after profits, any profits, that is central to free markets is at the core of our problems. And I have heard from you that only significant government intervention into...
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“If all economists were laid end to end they would not reach a conclusion.”
– George Shaw
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The Surviving Roots of Manifest Destiny
The evolution of the social conscience of Western society has been affected greatly by the lessening of European peoples’ ignorance, realizing more so that one people are not superior simply because of the lack of comprehension by others, a lack of “civilization” of others, a difference in cultures. The unenlightened and arrogant customs passed down through early United...
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“Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
March 2012
25 posts
9 tags
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“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or...”
– Jim Jarmusch
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“There are few treasures of more lasting worth than the experiences of a way of...”
– Eric Shipton
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Hating The State and Loving Liberty →
[W]hy not talk about how regulations and licensing laws restrict the liberty of average citizens to live out their dreams in meaningful ways? Running one’s own business is not just “economic behavior.” It is part of what the philosopher Loren Lomasky means when he talks about how liberty enables us to be “project builders,” creating meaning in our lives. For many, especially members of groups...
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I met David Friedman on Friday
… And had dinner with him. He’s by far the smartest person I’ve ever met in my life.
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“Humans are more the product of social and natural systems than are those systems...”
– Steve Horwitz
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“Private ownership is not a goal but a means to an end. What really matters is...”
– Steve Horwitz
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“When you elect a politician, you buy nothing but promises. You may know how one...”
– David Friedman
