Saturday 30 April 2011

Keynes Vs Hayek: Round 2

Via Okami, the second Keynes vs Hayek viddie. Notice the trainer in Hayek's corner: Mises. For Keynes? Malthus!



The first video was produced just over a year ago, following President Obama's signing of the stimulus bill in late 2009.

5 comments:

  1. I could care less about the hair and more about the message. Keynes plays a big part in the US education establishment and is huge in the universities since most of them are on the govt teat. Hayek, Mises, and to a lesser extent Milton Friedman are unknown to the greater part of Americans. Chalk up another one for the intertubes on bringing their theories and views back into the public eye/mind for a debate. I heard of none of those three going through school and I feel that's pretty common for most people who are victims of a US public school education.

    Hayek's biggest problem is everyone expects the govt to do something when there is a problem, but Hayek says the govt should let people choose what to do. Now considering that 70+% of women's magazine articles end with a call for the govt to do something. How well do you think libertarianism and Hayek's view sell amongst women? Keynes says the govt should do something. I remember well when Obama said all those people died or were homeless in Kansas due to massive tornadoes and that the national guard wasn't there with equipment because it was in Iraq. When in reality the people cleaned up most of it themselves and private companies took care of the rest. Selling govt intervention to people nowadays is just too damn easy. Even if your completely wrong about it, the media won't even bother to cover it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Hayek, Mises, and to a lesser extent Milton Friedman are unknown to the greater part of Americans."

    Yes - as are Lysander Spooner, Gustave de Molinari and Frederic Bastiat and others...

    "I heard of none of those three going through school and I feel that's pretty common for most people who are victims of a US public school education."

    It's even worse in Britain, and probably much worse here in Taiwan: at 20 I don't think I'd even heard of Keynes but I was at least smart enough to see that the environmentalists and anti-capitalist types were full of sh*t. I remember being in a field in Oxfordshire for one of their "conferences". In one of their tents they had some silly girl up talking about the sale of anti-malarial medicines in Africa for a profit, and I can remember ticking off the counter-arguments to everything she was saying in my head. It was immediately after that I decided they were all either idiots or just dishonest and that I was just going to shag some funky little red-haired girl who'd been following me around and then get the train back to Oxford the next day.

    "How well do you think libertarianism and Hayek's view sell amongst women?"

    Tell me about it - too many girls are encouraged to just fit in, not lose face, not argue or disagree. Even those that will speak their mind, tend not to do so forcefully. Did you see Jenna's disgusting comments on Palin "deserving" the misogynist treatment meted out to her here? I'm not even a fan of Palin, but for someone to say she "deserves" the way she's been treated by the Left is just utterly disgusting.

    "Selling govt intervention to people nowadays is just too damn easy... the media won't even bother to cover it."

    Yes - well that's why I do what I can to get the alternative critique heard by writing to the TT, by keeping this blog, by talking to people in person by putting the "breakfast bunch" types up in Taichung under the pressure of criticism (and hence why I get banned all the time - it's not because I am rude, whatever they may say; it's because they are scared).

    Of course, the attempt to subvert the mixed economy further toward more Statism is held in check almost entirely by economic and technological reality than by the frantic scribblings in books, blogs and newspapers of people like me. But I do what I can - I'd probably suffer an aneurysm if I didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I find it hard to believe that most students have not heard of Milton Friedman.

    Also, the first thing they teach you in Economics 101 is the working of the invisible hand, and how the economy will always naturally equilibrialize according to supply and demand.

    And yes, Mike, you are rude.

    -Derek-

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have a hard time believing British education is worse, though I have heard some rather unflattering things about it. Oddly it's NHI is held in awe by a certain ignorant portion of American citizenry despite it lagging in most things, having queue's, and leading the world in end of life care.

    Palin misogyny from leftist women resembles the same attitudes that women often display towards rape victims. I'm willing to bet that it's probably on the same circuit in the brain. It is fascinating to watch though. On one hand they scream all the time about sexual discrimination and misogyny and then in the next breath use all those same techniques on an object of their wrath.

    Here's a great one about Walmart:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lMfoA5ZozE&feature=player_embedded

    Now I imagine you've never been in a Walmart, but imagine Costco with more stuff in smaller portions at low prices. My wife loves Walmart as do most Taiwanese who have spent some time in their stores. I love the woman who says that it will lead to young men getting records because they won't be able to stop themselves from shoplifting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "...the first thing they teach you in Economics 101 is the working of the invisible hand, and how the economy will always naturally equilibrialize according to supply and demand."

    That point can be easily overemphasized into a founding error because the notion of market "equilibration" only makes sense if we consider trade in particular goods or services during a discrete period of time and thus ignore earlier or later changes in the broader praxeological context to which both supply and demand are responsive. Markets are a natural consequence of human action with limited resources in a social context, and as such they are inherently dynamic, not static.

    "And yes, Mike, you are rude."

    Sometimes yes, but typically not gratuitously so.


    "I have a hard time believing British education is worse.."

    British State schools are rubbish; I remember at the age of fourteen or fifteen having to stay behind after school with a small number of smart kids to get extra physics classes in the teacher's own time because the regular "science" ones were so lame. Some of the teachers were wonderful people, but the system they were in was letting them - and more importantly us - down, time and time again.

    "On one hand they scream all the time about sexual discrimination and misogyny and then in the next breath use all those same techniques on an object of their wrath."

    I put it down to an irony deficiency in their reading diet: hypocritemia. Vicious bile is just one of the symptoms.

    "Now I imagine you've never been in a Walmart..."

    No, but I know what it is. There was a better story sometime last year about a biscuit factory in Brooklyn (I think) at which the workers went on strike for nine months in objection to benefit and salary cuts: a district judge ruled that the company could not cut those benefits, and so the owners closed the factory (!), sold the plot of land and completely washed their hands of something like four hundred eejits! Hilarious, yet tragic.

    ReplyDelete

Comment moderation is now in place, as of April 2012. Rules:

1) Be aware that your right to say what you want is circumscribed by my right of ownership here.

2) Make your comments relevant to the post to which they are attached.

3) Be careful what you presume: always be prepared to evince your point with logic and/or facts.

4) Do not transgress Blogger's rules regarding content, i.e. do not express hatred for other people on account of their ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation or nationality.

5) Remember that only the best are prepared to concede, and only the worst are prepared to smear.