RoadtoRoota – It’s Hump Day which means Bix & V get down and dirty with current events that are changing our world…for the BETTER!
SF Source RoadtoRoota Apr 2018
Economics
The Pretense Of Knowledge
Friedrich Hayek was the founder of the Mont Pelerin Society. (The pseudonym used by this author derives from that group.) Hayek was a remarkable intellectual, doing path-breaking work in several areas, primarily economics and political science. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974. “The Pretense of Knowledge” was the title of his Nobel address. These four words capture the problems that remain with us today. Government believes and acts as if it possesses knowledge which no single entity can possibly possess. It is the pretense of all central planners.
Richard Ebeling is an Austrian economist who provided this article about Friedrich Hayek at The Daily Bell. Read it to appreciate the man and his contributions. If possible, email it to Paul Krugman and his ilk so that they may become more informed about economics. As an aside, Hayek’s final book (published posthumously from Hayek’s notes) was entitled The Fatal Conceit, a title meant to describe those who believed society could be “improved” by social engineers and central planners.
December 02, 2014
Editorial By Richard Ebeling ~ Forty years ago, on December 11, 1974, Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek formally received that year’s Nobel Prize in Economics at the official ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden. He delivered a lecture called, “The Pretense of Knowledge,” which forcefully challenged all those who believe that government has the wisdom or ability to successfully plan the economic affairs of society.
His primary targets were the Keynesian economists at that time who were confident that they could micro-manage the “macro-economy” to assure full employment, economic growth and market stability. His more general antagonists were all those social engineers who wished to redesign and regulate society through the coercive agency of government.
Hayek’s Role in Fighting Keynesianism and Socialism
Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize that year for his contributions over many decades to the understanding of inflations and depressions, and his writings on the nature and workings of society as a “spontaneous order” of evolution and development independent of political control and manipulation.
Paul Rosenberg ~ All Idolatry Shares A Single Root
“This is idolatry, the same as ancient people worshiping their city gods or medieval people holding their Holy Church above all question. In the same way, states are idols to modern people. The lines of thought are identical; the only changes involve the names of the idols – the entities that are given every benefit of the doubt at all times.” ~P Rosenberg
They We Just Don’t Get It
I got an email from a reader a few days ago, asking about something we’ve all faced. Here’s a snip:
It gets a little lonely sometimes. At times I feel a little resentful, sometimes just plain angry that so few people know or care to know about economics and/or philosophy when they are so important.
I’m sympathetic, of course, having felt similarly more than once. But, as I often say, perspective is key. We’ve all complained about people who “just don’t get it,” but the real problem is that we just haven’t gotten it.
We have grossly underestimated the kind fight we’re in. We thought it was about economics andpolitics, but it’s much more than that. What we’re really fighting is idolatry. If that doesn’t make sense to you initially, I can’t blame you, but allow me to explain.
All Idolatry Shares a Single Root
We’ve all heard slogans like this one:
Why shouldn’t we take money from a billionaire who doesn’t need it, to feed a starving child?
After that, it’s almost impossible to make any argument without appearing heartless. And there’s a good reason for that: The slogan conveys a “first position” that is deceptive and manipulative… idolatrous, really.
This argument starts with an unspoken assumption that the state is beyond question and that any failures must be attributed to someone else. If there are starving kids, it could never be that the state was hurting them. Such a thought wouldn’t register. Continue reading