The Mises Community
An online community for fans of Austrian economics and libertarianism, featuring forums, user blogs, and more.

Critque of the book "Economics in one lesson"

rated by 0 users
Answered (Verified) This post has 1 verified answer | 26 Replies | 11 Followers

Top 500 Contributor
Male
42 Posts
Points 580
Dingdong Pu posted on Fri, May 8 2009 7:42 AM

This is post from the Zeitgeist Movement.

Please could you judge if their words carry any truth for you.

Critque of the book "Economics in one lesson"

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=1905&func=view&catid=3&id=118313

Answered (Verified) Verified Answer

Top 500 Contributor
88 Posts
Points 1,345
Answered (Verified) WisR replied on Fri, May 8 2009 7:38 PM
Verified by Dingdong Pu

Conza88:

The ONLY valuable piece of information obtained from that thread :

"Economics in One Lesson, Bestseller in China

Chinese edition 《一课经济学》.

It has entered the bestseller list from Oct 2008, which means 20,000-30,000 in less than six months."

Awesome! Why haven't I seen a blog about this? Smile

In the biggest bookstore here in Shenzhen (the thriving border city across from Hong Kong, sometimes ranked richest per capita in mainland China), that book is the only one based on Austrian economics I've seen (with the exception of Peter Schiff's Crash Proof, which I've seen a couple of times).  But one of my wife's uncles has heard of Mises and his theories, even though he isn't interested in economics more than anything else.

 

  • | Post Points: 40

All Replies

Top 100 Contributor
Male
283 Posts
Points 6,495

ivanfoofoo:

Check this one...

Henry Hazlitt:
But in any case, machines, inventions and discoveries increase real wages.

And the moderator replies:

VTV:
This assumes first of all that an employer is just going to raise the wages he pays out because the workers productivity has increase.

Sure he doesn't even know what a real wage mean.

I laughed out loud when I got to that part, and I had to just stop reading.

And therein lies the key fallacy in this guy's entire argument, other than having no clue what Austrian economics is actually about.

"Anticapitalist theories share in common an inability to take human nature as it is. Rather than analyzing man as a complex creature, anticapitalist theories tend to focus on what the theorist wishes man to be." - Isaac Morehouse

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 500 Contributor
43 Posts
Points 1,325

DD5:

It is obvious that those who make this remark do not themselves understand the "scientific method". Scientific method does NOT mean equations and statistics.  The key to the scientific method is substantiating or refuting an hypothesis by controlled experiments.  Controlled experimentation is the key to infer causation to a phenomenon.

  Since it is obvious that mainstream economics do not and cannot perform controlled experiments to verify their mathematical hypothesis, they are certainly NOT using the scientific method either.  And since they have completely ignored praxeology, it is the Keynesians and monetarists who are relying on a purely mystical methodology.

Science is based on hypotheses that can be falsified. Basically, you need to be able to prove things. Well, the only way to prove things is to isolate variables, change one variable, and observe changes. That is impossible to do in the economy.

There are 2 ways to know things: deduction and induction. Austrians and most philosophers use deduction. Scientists use induction. Both are equally valid, no reason to criticize deduction. However, induction can't really be used with the economy because it's too complicated to break down.

Yes, I am a huge Dodgers fan.

Anti-state since I learned about the Cuban Revolution and why my dad had to flee the country.

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 25 Contributor
Male
1,465 Posts
Points 24,465

Damn it, not the Venus project again. I debunked it a year ago on RonPaulForums.com. "Resource-based economy!" Where one can simply enter the storage room and take all food he wishe without depleting the stock of it, not unlike communism.

My favorite online shop: www.cafepress.com/libertyphile Big Smile

  • | Post Points: 20
Top 500 Contributor
Male
98 Posts
Points 1,810
BobT replied on Fri, May 8 2009 6:25 PM

Wow I had never heard of this Venus Project thing... at least they come out and admit they are ignoring scarcity instead of just doing it. I think that pretty much debunks it right away

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 50 Contributor
Male
599 Posts
Points 9,790
Moderator

DD5:

It is obvious that those who make this remark do not themselves understand the "scientific method". Scientific method does NOT mean equations and statistics.  The key to the scientific method is substantiating or refuting an hypothesis by controlled experiments.  Controlled experimentation is the key to infer causation to a phenomenon.

  Since it is obvious that mainstream economics do not and cannot perform controlled experiments to verify their mathematical hypothesis, they are certainly NOT using the scientific method either.  And since they have completely ignored praxeology, it is the Keynesians and monetarists who are relying on a purely mystical methodology.

I think this is a very good summary of the common critique of scientism in economics.

The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community.

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 500 Contributor
88 Posts
Points 1,345
Answered (Verified) WisR replied on Fri, May 8 2009 7:38 PM
Verified by Dingdong Pu

Conza88:

The ONLY valuable piece of information obtained from that thread :

"Economics in One Lesson, Bestseller in China

Chinese edition 《一课经济学》.

It has entered the bestseller list from Oct 2008, which means 20,000-30,000 in less than six months."

Awesome! Why haven't I seen a blog about this? Smile

In the biggest bookstore here in Shenzhen (the thriving border city across from Hong Kong, sometimes ranked richest per capita in mainland China), that book is the only one based on Austrian economics I've seen (with the exception of Peter Schiff's Crash Proof, which I've seen a couple of times).  But one of my wife's uncles has heard of Mises and his theories, even though he isn't interested in economics more than anything else.

 

  • | Post Points: 40
Top 500 Contributor
Male
42 Posts
Points 580

There are 5 Chinese edition published in year 1946, 1989, 1999, 2005 and 2008.

There is a post the econmical forum of Tianya. page view over 100 000, reply over 3 000

http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/develop/1/171509.shtml

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 200 Contributor
Female
160 Posts
Points 4,725
Vichy replied on Sat, May 9 2009 12:44 AM

wombatron:

Anyone who calls logical deduction "guessing" isn't worth the time to debunk.

Well, one of the problems is that Kant's formulation and defense of a priori is simply not a sufficient - or correct description - of logical deduction.  I do believe there is a justification for rationcination, but it is certainly not a Kantian 'a priori'.  So, if all you had reference to as far as primary philosophy was Kant or the Rationalist, you would to that extent be justified in rejecting their arguments for inferential rules.

 

"Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned." - Avicenna

  • | Post Points: 20
Top 25 Contributor
2,492 Posts
Points 40,095
Moderator

And yet that says absolutely nothing at all about logical deduction itself. Tell me: do you enjoy putting forth a whole lot of nothing and doing so often?

  • | Post Points: 5
Not Ranked
Male
8 Posts
Points 160

DD5:

Jon Irenicus:

I've noticed whenever someone is too stupid to deal with Austrian arguments they begin by whining about this chimaera called the "scientific method".

 

 

It is obvious that those who make this remark do not themselves understand the "scientific method"...

 

'This' argument came up in another forum. Here is a paper I cited, well worth the read...

http://mises.org/story/2200

Best, Dan.

 

  • | Post Points: 20
Top 500 Contributor
Male
42 Posts
Points 580

They shouldn't set their face against the monetary system. They should support the denationalization of Money and real free trade.

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 25 Contributor
1,307 Posts
Points 23,605

But praxeology is not a simply deductive.

  • | Post Points: 5
Page 2 of 2 (27 items) < Previous 1 2 | RSS

Ludwig von Mises Institute | 518 West Magnolia Avenue | Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528

Phone: 334.321.2100 · Fax: 334.321.2119

contact@Mises.org | webmaster | AOL-IM MainMises

Mises.org sitemap