The Betrayal of the American Right

Introduction: Two Rights, Old and New

In the spring of 1970, a new political term—”the hard hats”—burst upon the American consciousness. As the hard-hatted construction workers barreled their way around the Wall Street area, beating up college kids and peace demonstrators, earning the admiration of the right wing and a citation from President Nixon, one of the banners they raised summed up in a single phrase how remarkably the right wing has changed over the past two decades. For the banner said simply: “God Bless the Establishment.”

How Values Lead to Action

Praxeology and economics do not deal with human meaning and action as they should be or would be if all men were inspired by an absolutely valid philosophy and equipped with a perfect knowledge of technology. For such notions as absolute validity and omniscience there is no room in the frame of a science whose subject matter is erring man. An end is everything which men aim at. A means is everything which acting men consider as such. It is the task of scientific technology and therapeutics to explode errors in their respective fields. It is the task of economics to expose erroneous doctrines in the field of social action. But if men do not follow the advice of science, but cling to their fallacious prejudices, these errors are reality and must be dealt with as such.

Technology and Life Itself

There is something about the commercial viability of technology that rivets our consumer-minded brains. This is not a bad impulse! The fewer the bumps and snags in life, the more productive we can be, and the more productive we are, the more wealth and time we have to cultivate higher pursuits. Even if we don’t pursue the higher things, our well-being goes up with new and better technologies, and society is better off. We know this with one part of our brains. But there’s another part that doesn’t consider the broader implications. In truth, even those familiar with market logic are accustomed to thinking of big gains in technology as the business of government or government-funded institutions such as universities or major research labs.

“Last Knight” Live Blog 5 -- Ransom

Hulsmann’s impressive research begins to pay off in chapter 3 of his Ludwig Mises biography, which gives us a rich account of Mises university education. The key events here are (1) Mises’ research papers under historical economist Carl Grunberg and “Austrian” economist Eugen Philippovich; (3) Mises’ (likely) encounter with Friedrich Wieser and his subsequent reading of Carl Menger’s Grundsatze der Volkswirtschaftslehre; and (4) Mises’ participation in the economics seminar of economist Eugen Bohm-Bawerk.

Hazlitt, Where art thou?

Today, NPR (All Things Considered) reported on the recent passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act by Congress. Oh, if life were so easy. Another few hundred dollars in per-student Pell Grants, lower interest rates, and capped loan payments will transfer more wealth, but the bill is not — as advertised — the “largest single investment in college aid since the GI Bill.”

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