I was never an austrian in the first place, but this paper allowed me to understand why I was not. I realized it is quite simple, austrians are just a little to pretentious for me to like!
But in all reality, why don't I like austrian theory?
I mean I love some of it, like :
- They say skrew math , its about philosophy and logic
- They outright challenge Keynesian theory and the idea that you can use government to fix any outright issues in the economy like unemployment and business failure
- They feel tampering with markets like the capital and employment markets generally achieves less than optimal results
But the reasons I don't like austrians are:
- They assume all social welfare programs would reduce the quality of life for the majority of the population involved
- They theorize that the poor would be better taken care of and employment would be higher in a totally free market with no social welfare
- They also assume that instigating any welfare will create a welfare state something like the ancient Inca
- They disagree with many externality theories, basically saying they don't exist
These among many other more personal reasons I can't say I am an austrian economist, even if I wanted to.
But hey, Mises and Rothbard were still excellent economists and great philosophers with many worthy contributions.
So, I can say I am a fan and not a follower of the Austrian way.
What about you?
No comments:
Post a Comment