Saving the Free Market

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Wednesday, May 2. 2012

From Nyquist:

According to Mises, “The profit system [of the free market] makes those men prosper who have succeeded in filling the wants of the people in the best possible and cheapest way.” The free market is a daily plebiscite, he explained, in which “every penny gives a right to vote … who should own and run the plants, shops and farms.” Rather than giving everyone an equal share in running the economy, the free market places in charge those best able to provide for the many. In this arrangement, everyone must produce. Everyone buys and sells. “This is what the modern concept of freedom means,” noted Mises. “Every adult is free to fashion his life according to his own plans.

Posted by Bird Dog at 17:29 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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In younger days I was about as liberal as you could be without being Leftist. Over time it wore off for various reasons, most relating to paying attention to actual experience.

What really sand-blasted away the more foolish liberal remnants was learning about economics. Pretty basic economics, at that, though more advanced than what I needed to know to run my personal finances. I had to learn more about it for the sake of business clients, so I would know what the heck they were talking about.

Only then did I realize what a super-sized jackass I had been. There were all kinds of things I had believed possible that were, essentially, self-told fairy tales or the kind of thing you could only be taught to believe if you remained ignorant about the numbers.

#1 T.K. Tortch on 2012-05-02 18:44 (Reply)

--i remember when the frieght train contradiction ran over me --that the left believes that we are strong-minded enough to free ourselves of self-interest, yet at the same time so weak-minded we cannot guide any of our own affairs.

"Everyman Prometheus, every Prometheus a Moron" --required a "New Man", natch, and he was duly heard of as "New Soviet Man" --an ideal which falling short of was oddly equal to that religion-inspired guilt the Party will have freed the people from.

Only murder and organization ever keeps them out of the loony bin --until they have neutered a dozing population unaccustomed to the form of attack, and have gotten busy putting everyone else in the loony bin (formerly called 'the nation') instead.

"Hope & Change"

#1.1 buddy larsen on 2012-05-02 21:00 (Reply)

Yeah. There ain't and won't be any "New Soviet Man" and you can't start from "Year Zero" no matter how many kulaks you slaughter and no matter how diligently you try to erase the past.

If I can claim any little bit of moral development it's in seeing through the self-delusional Marxian / Liberal conceit that others suffer from some sort of "false consciousness" - but not you, who can see farther and more clearly than the deluded, and even know better than they what's good for them.

#1.1.1 T.K. Tortch on 2012-05-02 21:50 (Reply)

--good point! --the false consciousness is false according to what other consciousness now was it you said?

:-)

#1.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2012-05-02 23:02 (Reply)

In an insane world, the sane are the insane. Or, so my Grandfather told me...

Our enlightened betters, fostering upon us their wisdom and corrections, wish to reform Joe Sixpack into a lemming, only following, not really knowing why.

My fear is our growing heard of lemmings are approaching the cliff...

#1.1.1.2 Fred Zeppelin on 2012-05-03 09:06 (Reply)

Or as Glenn Reynolds said recently, the voters are too dumb to provide for their own retirement [or medical care], but they're smart enough to provide for mine.

#1.1.2 Texan99 (Link) on 2012-05-03 14:29 (Reply)

that's a wicked skewer --and there's no way around it, either --

#1.1.2.1 buddy larsen on 2012-05-04 01:30 (Reply)

My parents and grandparents were self-made, one never completing seventh grade because he had to support his mother. We kids all had jobs from eight on: shoveling walks, raking leaves, delivering papers, scooping ice cream, selling retail, whatever. But my big lesson came at age 14 when I worked for a home-based paper broker who worked seven-days-a-week meeting the needs of his clients, suppliers and community. He knew how and when to take risks, a skill only developed over years of paying attention to details...all the details required of an entrepeneur who succeeds at developing a business that grows and nutures. Thank you, Mr. Vickers.

That was an experience that taught me to stand up to all my Keynesian economics professors who'd never taken those risks, just lectured off of book-learnin'. Don't ever follow someone who has not worked in the shoes he professes to support. Bye-bye, Paul Krugman.

#2 jma on 2012-05-02 20:48 (Reply)

Mr Vickers was creating information by observing final transactions, and then putting that informatioon to work recreating the value consumed by end users. In a command economy, that same information would have to just sit in Mr Vickers' craw, making him frustrated and miserable, not to mentrion poor. And you'd probably never have met him, much less learned his experience.

#2.1 buddy larsen on 2012-05-02 23:10 (Reply)

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Wednesday, May 2. 2012

Saving the Free Market