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Author Topic: Is Austrian Economics BS?  (Read 14524 times)

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libertas7213

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Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2011, 09:59:56 PM »

That was horrible.  What a terrible hit piece.  The guy basically took two quotes entirely out of context in order to discredit deductive logic, and names his account that only has one video "Austrian School" which could easily be considered fraudulent
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Zhwazi

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2011, 11:51:39 PM »

It looks accurate to me. The Austrian school doesn't seem to be about being scientific. They will tell you that gravity pulls things down, but won't drop a couple of cannonballs off a tower. The reasons why are pretty obvious, if you have libertarian conclusions, you're not going to propose violence to test a theory, nor will you tend to be trusting of government-provided statistics on anything. However explaining existing statistics doesn't do much unless one can go back in history and see a path of Austrians predicting things about the economy and being right more often than the mainstream. I don't think this would be possible to show because Austrians differ from the mainstream on so few subjects and calculating degrees of rightness without trying to enumerate non-numerical predictions is virtually impossible.

However I don't see very much coming out of the Austrian school except for support of the conclusions they went in with. It doesn't mean the conclusions are wrong, it just means their method of doing things isn't proving it right.
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The ghost of a ghost of a ghost

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2011, 11:55:27 PM »

Are you an alien dolphin?

just wondering.

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Alex Libman

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2011, 07:23:17 PM »

This forum's divergence between smart and stupid is growing ever-greater!   :shock:
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The ghost of a ghost of a ghost

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2011, 09:02:50 PM »

Deeper and deeper we go, until the forums dead.
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Alex Libman

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2011, 11:08:11 PM »

Then the commies win.
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The ghost of a ghost of a ghost

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2011, 11:56:37 PM »

Better the commies than the alien dolphins.

Wait a second?

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Riddler

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2011, 11:25:02 AM »

i bet they would gladly throw a coupla jews off your tower to test ANY theory.
hey-ooohhhhhh
(obligatory ed mcmahon chime-in)
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Turd Ferguson

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2011, 12:23:35 PM »

Sometimes after I eat food, I poop.


sometimes
« Last Edit: March 13, 2011, 12:30:03 PM by quickmike »
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Turd Ferguson

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2011, 12:24:01 PM »

This forum's divergence between smart and stupid is growing ever-greater!   :shock:


I agree 100%

Just when you think there might be some hope for this forum, some idiot comes along and posts some retarded shit and  proves us smart ones wrong.

It makes me SICK
« Last Edit: March 13, 2011, 12:29:13 PM by quickmike »
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Some peoples idea of hell is having to mind their own business.

Riddler

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2011, 12:46:31 PM »

This forum's divergence between smart and stupid is growing ever-greater!   :shock:


I agree 100%

Just when you think there might be some hope for this forum, some idiot comes along and posts some retarded shit and  proves us smart ones wrong.

It makes me SICK


i go where i'm needed, negroe.
but you already knew that about me.
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cavalier973

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2011, 01:56:03 PM »

"Austrians get to critique the real world, but the real world is prevented from informing their theories...They are free to call the government bad without being held down to the statistics to verify this claim."

Because statistics cannot verify such a claim.  That's a qualitative judgement rather than a quantitative one.  The narrarator cannot say that "the real world is prevented from informing their theories", since the Austrian School is the only one that takes into account the reality of human nature.  Every other theory is guilty of the "chessmaster fallacy".

"The problem with rationalism is that it makes the search for truth a game without rules."  There are rules to logic, snotnoggin.  The problem with empiricism is that it must rely on logical deduction to interpret the data collected.  All hypotheses require an a priori, presuppositional framework; if one begins with false presuppositions, he will draw a faulty conclusion, no matter the quality of his observations.  Copernicus observed that the planets orbit the sun; but since he was presuppositionally tied to the idea that planetary orbits were perfectly round (an idea which came from Aristotle, I believe), his models for the solar system were needlessly complicated, even though they had predictive value.

The other schools of economics have used empiricism to try to manage economic circumstances, and have all failed miserably (stagflation, anyone?).  That's hardly a track record that recommends the empiricist schools.

I notice that whoever did this disabled comments.  Must be frightened of people showing the silliness of his diatribe.
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Turd Ferguson

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2011, 01:57:51 PM »

This forum's divergence between smart and stupid is growing ever-greater!   :shock:


I agree 100%

Just when you think there might be some hope for this forum, some idiot comes along and posts some retarded shit and  proves us smart ones wrong.

It makes me SICK


i go where i'm needed, negroe.
but you already knew that about me.

I wasnt talking about you. I was talking about me. :lol:

I'm so misunderstood.
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cavalier973

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Re: Is Austrian Economics BS?
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2011, 02:20:48 PM »

Consider the difficulty of using empirical evidence to isolate the factors that contributed to the "Reagan Boom".  Most conservatives would say that it was Reagan's "tax cuts".  But he raised taxes as well, so perhaps the boom was due to tax increases (and I'm pretty sure I've heard progressive-types claim this).  Or maybe it was the fact that Volcker raised interest rates and stopped inflation, giving businessmen the confidence to plan and invest again.  Maybe it was the psychological boost that people got from Reagan's sunny optimism.  Maybe it was technological factors: the computer industry was just taking off in the early 80's with home computers, Microsoft, and the rudimentary Internet, driving down costs of doing business enough to give companies extra cost savings that they could then invest.  Government spending increased at a high rate during Reagan's tenure; maybe that provided the boost the economy needed.

There are a myriad of others, I'm sure.  But suppose one found himself in government power, and wanted to replicate Reagan's "success".  Which policies should he enact?  The empiricist schools would be unable to inform the government official, because they cannot study human behavior in a vaccuum.  Putting someone in a room and studying his actions and reactions cannot reliably predict what that person would do once back out on the street.  There is no empirical data that could be collected on human behavior that could reliably predict what effects policies would have.  The same policy at one point in time might have positive effects, while at a different point in time produce highly negative effects, because human behavior is not controllable or even, really predictable, because, as Mises said, people act according to what they perceive as their best interests.  And since human perception is based partly on human emotion, there is no predictable outcome for human action in any circumstance.
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