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RE: The Origin and Future of Economics - Time, Attention and the Attention Economy
Upvoted for Mises Human Action. I never thought I'd ever interact with anyone else who knows what praxeology is.
If you interested in Mises you're most likely interested in Rothbard. I'm doing a series on Freedom where I am essentially giving my perspective on Rothbard's point of view from Ethics of Liberty. I do disagree with him on the foundation of natural rights. He takes a very objective approach and I tend to disagree with how he reaches his foundation of self-ownership, but I do reach the same conclusion - just through a subjective route. Anyway, check it out. Follow. Let me know what you think.
I take the view that self ownership springs from the exclusive capability control the vessel of the body, the primary piece of property. The fact that any other party must threaten the interests of life of a person to force action is the inverse and confirming complement of the assertion that the individual voluntarily acts. From there, for me, it is about verifiable transfers of property, such as rent of labor or selling something acquired. I don't even think you have to go into homesteading anyway. I don't think that nothing has been unowned in this world for at least 10,000 years, though sometimes they are absentee landlords or lack a concept of private property, such as the absurd concept of public property.
I have yet to read any significant amount of Rothbard, his writing style is too dry and methodical. Mises is methodical but drips with the juice of - I can't put my finger on it exactly but I read Human Action twice, I don't think any other academic text ever written has inspired me to plough through 900 pages, twice. In my view, Rothbard really achieved nothing other than to make explicit the un-drawn conclusions that Mises refuses to make. Like the thing about God and the thing about Government... He says central control is bad, and the 'third way' is even worse, because it distorts the market even more unpredictably than a central bureau like in communist or fascist governments.
Well, yeah, I'll have a look at that :> There is often ideas I stumble on when I look at other people's way of expressing a concept. My hobby is learning things, especially conflicting theories, and then discerning the higher level abstract glue between them and then restating both models modified by this insight. Doesn't matter what the subject is, if there is a controversy, I have an eye for that overlap and eliminating the conflicting premises while retaining the consistent.
I was happily surprised to see that my methodology seemed to satisfy questions about a physics theory of mine, and I think that in any field, many times there is makeshifts people don't realise they have in their model, that is incorrect, and that's how there comes to be a controversy in the first place. Like the idea that gravity is a primary force, causing a rift between Newton, Einstein and Quantum physics, for which many makeshifts like String Theory, Dark Energy and others have sprung up. But they are all makeshifts. The answer, in my view, lies in looking at the data, and finding the way in which it all links together. The controversy is gone and conflicting theories are integrated.
Exactly, free will over the actions you take proves self-ownership. The problem, I find, is convincing someone that using force to exert your will over another person should be abstained from. People have been so thoroughly indoctrinated by state education that they believe it a necessary evil. I guess that's why I enjoy Rothbard, like you said, he does explicitly lay this problem at the feet of government. Rightfully so, I think. I believe what he calls for in many of his writings is not a political shift but a ethical shift. That even the best government we could envision when given a clean slate in 1776 in the United States still uses coercion to enforce its policies and is inherently immoral when examined through the lens of ethics. That government along with all other coercive institutions should be abolished.