Einstein when it came to economics was no Einstein

Posted on December 2, 2018 by lawofmarkets

This was written by Albert Einstein, yes that Albert Einstein, in 1949: Why Socialism?. He begins:

Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.

One reason being to discover that however high someone’s IQ, when it comes to economics there is no guarantee they won’t be a complete idiot. You should read it all, but here is the core proposition:

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production—that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods—may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals.

The “today” of “as it exists today” was 1949. This was at the height of the Cold War when Stalin’s Russia – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – threatened the peace and prosperity of the entire planet, the year of the Communist Revolution in China. And if you read the article through, it states every cliché known to every soapbox revolutionary since the start of time. Even geniuses can be morons.

Socialism kills

Posted on October 20, 2018 by lawofmarkets

Socialism is even more devastating to your life than smoking – fantastically bad for your health and welfare, will ruin your income-earning potential, and cost you your freedom. It might even kill you just as it has done for so many others.

You might think socialism is cool and you might think it’s chic, but if you do, you are historically illiterate and ignorant to a fanastic extent. The evidence of its massive dangers is everywhere; there is no counter story. Socialism brings ruin.

And yet, even with all the evidence everywhere available, people do smoke, in the same way that people line up to become socialists and support political leaders who would lead them into slavery, economic ruin and for many into death if those whom they follow ever end up with their hands on the levers of power. With all the warnings in the world, and all the evidence at every turn, all too many, because they think they are too smart to need such warning, will trundle down these doom-ridden paths.

As with cigarettes, socialism is a habit often commenced in youth, an intellectual disease which poisons the mind, which try as one might, can becomes an addictive belief system impossible to shed until dragged down by the inevitable harm that it creates if by fate one happens to find their own community, the one in which they live, has become yet one more socialist entity. Living in a socialist state is the surest cure for this addiction, but by then it is too late.

With socialism, just as with cigarettes, there is no reason for anyone to be unaware of the harm it brings. We have known its folly since even before the first disastrous socialist experiments were tried, which began just over a century ago. We have seen the ruin of one economy after another, from Russia in 1917 to Venezuela today. Yet there are always some who think they can beat the odds, that they know best, that next time will be different.

Do not be a fool. Do not support anyone or any party who offers you socialism as the answer to any actual existing problem. We know already what will happen. A tiny handful will scramble to the top who will then oppress everyone else – including you. Socialism creates poverty, misery and death. Socialism has never succeeded at any time in any place ever. The next time will be the same as all the other times.

If you call yourself a socialist, you are a fool. There are no exceptions.

A political horror story

Posted on October 6, 2018 by lawofmarkets

From The Oz: Brexit is diverting attention from Jeremy Corbyn’s red flag radicalism. And do not for a second think this might not happen here.

Jeremy Corbyn vowed to reverse Thatcherism at last month’s British Labour conference in Liverpool. Picture: AFP

By BOB CARR
12:00AM OCTOBER 6, 2018
60 COMMENTS

If next year Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister of Britain, this political figure, hitherto dwelling in the margins of politics, becomes a world historical figure.

Historic figure? After being in politics for 35 years and serving on the frontbench only when he became leader? But how else to view it? Corbyn is proposing the reversal of Thatcherism, the 1980s program of privatisation and union-busting implemented under the Iron Lady’s leadership, and thought by all to be irreversible.

One columnist has branded Corbyn’s program an “unapologetic onslaught on the crumbling neoliberal order”. He should have added, “And not just in Britain.” If Corbyn wins and starts peeling Thatcherism from the statutes, he will provide an irresistible model for other European centre-left parties being devoured by right-wing nationalists.

Given this, it’s surprising the reaction to his speech to the British Labour Party conference on September 26 was so muted. Here he was proposing the renationalisation of water, rail and the Royal Mail; a tax on second homes to fund expansion of public housing; board-level representation of employees; and pulling 65 per cent of workers under 25 on to a guaranteed minimum wage. Most radically, his government would appropriate 10 per cent of every company’s shareholdings on behalf of employees and the state. Plus grant free childcare.

In 1983, the last time the Left controlled British Labour, MP Gerald Kaufman branded its explicitly socialist manifesto “the longest suicide note in history”. It helped Margaret Thatcher consign Labour to 27.6 per cent of the vote in her 1983 landslide.

Right now, however, the red flag radicalism is escaping attention because the debate over Brexit is sucking the air out of British politics. But there is another factor: a striking shift in opinion. Fear of nationalisation and chaotic economic management were, until Tony Blair, well-tested rallying cries against Labour. No more. Expanding the state is popular. Two-thirds of the electorate wants railways back in public ownership. Only 17 per cent of the electorate think capitalism is working for them. Voters born after Thatcher are Corbyn’s strongest supporters.

“A Sociopathic Philosophy Conceived in Gross Error and Ignorance”

Posted on August 24, 2018 by lawofmarkets

A note to me from the author.

If you want to stop and reverse the resurgence of socialist ideas on campus and elsewhere, here’s an excellent vehicle for doing it:

This thirty-three thousand word essay is now available in Kindle format at Amazon.com for just 99¢. Go here to order it.

Royalty free licenses are available for anyone who wants to assign the essay to a class or distribute it to any special group, such as the members of an organization or its contributors, or to one’s personal list of friends and associates. Write to me at g.reisman@capitalism.net to request such a license along with a copy from which duplicates can be made either for distribution online or in hardcopy format.

You gotta try, but the hill to climb does keep getting steeper and more difficult. Might just mention Scott Johnson discusses just this today: Socialism as a Hate Crime. What is there not to understand about one of the most intense political failures in the history of the human race? But whatever there is, no actual real world experience ever seems to get vast numbers to see the disastrous futures they plan for themselves should they actually achieve their political ends.

The left are like locusts. They cannot help destroying

Posted on August 1, 2018 by lawofmarkets

From Sarah Hoyt, where I have extracted her core argument which really gets to the heart of things as they now are. Her title is: The Left are the Locusts of Culture.

There is a scene in Independence Day where the character mind-melds with the alien, and receives a sudden understanding of the peril the Earth is in.

Quoting from memory, he says something like “They’re like locusts. They move from planet to planet, take everything it has to give and move on.”

For some time now, I’ve thought this applies to the left. Certainly, entire fields of endeavor, entire expanses of human knowledge, science, and interest, seem to collapse in the wake of an infestation by the left….

I don’t know if it’s possible for any field to stand in the face of such an onslaught. Perhaps an unskilled labor field, where it doesn’t matter which pair of hands is doing things, and the requirements are minimal.

Certainly not any field that requires expertise, specialized techniques or even – like mere writing – craftsmanship.

And because they’re everywhere and attacking all at the same time, even in fields of endeavor you’d think would be beneath their notice, we risk a systemic collapse of society….

Yes, sure, many people on our side think that’s what the left wants. They’re not even wrong, insofar as there are some on the left who want it, but the majority? The majority have no idea of the complex interweb of relationships, or the weave of technology, finance and just plain work that allows them their comfortable first world lives. They have no idea what it would mean if it collapsed….

Let’s be frank, the left don’t really mean to destroy anything, any more than the locusts mean to destroy farmers’ crops. They don’t even have an understanding of farmers’ crops or of destroying, just like the left doesn’t understand economics or society enough to know what they’re doing.

In the end, locusts want to survive and to make more locusts… and the left wants the same, which is why no club, no hobby, no field of endeavor will be left alone. They must enforce their way of thinking and their image of the world everywhere until in the ruins of a destroyed world there stand a group of leftists discussing the wonders of Marx and preening for the few survivors.

The analogy is near perfect, but not quite exact. The ones who are left standing could not care less about Marx or ideology but only about the plunder they have gained for themselves through their lies and deceit. Worse still, the problem is much deeper since even those on the right cannot imagine the collapse that will follow from the success of the left. They see the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela and even then think it can’t happen here. But it can if we firstly fail to understand how much is genuinely at risk, and then secondly, fail to treat the problem with the seriousness that it deserves.

The future of their party and who knows who else

Posted on July 26, 2018 by lawofmarkets

Via Steve Hayward.

And yet another take:

To clarify AGAIN for the misreporting journalists & the blue checkmarks demanding an explanation:

1) I am not sorry.
2) It’s not coming down.
3) I will make another one.
4) You don’t have to hate Trump to use humor.
5) I don’t have to warn you when I’m about to tell a joke.

Allie Beth Stuckey

Enlightening & hard-hitting interview with Socialist “it girl” and fellow millennial, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [it is a joke]

So let us see what her supporters are like, although the reality is that you cannot parody them since they are such ignorant fodder for a tyranny they have no conception of. It’s only a not very random sample, but there are plenty more like them everywhere.

They are the very definition of drongo. Know-nothings about anything they need to know, whose arrogant stupidity may yet drag us into an abyss out of which even a century from now there will be no coming out of the depths into which our economies might yet descend.

Bringing harm to others is socialism’s primary goal

Posted on January 31, 2018 by lawofmarkets

A comment on a thread at Powerline on Liberalism is just resentment and envy sanctified where the video showed up as well. After eight years of PDT, even if the astounding success of his first year as President continues for the following seven, you will hear exactly the same. That is what this post is about:

I recall a recent twitter conversation that I engaged in. Basically it was a discussion on the outcome of a social experiment where people were given a choice between two alternative income distribution models.

The first one, choice A, had the highest level of income capped at say 100,000, had a fairly tight distribution across the quartiles, with the lowest being something like 10.

The second one, choice B, allowed for a very small number of individuals to earn 1,000,000 followed by a much wider distribution of quartiles, with the lowest being something like 100.

People were asked to choose which distribution they preferred, and I think they chose option A over option B by more than 2 to 1. This was the case even though it was clear (and perhaps emphasized) that everyone in option B had more money, with the poorest having effectively 10 times the purchasing power over option A.

While that result is astounding in and of itself, the replies on the twitter thread were even more interesting because there were so many people who offered strained and painful rationalizations as to why choice A was better. One I recall insisted that choice B was worse because the purchasing power would be reduced back to A levels since the economy would just reset to the higher levels of wealth due to inflation or something.

My comment ultimately was that all the rationalizations were just thin cover, and that the real reason for the choice was plain old envy of the top. Now I’d have to go back and find the thread to be sure, but I seem to recall the gentleman who started the thread insisting that the authors of the experiment made it clear that the 100 to 10 ratio at the bottom levels really did imply B had 10 times the buying power of A, but that it clearly didn’t matter to the outcome.

I find this result to be a fascinating insight into the irrationality of human economic/moral intuition, and how jealousy and envy play such an outsized role in shaping it.

Socialism has never done anyone any good, other than the handful of leaders who eventually climb to the top of the pyramid. But the envy that drives it will never go away, which is why the socialist impulse will also never go away. For the rest of us, what is crucial to remember is that the motivation behind the rhetoric is in no sense benevolent, but as malevolent as the human heart can be.

What have socialists ever done that would make anyone think they care about other people?

Posted on October 21, 2017 by lawofmarkets

Cannot think of a single thing. Socialist ideas have never, not in a single instance, not at any time in the whole of history, improved the lives of the communities they ruled. Socialism has only caused misery for anyone who has been trapped inside a socialist regime.

This is a reminder of a fact that cannot be denied other than by liars or those with not a shred of historical memory, written in memoriam of the no longer celebrated October Revolution which was once the centre of a worldwide faith in a glorious future, once the tens of millions of regime opponents had been eliminated, placed within the gulag, or terrified into silence.

October Revolution, also called Bolshevik Revolution, (Oct. 24–25 [Nov. 6–7, New Style], 1917), the second and last major phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia, inaugurating the Soviet regime.

Socialists seek political power by pretending to fix real problems but only make such problems infinitely worse. We will never be rid of problems, nor will we ever be free from people who will tell you that if they are put in charge, they will make our problems go away. Any community in which the majority of its population are unaware of this massive danger to the future lives is perennially in danger of falling into the abyss of a socialist governing clique taking power.

Here is the reality. The socialist left is filled with people whose lives are driven by envy and hatred for the productive, contended and self-reliant. Ruining their lives makes no one better off but ruins the lives of everyone involved other than those who take power. No one can any longer by unaware that every single socialist non-solution to our existential and economic problems has been disastrous for everyone but those who seize power. Every socialist is a Stasi agent lying in wait.

Give Peace a Chance is NOT Peace at Any Price

Posted on September 20, 2017 by lawofmarkets

It is hard to believe that LIQ was actually ever a general if he cannot see how fortunate we are that Donald Trump is President and not Hillary and no longer Obama. I particularly find it wonderful how invisible Obama has become since he has nothing to say about anything that would not make people on his own side wince at their stupidity. A cipher before and a cipher since, but alas, eight disastrous years as president in between. For a very good summary of what Trump said at the UN and why it matters, there is this which you can enjoy end to end. Much to choose from, but North Korea has almost disappeared from the news since the Democrats, and the left in general, have nothing constructive to add to the conversation, which is why the media have dropped this as a story. So let me focus here.

In particular, and in detail, Trump called out the rogue states of North Korea and Iran. He did not follow a script of pollysyllabic diplomatic enumerations of unacceptable activities. He reminded the UN members of Pyongyang’s “deadly abuse” of American student Otto Warmbier. He talked about North Korea’s kidnapping of a Japanese 13-year-old girl “to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea’s spies.” And he cited “the assassination of the dictator’s brother using banned nerve agents in an international airport.”

He caused a stir, and inspired plenty of headlines, with his comments:

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

That’s not bombast. That’s a pointed and useful warning to a totalitarian tyrant, who in contravention of nine UN sanctions resolutions and all basic decency has been threatening preemptive nuclear strikes on the U.S. and its allies, advertising the testing of hydrogen bombs and shooting intercontinental ballistic missiles over Japan. Let’s hope Kim Jong Un takes it seriously, despite decades of U.S. compromise and retreat that led to this pass.

As for the derision implicit in the label “Rocket Man,” I’d say that Trump in describing the murderous despot of North Korea displayed a distinct delicacy simply by avoiding the use of raw profanity from the UN podium. Would it have been better to deferentially describe Kim as the supreme leader of North Korea? Mockery has its uses in facing down despots. The confrontation here is of North Korea’s making — and the dangers have grown all the worse over the years for such nonconfrontational approaches as the nuclear deals of Presidents Bush and Clinton, and the do-nothing “strategic patience” of President Obama.

And I don’t wish to leave out this which will be quoted far into the future:

“The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.”

How long has it been since we have heard any political leader say things like that, never mind an American president? Our enemies are not only our worst enemies, they are their own worst enemies but are too ignorant even to know that.

Giving the game away on the left’s views on inequality

Posted on October 31, 2014 by lawofmarkets

I wrote on Ha-Joon Chang yesterday about his ignorant views on Say’s Law. Now let me turn to his views on inequality which have such a bizarre quality to them that it quite takes the breath away. Chang starts with a joke although it is a joke I don’t think he quite gets.

The peasant Ivan is jealous of his rival Boris, because Boris has a goat. A fairy comes along and offers Ivan a single wish. What does he wish for? That Boris’s goat should drop dead. (p 317)

But to Chang this is only a quasi-joke. It is more a tale of reality from which we should learn. Here’s the section heading that comes immediately after the above:

Ivan is not alone – the pursuit of equality as a driver of human history

And if you think he is being ironic in thinking this is a proper illustrative example of the ethic of equity, it is not in the slightest way part of his nature. He actually thinks that wanting what others have even if they worked for it and you haven’t is reasonable. He thinks it is reasonable for someone to prefer both peasants to be in misery when only one was before. Look what he writes:

Ivan is not alone. In Korea, there is a saying that you get a bellyache when your cousin buys a plot of land. And I am sure many readers know similar jokes or proverbs about people becoming irrationally jealous with other people doing better.

The pursuit of equality is a very natural human emotion and has been a powerful driver of human history. Equality was one of the ideals of the French Revolution, one of whose most famous mottos was ‘Liberté, égalité fraternité ou la mort’ (liberty, fraternity, brotherhood or death).

Although I have seldom come across such a repulsive sentiment stated in such an open way, what is startling is that he gives the socialist game away although in such a sordid fashion that it is almost too bizarre to realise he doesn’t understand what he has said. The others will have to get to him before he reveals too much more. It will have to be explained to him that one is supposed to seek equality because of one’s love of mankind, so that others can share the wealth, not because one is worm-eaten, bitter and envious when it is discovered that someone has more than you do, if only slightly more. He has actually spoken truly, has stated the socialist creed in all its fulness, but it is nevertheless astonishing to see it stated in print by one of the left’s leading lights.

He even goes on to sneer at this famous statement from Milton Friedman which I would have thought was almost a truism:

Most economic fallacies derive from … the tendency to assume there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another. (p 319 – his ellipsis)

This is, Chang says, an example of the belief in “trickle-down” economics, that the productive getting richer by producing things others want to buy helps the poor become better off by selling them what they would otherwise never be able to have.

And this is a man whose specialty is a development economist. If he doesn’t know that the rest of us only because reasonably well off because a few people have become wealthy by inventing products and producing them at affordable prices, he will do only harm in any country he is asked to provide advice. A world authority and at Cambridge yet (but then again, so was Keynes) he seems oblivious to the source of wealth, to why we are all immeasurably richer today than a century ago. An absolute clown but a perfect representation of the belief system of the left.

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