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All States are Empires of Lies mises.org/mises-wire/all-states-are-empires-lies?utm_source=MI+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=71c4e55c9c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_03_01_07_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-fb69bb184c-230095776

390 sats \ 28 comments \ @Undisciplined 9 Nov econ

By Thomas J. DiLorenzo

Most economists are political apologists masquerading as economists. They are Rothbard’s “court historians” with degrees in economics instead of history.

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164 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 9 Nov

There are exceptions, the Austrian School economists being the most prominent, but the majority of academic economists view themselves as advisors or potential advisors to the state. They are Rothbard’s “court historians” with degrees in economics instead of history. The role that they serve is the same as all “intellectuals” in our almost 100 percent state-funded universities. As Rothbard put it: “The majority [of the electorate] must be persuaded by ideology that their government is good, wise, and at least inevitable. Promoting this ideology . . . is the vital task of the ‘intellectuals.’” In return, the “intellectuals” are given government jobs, grants, placement at prestigious universities, book deals, and myriad other political payoffs. (Mises wrote that history, law, and economics are the disciplines most widely used to bamboozle the public about the supposedly good, wise, and inevitable state).

Lies, thefts and murders are the foundations of all states. We only fear that type of behavior, thusly, keeping ourselves in thrall to the state. If you manage to get beyond that you recognize the truth: that you are free. So quit listening to those “experts”, for they are nothing but court jesters to deflect you. Fear no evil.

19 sats \ 21 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 9 Nov

Did you realize that DJT got his degree in economics? I did not realize that until yesterday. I wonder which school of economics he studied. I still think he works for THEM.

10 sats \ 20 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 9 Nov

He went to Wharton, so it would be a completely mainstream education.

AOC also has a degree in economics, which shows you what they're worth.

9 sats \ 19 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 9 Nov

I know he went to Wharton for his advanced degree, I think in business or management. I am not sure I remember correctly, but didn’t he go to Fordham for his undergrad in economics? I think a degree in economics’ worth emanates from which school of economics studied:; ie. Austrian, Public Choice, Kenysian, Friedmanite or MMT. Some are totally worthless as anything but wall hangings. Others seem to be pretty powerful explainers of economic activity. AOC is a complete clown/jester/jokester!!!

10 sats \ 18 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 9 Nov

There wouldn't have been any Austrian, Public Choice, MMT, or Chicago School programs (aside from University of Chicago) when Trump went to college. It almost certainly would have been a more Keynesian program than today's econ programs.

15 sats \ 17 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 9 Nov

I would have to agree. The Public Choice school was just getting started around that time. Austrian economics was never taught, since Hayek declined to refute Keynes and let that botchery stand as a “theory”. They didn’t even bother with teaching the Subjectivist Revolution economics!

0 sats \ 16 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 9 Nov

I want to say it wasn't until the 80's that mainstream econ started trying to take Subjective Value Theory seriously.

Now, even macroeconomists feel the need to argue that their frameworks are "micro founded". That still won't come up until grad school though.

11 sats \ 15 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 10 Nov

The subjective value theory is one of the foundations of the Austrian school. They count all three subjectivists as basic Austrian founders, especially Menger. Böhm-Bawerk, Mises and Rothbard built on them. I think the Austrians do not differentiate between macro and micro economics because they view everything as on a continuum of human action.

10 sats \ 14 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 10 Nov

They might make the distinction. Macro has come to be the field that contains business cycles, growth, money, and interest.

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17 sats \ 0 replies \ @Akg10s33 9 Nov

If the truth is I totally agree👍 I think that there are universities with full foundations that teach careers like economics and they do it well!! But it seems that the students or when they already get their degree, their thinking gets twisted and they end up working for despicable people like politicians... useless Beings that I personally believe are the garbage of society... and obviously I really liked the phrase "You have to become your own economist" because it is something that we can do with discipline and also teach it to our children 💪

7 sats \ 2 replies \ @7e6e393a56 9 Nov

In the mixed economy in which we live, it is the function of the planned state: to guarantee “full employment” (given that the federal government's own policies generate unemployment); stimulate "technological innovation" (not through the market, but through subsidies); guarantee a “fair” income distribution (rewarding parasites – mainly large businesspeople linked to the government – and punishing productive ones); control foreign (and also domestic) trade; and maintaining several state-owned companies for the good of the people (while fleecing the people themselves for the benefit of these state-owned bureaucrats). Heterodox economists and conventional economists take turns providing economic advice to the current president. Both, however, are mere tools in the service of the interventionist state.