You are here

Blogs

Two Socialist Calculation Problems

There are two socialist calculation problems:

Hayek: Knowledge is distributed in the minds of individuals with specialized knowledge of particular circumstances of time and place. That knowledge can't be centrally collected and analyzed, meaning centrally-planned economies will inevitably make uninformed decisions that result in inefficiency.

Mises: With all industry owned by government, materials would be traded government-to-government, meaning there's no market for the determination of prices. Without the price mechanism, resources would be allocated inefficiently.

Culture of Bullying

“I have seen and witnessed and experienced some appalling behaviour in parliament, the kind of behaviour that 20 years ago when I was managing partner of a law firm of 200 employees I would never have accepted".
- Julie Bishop

Would that be the same law firm that deliberately dragged out cases of asbestos victims so that many of them died before having their cases heard?

Don't Reject Universal Basic Income

A lot of leftists want to reject universal basic income as a right-wing idea, because it has been advocated by Milton Friedman, F. A. Hayek, & Charles Murray. And, because it was advocated by the Founding Father, Thomas Paine, in the form of a citizen's dividend. But it's an idea that transcends ideologies. C. H. Douglas broke from the Fabian socialists to advocate UBI in the form of a national dividend. It was advocated by socialists like Fred M. Taylor, Oskar Lange, & Abba Lerner in the form of a social dividend as a share of the profits of socialized industry.

Why don't we have land value tax?

Why don't we have land value tax? It's universally recognized as a good idea. It was advocated by the American Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. It was advocated by classical liberals like Adam Smith and John Locke. It was advocated by libertarians like Albert Jay Nock and Milton Friedman. It was advocated by the most important conservative thinkers, from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley Jr.

Compare the Au Pair

"I looked at it and thought it's a bit rough, there's no criminal history”
- Peter Dutton on why he personally intervened to stop a French au pair from deportation

Here are some examples of when Peter Dutton didn’t think it was a bit rough:

On LVT and MMT

(my response to something posted on a forum):

Killing and Eating Your Prime Minister

Following last week's thoroughly unceremonious dumping of the more centrist Liberal Party prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, a popular meme has made a re-appearance. The meme states "In 1672, a mob of angry Dutch killed and ate their prime minister. Options.

Scott Morrison's newish cabinet

Some highlights of Scott Morrison’s newish cabinet:

Marise Payne is the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. Payne was an obvious choice to fill the void left by Julie Bishop, having also spent 20 years in Parliament achieving bugger all.

As Minister for Education, Simon Birmingham cut university funding, increased fees and lowered the income level at which HECS debt repayments start. So, if nothing else, it will be a relief to students that he is now the Minister for Trade.

MMT is a Scientific Approach

MMT is mostly the result of having a scientific approach to economics rather than an abstract theoretical approach. It's what you learn about economics if you look at facts and data rather than contemplating abstract hypotheticals.

Classical/Austrian/Chicago economists: "I wonder how money and taxes work? Let's suppose that Robinson Crusoe is stranded on a desert island with his friend Friday...."

Fiscal policy is monetary policy

Fiscal policy is monetary policy. You can't have an efficient and functional monetary system or market without taxation. The only feasible vision of market anarchism is geo-mutualist, where you have something like democratic confederalism, a sovereign money issuing bank of the people, and a system of taxation. Most modern anarchists think that geoism, Proudhonian mutualism, and democratic confederalism looks a lot like statism. Perhaps. The lines do blur. It's a spectrum, not a binary. The anarchist social democracy that I used to advocate really does look a lot like statism.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs