Austrian School Resurgence Reflects Desire for Better Solutions to Economic Malaise

The WealthCycles Staff Once virtually abandoned by the mainstream, many ideas associated with Austrian School economics have been increasingly in the spotlight, and in the public consciousness, in recent years. Some of the attention resulted from the popularity of Congressman Ron Paul, who, particularly during his third presidential run in 2012, captured the attention of the millennials, the last generation born in the 20th century.

The appeal of Paul’s anti-establishment economic theories is understandable: raised on expectations of upward mobility instilled in their baby boom parents, today’s young people have emerged into adulthood to face the sad reality that their prospects aren’t as good as their parents’ were, and furthermore, may never be. It is a turbulent, uncertain era that is prompting many to examine what they’ve been taught to believe about what creates prosperity and how economies function. Even if Main Street remains unfamiliar with the terms “Austrian economics” or “Keynesian economics,” its citizens can plainly see that the status quo isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and conclude that different solutions are needed.

What it boils down to is this: Keynesian Econ is state directed econ. It depends on "planners" and "experts" who will vary in their tolerance of freedom by the little people to do as they wish.

So called "liberals," who are almost all Marxists and neomarxists have complete contempt for the intelligence and so called "rights" of people to make their own decisions. Their justifications are that people are too stupid to choose the "correct" options and will instead choose things bad for them, or will fall suckers to tyrannical oligarchs who will destroy their freedoms.... so it is better to voluntarily surrender their freedoms so that they can be protected by the "good" tyrants. If they don't, of course, the good tyrants will smash in their doors and force them to do so.... for their own good, of course.

The "conservatives" in America are hardly better, as most are Fox News and/or Chicago School people who think freedom is a really good thing, so long as you have really smart people in CONTROL who will guarantee that there are boundaries to freedom that keep the collective decisions of people from destroying that freedom. People left to themselves will not choose the correct options and will allow power to flow to ....wait.... I already said that, didn't I? Anyway, many "conservative" people believe in power from the top down, too. But conservatives are better people because they believe in lots of other good things like the bible, and the flag and praying in schools and the pledge of allegiance to the government... er, I mean, flag, and attacking ragheads in some filthy poverty stricken country 8,000 miles away and killing them until they adopt Jeffersonian Democracy and quit flying planes into our buildings in retaliation for occupying their countries and killing them until they adopt Jeffersonian Democracy...... or at least stop threatening to disrupt the flow of oil..... ahhhh, whatever. The Knesset will tell us when to stop invading them and when the Middle East is peaceful..., just like the experts will tell us when the government should cooperate with the "free market" and when it is safe to let people choose for themselves.

I find that both of these "schools" (the left and right wings of statism) are based on fear. People see real fear producing things looming out there, whether they be greedy corporate entities, terrorists, impending poverty, debilitating age (this is the biggest thing driving most leftists my age, though they won't admit it), or just the uncertainty of life. We have a society as well of fractured families, so that the "security" that came from an extended family is no longer there. The state is the modern messiah that will deliver us.

The Austrian school is instead predicated on the idea that although there will never be a utopia, that the best solution to problems is almost ALWAYS to leave people alone to cooperate, communicate, trade, and voluntarily collectivise to solve their problems. It distrusts "experts" because it distrusts the power they invariably demand to "fix" problems, whether they be economic, social, or organizational (political). It is hostile to the cognoscenti class, which is why it is so despised among academics. It is contemptuous of political power, which is why it is hated in DC. It is, though, true.... as much as any human system of descriptive and proscriptive thought can be true.

I hesitate to bring up the name "Ron Paul" here, as it causes some freepers to fly into an immediate equivalent of a three minute hate and vomit out a torrent of "TRUTHERTINFOILHATAPPEASERNUTJOBAMNESTYISOLATIONIST" while poking voodoo pins into his doll and begging the ghost of Ronald Reagan to save them. We shall, though allow them to continue their convulsions of hate and writhe on the floor while we continue, ok?

The political entrance of Ron Paul into the recent presidential debates brought a renewed awareness and interest to classical liberalism, the Austrian school of econ and its most effective mouthpiece, the Mises Institute (run by Lew Rockwell). It has come to be wildly popular among young people. These ideas are re-structuring the nature of the debate on what kind of society we want and what the most effective engine to get us there will be. Better late than never, I say

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