Posted on 05/02/2023 5:06:22 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Who knew? Progressive economists are now attacking economics. According to Burton Abrams "progressives in the Democrat Party, backed… by left-wing sociologists and political scientists":
deny basic economic principles and theory. They deny that incentives matter, that markets work better than government dictates, that scarcity and opportunity costs exist, that the laws of supply and demand are operative, that benefit-cost analyses have merit, and that economic efficiency makes consumers and producers better off.
Okay, fine. So how do progressive experience things?
They rely heavily on the vaguely defined concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In other words, politics.
In another proof of God's existence, my brother-in-law pointed me to a piece in Claremont Review of Books that addresses this question. It's a piece by Helen Andrews about the lights going out in South Africa.
Briefly, the ANC regime in South Africa has followed the progressive line to a T. And South Africa has gone straight to hell, economically and culturally and politically.
Why? Because the ANC thinks that all you need to do is hand over the levers of the economy to its supporters, and bingo!
Except that everything goes straight to hell. And plenty of people in today's South Africa are witnessing it.
Does the daughter of an ANC "activist" get it? No. Malaika, 30 years after Mandela rose to power, thinks that "the perks of white society are… withheld from her."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Leftists destroy economies. Look at Argentina and Venezuela.
In other words, they’re communists.
Even after the 20th Century, and seeing all communism/liberalism has wrought, they return to it with enthusiasm.
Like a dog to its vomitus.
Marxists have never accepted economic reality. When you have centralized control of production and consumption, you don’t need economics. That’s their theory anyway. Of course history gives us abundant evidence of how well that works.
Well, yes, that’s because they’re Communists.
It doesn’t matter what they call themselves.
IMO -advocating communism is stating support for theft and robbery by force, and in a just world some pre-emotive self defense should take place
At some point in time the children of marx will need to be pointedly disciplined to understand that they are not in control of everyone else. The sooner they are told NO! The better. The longer their petulant wants go on the more their petulant violence will end up motivating the big spanking they so richly deserve. Just fyi.
These so called economists ignore the principle of the economic man and in doing so deny basic human nature. People will always operate in their perceived best interests.
Building Back Better means destroying first.
Look at China, they totally destroyed their country, only to eventually re-emerge by using Capitalism (albeit State Capitalism) to rebuild their country.
The simplest classification of people in human societies is into two groups — producers and non-producers. For most of human history, if you produced you had a chance of survival. Those who did not produce (except for very small children who’s parents produced for them) died. The lazy, indolent, and worthless humans were rejected by the tribe or community and survived by stealing from the producers until caught and killed. Society lived by the Darwinian rule: Survival of the Fittest.
The advent of the welfare state in the advanced societies during the 20th century allowed the lazy and indolent to maintain a subsistence lifestyle off the production of the producers. In the 21st century the welfare state, and its management by woke progressives, has evolved to the point where the non-producers are demanding and receiving more than a subsistence living from the producers. Today the non-producers, and the brainwashed producers, are demanding “equity”, i.e. equality of results, for the lazy and indolent non-producers.
We see the results of the push to equity around us. Producers are moving from the more rapacious states to those with less taxation and regulation. Customer service has declined in almost every industry. Interpersonal relationships have become courser. Government has become more totalitarian as it extracts more of the income and wealth of the producers to transfer to the non-producers. The number of non-producers is increasing at a rapid rate, putting more demands on the producers. Infrastructure is disintegrating, crime is rising, and institutions necessary for society to function (religion, education, law enforcement) are crumbling. We are increasingly surrounded by evidence civilization is devolving into barbarism.
To achieve “equity” our society will ultimately decline to the lowest common denominator which is the existence of the non-producer. Ultimately we will all languish in abject poverty, foraging for food. Eventually producers will band together into tribes to provide some semblance of security in a broken society. The cycle will begin again as tribes of producers kill off tribes of non-producing scavengers. Tribes of producers will form alliances (communities) and then nations, rebuilding society and civilization.
Great post. 👍👍
Ideology trumps science in society at large. Let’s consider spontaneous order and how it is accepted.
Adam Smith saw spontaneous order in the free market. The Law of Supply, the Law of Demand, and the meeting of supply and demand lead to a market solution for price and quantity, known as market equilibrium. It sounds abstract, yet it is as real and true as F=MA (also abstract) in physics.
Outside of business reporting, it seems that no one talks about supply and demand. The news industry talks about economic consequences, but not about supply and demand. It’s like they don’t believe in it. They are about as “anti-science” as you can get.
Charles Darwin was influenced by Adam Smith. He saw spontaneous order in the marketplace and advanced his theory of spontaneous order in the origin and evolution of species.
On television evolution is accepted as dogma and free market economics gets the silent treatment. Why is that? The answer lies in ideology. Evolution has been used as a battering ram against religion. Free market economics threatens socialism.
The “religious right” has been attacked for decades in American journals, periodicals, T.V., movies, etc. By whom? By the atheist left. Similarly, the atheist left insists on evolution and smirks at free market economics. Others follow their lead.
Should one be consistent and accept, or reject, spontaneous order wherever it is advanced? I think you have to examine each case separately. I can do this and so can you. Having a conversation can be difficult given that we all grew up in a coercive environment. Talk to Joe Bloe and he know that one “must believe” in evolution. Likewise, “nobody” believes in free markets.
Solzhenitsyn said collectivism is an economic model that always ignores a vital component: human psychology.
Solzhenitsyn said collectivism is an economic model that always ignores a vital component: human psychology.
________________________________________________________
Society to some degree is always collectivist. It is when obnoxious and hyper-pandering policies become widespread that a civilization begins to devolve. Is the trend irreversible? It sure seems that way, but only time will tell.
The Second Amendment: another way to deal with those who just won’t take NO for an answer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.