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I got interested when I kept running into von Mises types on FR and they were like oblivious to reality IMHO. I don’t know everything, so I started looking up more about the von Mises and ASE. For all I know, they’re right and I’m wrong. But, what they seem to be is just a bunch of theorists and while there is nothing wrong with that, philosophy shouldn’t really go around masking itself as the “science” of economics.

So I figured I would lay it all out, post what I found, and then, if I or others get into arguments about economics, the Mises and ASE’s can’t clothe themselves in the robes of science. They have their “opinion” and I can defend my opinions.

I thought it interesting that so many economists just dismiss the ASE, and their respect level is pretty low among their peers. Again, that in and of itself doesn’t mean they are wrong. Maybe mainstream is just jealous.

Then when I found out ASE doesn’t even do any numbers, that their view of economics is very, oh I can’t think of the term but it is religious like where belief is personal, but economics is like that to them. That may be ok in religion, but in science, you need some kind of framework.

If economic measurements are difficult, that doesn’t equate to doing away with them, it means you have to work harder. When a group just jettisons the hard stuff, that is like quack doctors doing away with all that technical stuff and just doing vitamin therapy or stuff like that.

I don’t fault the ASE for their approach, and I agree that there needs to be a qualitative slant on the formulas. In fact, that is where I usually get slammed when I come out in favor of higher minages or even minwages at all. I am deemed to not being economically scientific enough. But then come to find out, I am being slammed by a group who openly eschews science itself. Now that little secret is out in the open.

Another reason is the simplistic nature of the ASE. Their approach to economics seems to pretty much be if gov’t wasn’t involved everything would work out ok. Well that is BS, and if the nature of the capitalist beast isn’t apparent now, then I don’t know what it will take to wake folks up.

Gov’t plays it share in things, but so do greedy people. If a person will kill for a pair of Nikes, what do you think other people will do for millions. That is why you need sensible regulations.

Limited gov’t does not equate to NO gov’t. The ASE just have this ready made whipping boy for everything. Gov’t.

For egs, the ASE believes monopolistic situations can not occur in the absence of gov’t action. BS BS BS BS. Go back in history and look at the Gilded Age and the Trusts. A Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, had to put an end to that crap.

And the ASE ain’t rocket scientists on other issues. No wage and hour laws, no child labor laws, no minwages, no real regulation about anything. If that is not some kind of Freudian desire for a return to the Garden of Eden, I don’t know what is. The problem is, we live in the real world, and we would not have crafted these laws if there was not a need for them.

But what galls me, is not that the ASE guys believe differently, but that they want to priss around like their statements are carved in stone somewhere in the Ten Commandments of Economics. BS BS BS. They are opinions, and if you are confronted, you should come out and defend your position, not retreat to von Mises and cite it like they were citing the Bible. They’re citing von Mises’ opinion, and since he is dead, it is their obligation to defend the opinion.

Hopefully, I have managed to take some of the aura away from the ASE, and right or wrong, both sides got to get down in the dirt and start defending their opinions.

Why I think this is so vital is that I see these laisse faire types as a cancerous rot in the heart of the GOP. This is the 21st friggin century and it is stupid IMHO for these guys to disbelieve in minwages and wage and hour laws. And this darn hero worship of the wealthy and big business.

I think mainstream America will more and more reject the GOP, even though mainstream America is more conservative. This means liberals will be writing regulations and doing excessive social work thru gov’t while the GOP is hamstrung by these darn bunch of economic Luddites. God knows what they will do to national defense, gun rights, etc. in the process.

If though, you can get the Luddites to come out and start confronting their beliefs, the cancer can begin to be cut away. Step one is knocking them off their high horse. I hope I am putting a few of them in the dust. At the very least, I hope I am giving some ammunition to the more moderate GOPer’s to start resisting these troglodites.

parsy.