However, arguing with crazy people will make you insane. A Tom Sowell thread yesterday talked about what he called "the Bar of Reason."
In an era when our media and even our education system exalt emotions, while ignoring facts and logic, perhaps we should not be surprised that so many people explain economics by "greed."
Then...more about money...
Many observers who say that they cannot understand how anyone can be worth $100 million a year do not realize that it is not necessary that they understand it, since it is not their money...
All this to get to the payoff...
The idea that everything must "justify itself before the bar of reason" goes back at least as far as the 18th century. But that just makes it a candidate for the longest-running fallacy in the world.
Given the high degree of specialization in a modern economy, demanding that everything "justify itself before the bar of reason" means demanding that people who know what they are doing must be subject to the veto of people who don't have a clue about the decisions that they are second-guessing.
It means demanding that ignorance override knowledge.
IOW, you can't reason with unreasonable people. This shows up on gasoline threads as the guy who says, "If oil dropped $3/barrel in the last month, why haven't prices at the station down the street moved? It's GREED!!!
It shows up on threads such as this...browse the thread and take your pick. It's becoming the rule, rather than the exception, on FR; it describes most of what passes as political and intellectual discussion today.
It doesn't matter to me whether some "get it," or not. They are not my intended audience. I'm aiming at guys...guys who are not married, guys who continue to be more and more responsible in their relationships, and wonder why as they are more responsible, the relationship gets worse...I'm aiming at women of good faith, such as Rosie, who are as frustrated at what they see as we are.
I'm recommending that they look out for their own interests, and not allow their judgment to be "vetoed" by those who are ignorant by circumstance or design. The societal and legal changes of the past 40 years have been poisonous for men and for families. Many choose to address this, not by attacking the unfairness that exists, but by attacking men for being insufficiently "responsible;" they are counseled to "stop whining." A better, more clear description? "Insufficiently gullible."
They are my audience; I am telling them that they should deal with, and heed counsel from, only those who show good faith in their dealings with them. Many who post here do not qualify.