Entries categorized as ‘Pith’
Before there were lawyers, there were philosophers. The Sophists, given a bad name by Plato, earned their bread by teaching people how to plead their cases in court. There being no professional lawyers in 5th century B.C. Athens, people had to represent themselves. Witness this tale (probably too good to be true) of the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Protagoras:
It is said that [Protagoras] taught a young man on the terms that he should be paid his fee if the young man won his first law-suit, but not otherwise, and that the young man’s first law-suit was one brought by Protagoras for recovery of his fee.
Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, p. 75.
Categories: Books · General Foolishness · Great Thinkers · History · Philosophy · Pith
Tagged: plato, Philosophy, History, bertrand russell, protagoras, greek philosophy, athens, greece, ancient greece, history of western philosophy, western philosophy, ancient philosophy
When Niccolo Machiavelli died in 1527, Washington, DC was still more than two and a half centuries away from being founded. But he understood perfectly how that dismal city would work, as Bertrand Russell reminds:
“In the absence of any guiding principle, politics becomes a naked struggle for power; The Prince give shrewd advice as to how to play this game successfully.”
-Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, xxii-xxiii.
Machiavelli was, in many ways, the first modern public choice theorist. Had he lived in a post-Adam Smith world, he would have made a fine economist. A politician’s guiding principle is usually not ideology. It is to remain in power. So they behave accordingly. The first lesson of economics is that people respond to incentives. If someone’s incentive is to get re-elected, they will behave in a way conducive to achieving that goal. Morality and the greater good compete for a distant second.
Categories: Books · Great Thinkers · Pith · Political Animals · Public Choice
Tagged: bertrand russell, Great Thinkers, machiavelli, Philosophy, the prince, washington, washington dc
February 11, 2010 · 1 Comment
In Washington, the first question people ask you is usually, “what do you do?”
“I’m an economist,” I answer. “I work at a think tank.”
“Oh,” the usual response goes. Followed by an immediate change of subject.
So I’m not a hit on the DC cocktail party circuit. But this quotation made me swell with pride when I read it:
“Economics is not a dry subject. It is not a dismal subject. It is not about statistics. It is about human life. It is about the ideas that motivate human beings. It is about how men act from birth until death. It is about the most important and interesting drama of all–human action”
-Percy Greaves
Hat tip: the Foundation for Economic Education, which did much to introduce me to the economic way of thinking when I was younger, and continues to educate and inspire me today.
Categories: Economics · Pith
Tagged: cocktail parties, Economics, economists, fee, foundation for economic education, human action, percy greaves
“If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits jailing citizens for engaging in political speech.”
-Justice Anthony Kennedy, introducing today’s Citizens United decision.
Precisely. The correct way to rebut unwelcome speech is not to silence it. It is to counter it with more speech. Let the best arguments win. Advocating speech restrictions is a fancy way of saying, “my arguments are too weak to withstand criticism.” Get better arguments, then!
Free speech issues aside, there is a reason why McCain-Feingold is informally known as the Incumbent Protection Act. It stacks the deck against challengers. No wonder so many incumbent politicians from both parties have come out against today’s decision. It’s bad for their job security.
Categories: Free Speech · Law · Pith
Tagged: anthony kennedy, campaign finance, citizens united, Free Speech, justice kennedy, scotus, supreme court
Today’s quotation of the day from The New York Times daily email:
“I’m a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. I want the Democrats out of my pocket and Republicans out of my bedroom. The one word I would use for what’s going on in Washington is embarrassing.”
RON VAUGHN, who provides health insurance to his 60 employees at Argonaut Wine and Liquor in Denver.
Categories: Pith · Political Animals · The Partisan Mind
Tagged: colorado, democrats, health insurance, new york times, partisans, partisanship, quotation, quotation of the day, quotes, republican, The Partisan Mind
“No college sophomore has ever turned in a paper denying the existence of free will without first choosing to do so.”
-Stephen Landsburg, The Big Questions, p. 68.
(Hat tip to my fiancée’s quick wit)
Categories: Philosophy · Pith
Tagged: determinism, free will, steven landsburg, the big questions
In light of the news about stimulus job creation statistics not being as advertised — complete with made-up Congressional districts — I offer another surprisingly relevant insight from Mises’ Human Action. Turns out there is a reason stimulus advocates are resorting to trickery:
“If government spending for public works is financed by taxing the citizens or borrowing from them, the citizens’ power to spend and invest is curtailed to the same extent as that of the public treasury expands. No additional jobs are created.”
-Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 4th ed., (Irvington-on-Hudson New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996 [1949], p. 776.
Categories: Economics · Great Thinkers · Pith · Stimulus
Tagged: bush, bush-obama, economic stimulus package, human action, ludwig von mises, mises, obama, Stimulus, stimulus package
October 21, 2009 · 1 Comment
Classic reductio ad absurdum.
Modern technology could easily grow oranges and grapes in hothouses in the arctic and subarctic countries. Everybody would call such a venture lunacy. But it is essentially the same to preserve the growing of cereals in rocky mountain valleys by tariffs and other devices of protectionism while elsewhere there is plenty of fallow fertile land. The difference is merely one of degree.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, p. 395.
Categories: Economics · Great Thinkers · Pith · Trade
Tagged: agriculture, human action, ludwig von mises, mises, protectionism, tariffs, Trade
“Public spending is always a substitute for private spending, and that consequently it may well support one worker in place of another, but adds nothing to the lot of the working class as a whole.”
-Frederic Bastiat, Selected Essays on Political Economy, p. 16 (emphasis in original)
Categories: Economics · Great Thinkers · Pith · Stimulus
Tagged: bastiat, broken window fallacy, economic way of thinking, Economics, frederic bastiat, opportunity costs
Bill Easterly on Afghanistan:
Transitionland had a thoughtful response to my cri de coeur on Afghanistan yesterday. Among her recommendations for improving things:(1) Stop the air strikes that are killing civilians,
(2) Crack down on corrupt contractors to USAID,
(3) Stop supporting Afghan warlords who are homicidal and/or corrupt.
So, after years of experimentation, we can now start applying these subtle, complex lessons:
(1) Don’t kill,
(2) Don’t steal,
(3) Don’t give aid to those who do.
Categories: Development Economics · International · Pith
Tagged: afghanistan, bill easterly, usaid, william easterly
