Summary
Stromberg discusses his observation that time and time again, some harmful outcome or process commonly attributed to the everyday workings of the market economy actually does exist, but it exists in the realm of the government and politics. He details a handful of examples that may suffice and should help demonstrate that a basic understanding of economic principles is critical if people are to understand important causal connections in history and politics.
See the full content of this document
Extract
On Misplaced Concreteness in Social Theory
The following piece will not be as abstruse as its title suggests. Rather, it results from the simple observation that, time and time again, some harmful outcome or process commonly attributed to the everyday workings of the market economy actually does exist, but it exists in the realm of the government and politics. Politicians and their friends really ought to be giving us some answers in light of these ills.
The line of attack might be seen as an application of Bastiat's "broken window" fallacy. As Murray Rothbard warned us, there are a great many "broken window fallacy mongers" about. If nothing else, their activities will keep us on our toes. A handful of examples may suffice and should help demonstrate that a basic understanding of economic principles is critical if we are to understand important causal connections in history and politics.Let us begin with something that is supposed to be good: the muchheralded Keynesian "multiplier effect." This is a second-level broken-window fallacy. Here a sophisticated fallacy-monger arrives, just after the freemarket economist has dispelled a first-order fallacy by expounding the "seen" versus the "unseen." The secondary fallacy-monger then says, "Oh sure, that sounds good, but there are many things the free-market economist hasn't told you."One such thing is the joyous world of the multiplier. ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
