I can't seem to find it in a brief search. I remember it standing out in my mind as a great truth in that the general public are consistently doomed to failure in discussing economic topics.
thanks
Perhaps you mean Rothbard?
"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."
-- Murray Rothbard
Why anarchy fails
This seems to be a good quote from Mises referring to a layman's understanding of economics (plus it's one of my favorites).
"People may disagree on the question of whether everybody ought to study economics seriously. But one thing is certain. A man who publicly talks or writes about the opposition between capitalism and socialism without having fully familiarized himself with all that economics has to say about these issues is an irresponsible babbler."
Bert: This seems to be a good quote from Mises referring to a layman's understanding of economics (plus it's one of my favorites). "People may disagree on the question of whether everybody ought to study economics seriously. But one thing is certain. A man who publicly talks or writes about the opposition between capitalism and socialism without having fully familiarized himself with all that economics has to say about these issues is an irresponsible babbler."
I love that quote.
Mises wrote this about the general public opinion:
"Even the genius in drafting a world view sometimes fails to avoid contradictions and fallacious syllogisms. The ideologies accepted by public opinion are still more infected by the shortcomings of the human mind. They are mostly an eclectic juxtaposition of ideas utterly incompatible with one another. They cannot stand a logical examination of their content. Their inconsistencies are irreparable and defy any attempt to combine their various parts into a system of ideas compatible with one another. [...] The only effect of contradictory ideologies is to conceal the real problems and thus to prevent people from finding in time an appropriate policy for solving them." (Human Action, Chapter IX.)
With contradictory opinions, it is not possible to successfully discuss economic topics.