Alternate title: How has Austrian economics helped you personally?
My question stems from the realization that I am no longer receiving much utility from further time invested in studying Austrian economics, or economics in general, even for investing. I am much better off putting my study of Austrian economics on hold and learn more about companies and their industries, accounting and financial sheets, geology, mining, energy, agriculture, and learning about the political situations of each country.
Would there be other benefits or insights that it could provide me for my daily life? Ways in which to organize my time and labour? Care to offer any anecdotes in which the application of economic theory benefited your personal life?
How can Austrian Economics help me?
By showing the government that regulation isn't the key to success and thus having to deal with less crap when I eventually open a business :P
I don't know about other folks here, but it help open my eyes to how the world truly works. I have much more respect to entrepreneurs and the risk they take than I have before, regardless if they succeed or fail.
Duke:Would there be other benefits or insights that it could provide me for my daily life? Ways in which to organize my time and labour?
Probably not. You already said you don't see yourself gaining utility from it. If you get more satisfaction and more profit from doing something else, then by all means, do that. Economics informs our understanding of the world. It doesn't directly do anything to increase our standard of living. If you feel you've gotten to a point at which you've maximized the marginal utility of studying economics, and therefore see diminishing returns for any further study, you should certainly move on to something else. Let the knowledge you've acquired inform your future actions so that you may make wiser and more prudent decisions than you otherwise would, and make the world a better place by doing something you enjoy.
Again, if you're gaining satisfaction and are profiting (legitimately of course), what else is there?
A deep understanding of Mises and AE changes/affects a person at their core. After that point, it becomes extremely hard to separate the AE from the "non-AE" aspects of ones thinking and decision making. My life after AE is (literally) richer from almost every conceivable perspective.
z1235:A deep understanding of Mises and AE changes/affects a person at their core. After that point, it becomes extremely hard to separate the AE from the "non-AE" aspects of ones thinking and decision making. My life after AE is (literally) richer from almost every conceivable perspective.
This is true and for me it's a lot harder to enjoy movies/tv hah. Unless there's some kind of libertarian element I can extract from it then I get bored/frustrated with it.
Yeah, Rothbard ruined movies for me. Most movies it's just "Ha, that's propaganda bullshit. Oh, man, that is such transparent propaganda bullshit." I have to keep my mouth shut or people get annoyed when watching movies with me.
Clayton -
There are still good ones though.
http://vforvoluntary.com/libertarian-movies
freeradicals:This is true and for me it's a lot harder to enjoy movies/tv hah. Unless there's some kind of libertarian element I can extract from it then I get bored/frustrated with it.
This is an interesting fork, which may actually work well as its own thread. I have a similar issue...I don't really have any problems enjoying a movie purely for entertainment value, but I have noticed little things that bother me, whereas before I probably wouldn't have thought twice about them. Usually this is when some fallacious mainstream "common wisdom" sort of notion is mentioned or perpetuated without question. Like, well of course we can't be having private companies handle roadways. Things like that, as well as a complete lack of the respect and reverence for agents of the state and the entities they work for, where before, of course there was plenty. Especially the glorification of cops. It does make it a bit harder to enjoy a lot of films in the same way as I used to (how many films don't glorify law enforcement), but at the same time I'm still able to escape with them. As of course, movies are about the exceptional ones...the ones that tend to "do the right thing" even when it goes against the state's orders. That combined with the recognition that virtually none of these guys (even those exceptional ones) see or understand the state for what it is, makes it a bit easier to avoid being completely turned off by mainstream films.
Actually, I bought a lot of silver, gold, and mining stocks at the onset of TARP when I was first getting in to Austrian economics and it has paid off very well. I felt that Austrian economics and Peter Schiff specifically informed my decisions. You could probably make an argument that a person can do well in investments and have the wrong ideology though. Anyway Claudio, I encourage you to stay out of the discussion since you are not interested in answering the question, but instead pursuing your own agenda. Since that is not appreciated, it doesn't help convert anyone to your cause and probably just irritates them. If you wish to convert people, I suggest drawing up a wiser strategy. I think it would be helpful if other members here restrain themselves and ignore his post.
Sorry, Duke, I had to delete the troll's post, so your post doesn't reply to anything.