Economics Questions

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

garegin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:31:50 GMT

seriously, block has a extremely sloppy talking style. a noob can get many, many wrong impressions by his points. i like david gordon, because he meticulously words his statements instead of talking before thinking. blocks style is enjoyable though he also contributed a lot to libertarian theory.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Smiling Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:57:25 GMT

Bert:
To throw this out there I like listening/watching Walter Block. Seems like he's generally surrounded by a bunch of stiffs who can't stand the fact he's there.

Ha ha. So true.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Giant_Joe — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:42:17 GMT

Nitroadict:

I need to get more books by him aside from the one he's most famous for, but I've always liked Joseph Schumpeter's style & find him to be pretty quotable.

Ah! You've got to be kidding me. I just finished reading "Can Capitalism Survive" this past weekend and I find his writing to be roundabout and atrocious. Sure, he can make big sentences that are grammatically correct, but isn't the point of writing to communicate ideas? I had no problem understanding his arguments or what he was saying as soon as I figured out how the words were related to one another in the sentences.

He also doesn't know how to use paragraphs. Every one starts with a sentence requiring you to have read the previous sentence. The paragraphs would start with "It is not so." or "We will see why this is false" and other statements like that. Ugh. I found it very hard to concentrate while reading his writing.

As for the others, I've only read Mises, Rothbard, Murphy and Woods, and I have to say that Rothbard is my favorite of those to read. I still find them all very good communicators in writing, and I find it very easy to understand what they're saying. In Mises works, I find myself contemplating the ideas instead of deciphering what he was trying to say. Schrumpeter just confused me by using too many words in a strange way to say too little. Honestly, if people are going to author books they should write to communicate and not to show off their command of grammar.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

abskebabs — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:33:44 GMT

I like Mises, he used to remind me of old fashioned concise and methodical physics textbooks, though with much more finesse. It's ironic, I don't think I'd ever notice it if he ever lectured me, given how he sounds in the audioclips!

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Fephisto — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:23:46 GMT

von Vodka:

Who are the best writers among them? I don't mean the best economists or the best thinkers, just which ones' prose you most enjoy reading.

1. Rothbard

2. Hazlitt

3. Böhm-Bawerk

4. Sennholtz

Are my top 4.

The questions of "writing ability" and "favorite authors" are, to me, COMPLETELY DISTINCT. While I appreciate the works of Mises and Hayek, I hate their writing style. It's dry.

Rothbard and Tom Woods are polemic and fun.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

DanielMuff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:28:57 GMT

Michelangelo:

I wonder what sort of face Rothbard had on while writing this.

Rothbard:
It is small comfort that Friedman himself would confine this neighborhood-
effects argument to a few instances, such as education and
urban parks. In reality, this argument could be used to justify almost
any intervention, and subsidy and tax scheme. I, for example, read
Mises’s Human Action; I therefore imbibe more wisdom and become
a better person; by becoming a better person, I benefit my fellow man;
yet, hang it, they are not being forced to pay for those benefits! Shouldn’t
the government tax these people and subsidize me for being so worthy
as to read Human Action?

Or, to take another example, whether Women’s Libbers like it
or not, many men obtain a great deal of enjoyment from watching
girls in mini-skirts; yet, these men are not paying for this enjoyment.
Here is another neighborhood effect remaining uncorrected! Shouldn’t
the men of this country be taxed in order to subsidize girls to wear
mini-skirts?

Getting smacked by your girlfriend is tax enough for staring at another girl.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Michelangelo — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:37:13 GMT

I wonder what sort of face Rothbard had on while writing this.

Rothbard:
It is small comfort that Friedman himself would confine this neighborhood-
effects argument to a few instances, such as education and
urban parks. In reality, this argument could be used to justify almost
any intervention, and subsidy and tax scheme. I, for example, read
Mises’s Human Action; I therefore imbibe more wisdom and become
a better person; by becoming a better person, I benefit my fellow man;
yet, hang it, they are not being forced to pay for those benefits! Shouldn’t
the government tax these people and subsidize me for being so worthy
as to read Human Action?

Or, to take another example, whether Women’s Libbers like it
or not, many men obtain a great deal of enjoyment from watching
girls in mini-skirts; yet, these men are not paying for this enjoyment.
Here is another neighborhood effect remaining uncorrected! Shouldn’t
the men of this country be taxed in order to subsidize girls to wear
mini-skirts?

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:12:25 GMT

Beefheart.....this is the best AC flag

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

DanielMuff — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:43:47 GMT

I'm half way through In Defense of Women. One of the best reads ever, so far.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Beefheart — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:25:07 GMT

Mises and Rothbard are my favorite Austrian writers.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Conza88 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:58:22 GMT

Pre-Austrians:

Bastiat

Austrians:

Rothbard

Non Austrians:

Mencken, Spooner

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Daniel James Sanchez — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:40:59 GMT

Good one, Esuric. I also particularly like...

Mises, Socialism:

“Society lives and acts only in individuals; it is nothing more than a certain attitude on their part. Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.“

Mises, Theory and History:

But Marxists, anxious to avoid dealing with the economic problems of a socialist commonwealth, did nothing to demonstrate the superiority of socialism over capitalism apart from the circular reasoning that runs: Socialism is bound to come as the next stage of historical evolution. Being a later stage of history than capitalism, it is necessarily higher and better than capitalism. Why is it bound to come? Because the laborers, doomed to progressive impoverishment under capitalism, will rebel and establish socialism. But what other motive could impel them to aim at the establishment of socialism than the conviction that socialism is better than capitalism? And this preeminence of socialism is deduced by Marx from the fact that the coming of socialism is inevitable. The circle is closed.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Esuric — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:27:52 GMT

1. Mises

2. Hayek

3. Rothbard

4. Bohm-Bawerk

"For the naive mind there is something miraculous in the issuance of fiat money. A magic word spoken by the government creates out of nothing a thing which can be exchanged against any merchandise a man would like to get. How pale is the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors when compared with that of the government's Treasury Department! " -Ludwig von Mises, Theory of Money and Credit.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

Nitroadict — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:23:49 GMT

I need to get more books by him aside from the one he's most famous for, but I've always liked Joseph Schumpeter's style & find him to be pretty quotable.

I think Rothbard is too wordy and/or self-righteous, found Hazlitt to be boring (I only got mid-way through The Conquest of Poverty before eventually forgetting about it), but that may due to the book relying on statistics.

I can't really judge on too many Austrian School authors, however.

Re: Rank the Austrians by best writing ability

I. Ryan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:13:21 GMT

1. Ludwig von Mises