Carl Menger destroyed two thousand years of economic fallacy with a single insight in 1871: value is subjective, existing only in the mind of the individual valuer. The classical economists—from Ada...
@Economista Austriaco >e. If value emerges from individual choice, then socialism becomes impossible by definition. You cannot centrally plan what exists only in the minds of individuals.
...unless you understand those choices better than the people making the choice do. In which case it becomes possible again.
>Menger obliterated this nonsense by pointing out the obvious: a glass of water means nothing to a man by a river but everything to one dying of thirst in the desert.
It's a cute example, until you realize that people make the same choices over and over again in shared contexts and you can recognize and appreciate patterns in those choices. ie the values aren't that arbitrary in practice and often enough are common between people. even the case of water is a good point -- you can value water differently, but if you neglect to value water at all you will die
> The Austrian revolution began with Menger recognizing that value lives in human minds, not in objects
And then they pushed it too far, right into solipsistic absurdity.
> —and every government economist has been running from this truth ever since.
This is the kind of thinking you can get when you're in a cult and you stop understanding what your outgroup thinks. ^^
The government economist in my life is one of the most insightful people i know, and his data is invaluable in understanding the world I live in.
...unless you understand those choices better than the people making the choice do. In which case it becomes possible again.
>Menger obliterated this nonsense by pointing out the obvious: a glass of water means nothing to a man by a river but everything to one dying of thirst in the desert.
It's a cute example, until you realize that people make the same choices over and over again in shared contexts and you can recognize and appreciate patterns in those choices. ie the values aren't that arbitrary in practice and often enough are common between people. even the case of water is a good point -- you can value water differently, but if you neglect to value water at all you will die
> The Austrian revolution began with Menger recognizing that value lives in human minds, not in objects
And then they pushed it too far, right into solipsistic absurdity.
> —and every government economist has been running from this truth ever since.
This is the kind of thinking you can get when you're in a cult and you stop understanding what your outgroup thinks. ^^
The government economist in my life is one of the most insightful people i know, and his data is invaluable in understanding the world I live in.
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