look at all of his arguments as a framing of neoclassical (math/calculus-based econ) vs. austrian (non-continuous/messy/favoring nature/functions too complex to

look at all of his arguments as a framing of neoclassical (math/calculus-based econ) vs. austrian (non-continuous/messy/favoring nature/functions too complex to be described and calculated econ) 1. author argues that Rothbard's austrian "value scale" approach is unable to derive the key income and substitution effects used in neoclassical modeling, but that Rothbard adds them into his framework ad hoc without properly deriving them this has nothing to do with the reality of modeling the utility of potatoes for individuals vs. shopping malls for society, rather deriving key properties that are used in logical predictive modeling (eg my wages increase ∴ consumption curve shifts right BY income effect) 2. yeah, not related to any precepts of austrian or neoclassical economics, more of a philosophical discussion of how preferences must be revealed by action in econ rather than introspection, freezing time, or flipping a coin every time you're indifferent. he's rejecting both of their rejections of an implication of neoclassical theory, but it's not practically important, just a reflection of caplan's beliefs 3. rothbard and mises reject the notion that preferences are continuous, which means they can't be neatly drawn on 2D graphs and used in calculus. Rothbard continues to use diagrams and calculus somewhat hypocritically, while Mises doesn't use diagrams. author thinks (as do most economists) that graphing utility and preference functions as continuous and therefore being able to do useful things such as find their intersections, take their derivatives, etc. far outweighs the utility of describing them in non-continuous terms author thinks all austrian economists reject continuous micro functions, which is untrue (just Rothbard and Mises) but supports his larger theory that austrian economics is not as useful/actionable as neoclassical 4. author is defending the principle of pareto efficiency, another fundamental neoclassical principle which allows economists to measure how free market distortions such as communism and rent control effect different groups within the economy. author is criticizing rothbard's framework which only allows one to call acts of government welfare "indeterminate" and thus be unable to measure their effect and get things done 5. defending the technical definition of "efficiency" again because the technical definition is needed to construct proofs and get things done basically author is saying neoclassical is much more useful for getting things done with economics, and that rothbard and mises (who he takes to represent the whole school of austrian econ) didn't provide many useful tools from which others could predict/model/build off