3 ms·
He also would have loathed those who used his results to argue that the best economy is one generated by the decisions of individuals, with minimal government i
by adolph 2y ago
He also would have loathed those who used his results to argue that the best economy is one generated by the decisions of individuals, with minimal government intrusion. He was a socialist who favored government intervention to help the disadvantaged in society.
The genius of this viewpoint brings to mind:
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine the can design.”
― F. A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (Volume 1)
- wslh 2y agoSocialism is interpreted differently depending who and where you ask. Do you mean social democracy? Like, for example, Germany.
- adolph 2y agoAsk Ramsey or the review author whose words were quoted. I think he was a totalitarian commie out of intellectual hubris but maybe you will have a different interpretation.
- wslh 2y agoIt is good to include context here in HN since there are a lot of people from different cultures and generations and concepts could sound ambiguous.
- AtlasBarfed 2y agoWe view any broad bases planning and restriction as totalitarian because such things can seemingly only be implemented by such structures. I submit to you that the most brutal totalitarian existence is hard natural truths when the good times end and famine, war, plague, or pestilence come riding. Or the new horseman: nuclear assured destruction. Basically really smart people all seem to sense that a higher form of societal conduct is needed to avoid the totalitarianism of environmental Armageddon, but there is no way to do it without lesser totalitarianism.
- astrange 2y ago> He also would have loathed those who used his results to argue that the best economy is one generated by the decisions of individuals, with minimal government intrusion. He was a socialist who favored government intervention to help the disadvantaged in society. What's notable about these two sentences is the second one is being presented as a disagreement with the first one, even though they don't disagree. Redistribution has nothing to do necessarily with state planning of the economy, and is mainly to support people who don't participate in it (i.e. children and the elderly).
- jongjong 2y agoThe problem is that the state is not capable of understanding who is disadvantaged and why. The state, through its own policies, is often responsible for some of its citizen's failures. This is especially true today as monetary policies of the state distort most markets and people with specific skillsets that may be useful under an efficient system may find those skillsets useless under a bureaucratic system which favors unnecessary complexity. Also, ironically, welfare laws in many countries tend to discriminate against homeless people... E.g. the bureaucracy often requires people to provide a home address and have a phone number.
- astrange 2y ago> The problem is that the state is not capable of understanding who is disadvantaged and why. I just said it, children and the elderly. That and a negative income tax covers most of it. Often people do have bad ideas beyond this, mostly because they're very confused about what encourages work and what discourages it. (which is how you get SSI asset tests)
- jujube3 2y agoIndeed, Frank Ramsey was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, which included many literal Soviet spies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Apostles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Apostles Being a great mathematician doesn't always mean you make good decisions.
- nineteen999 2y ago"Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." - John Kenneth Galbraith