Summing up by returning to the Questions that should precede Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson'

Summing up by returning to the Questions that should precede Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson'

Part 15 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

The reason for this *diversion* into abstractions of metaphysics, causality, and ethics, was to highlight the importance of keeping the reality in mind which we've been 'educated' to ignore, which we can do by simply making a routine of asking questions like:

• Is this rooted in what I know to be real and true? - metaphysics
• What consequences are most likely to follow from this? - causality/logic
• Are those consequences justifiable? - ethics

, and by doing so we keep what is real and true in mind, and the pretense that reality is irrelevant, is itself made to disappear.

Those who aren't in the habit of conforming their thinking to what is real and true, will have no foundation for opposing the 'economic thinking' which views our judicial system as nothing more than a 'complex' Rule of Rules, and who believe that so long as TURDs (The Umpires of Reasonable Discourse) have the skills to manage its technicalities, there's no 'reason' why they shouldn't manipulate it (us) to do whatever it is they want to get done.

Those who do have that foundation, OTOH, are going to have a visceral response to those 'economic actions' that are proposed to manipulate 'the economy' (society), which are incompatible with the judicial standards and principles that our system was founded upon, and each proposal will, and should be, met with a response:

• A Proposal: "...Imo rentiers have to be eliminated through policy so that productive investment, circulation and stability is promoted..."
  A Response: Does targeting someone based upon their status, rather than their actions, solve an actual problem, or is it fabricating an Ideal to disrupt an existing standard?
• A Proposal: "... Just laws" depend upon consideration of the public welfare and not simply of individual rights in discerning ..."
  A Response: That is reframing the law by reversing its relation to the individual rights of the citizenry, to target the rights of those of them who are 'rentiers', which is assaulting the rights which they all hold in common, and so will degrade the welfare of all.
• A Proposal: "...competing rights claims require Law that has the Common Good as an end..."
  A Response: Reducing 'law' and 'rights' to meaningless labels so as to mask positions that excuse taking actions for the 'common good!', puts an end to a 'common good' and solidifies the power of those already in power, and it's all downhill for the rest of us from there.

It is only by keeping questions of metaphysics, causality/logic, ethics, present in our mind, that we are able to be exceedingly aware of the consequential nature of the Rule of Law, and so have the presence of mind to insist that its principles that were derived from Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Coke, will be considered as being of primary, rather than of secondary importance, in all such matters.

If and only if the proposed 'economic action' can be shown to neither directly nor indirectly violate the rights and property of the citizenry, should consideration of the proposal be allowed to move on to considering whether government - the force of law which exists to uphold and defend the individual rights and property of its people - can be entrusted to use its (We The People's) power to take the proposed actions, without violating its reason for existing.

Those are the questions and concerns that must be satisfied before moving on to considering the longterm results and primary and secondary consequences of any proposed 'economic action', which was what the focus of Henry Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson' was, and if we fail to keep that order, we will have already surrendered to utility, and the fall into 'economic thinking' that must follow.

If the proposed action survives those tests, then it's a question of whether government - the force of law - should be engaged in that action - because it can, doesn't mean that it should.

Setting weights & measures, yes, that's both necessary and appropriate.

Assigning values to those monetary weights & measures? Ooh... the wisdom of that was questionable, and led to much unnecessary confusion & corruption (see silver & gold exchange rates). Printing currency? Establishing a 'bank' to... No. Stop! Too few questions were either asked or answered, or they use their questions to arrive at answers which are irrelevant to the issue at hand.

We need a lot less thought about what 'good' government can do for us all, and a lot more consideration of what mayhem government can wreak in our lives in the name of the 'common good'. A Thomas Jefferson said:

"...in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution..."

It is up to us to keep that We The People's power, bound down by the fewest possible laws, and to see to it that they are written with the greatest possible clarity, and that too requires an attention to metaphysics, causality/logic, and ethics.

These are not questions that should be considered lightly, and the fact that they are rarely considered at all, is a direct result of how extensively 'economic thinking' has permeated our society, and why it must be expunged.

"But Van! Are you seriously rejecting all of the modern science of Economics?! Why not clamp down on what's 'bad' and keep what's 'good'?"

I'll answer that with an illustration - picture this if you will:

You find yourself confined within a casino, and you've come to realize that every game is being rigged by the house.
You discover that some players have figured out how to manipulate the House's manipulations to their own benefit, even though it adds additional burdens to the other customers who're either unaware that they're being conned by the House, or unable to do anything about it.
Would you:

• align yourself with the corrupt House (say hello to The Fed)?
• align yourself with those scheming to take advantage of the House's corruption (say hello to George Soros)?

Did you pick A or B?

Did you notice that the appearance of there being only two options, pushes the reality that there are other choices and questions, out of mind? That's called an Affordance Trap, and it's best not to fall for it.

While I do think that the casino example is representative of our situation, the lack of options is not - we have multiple options, not least of which is to refrain as best you can from participating in, or legitimizing either of the options provided. Also, don't allow the options being offered to distract you from the most important aspect of the scenario, in that the true value being won or lost in that casino's games isn't money, it's your ability to live your own life, which the house is taking from you by limiting what decisions and actions you're allowed to make in your own life. Don't play along with that.

Affordance Traps

I'm not encouraging or suggesting that we should go all 'mah principles!' and refuse to involve ourselves in the economy, and IMHO I think you should question any 'knowledge' that leads you into taking ignorant actions. Economics has a large number of observations and 'laws' which are undeniably valid and important to be recognized, and there are a large number of good economists who both understand them, and value liberty - Thomas Sowell & Henry Hazlitt come to mind - and who also warn of how economic issues threaten the very basis for a productive economy. Don't delude yourself with those 'principles!' that are principles-in-name-only. Recognize that trade-offs are often the best we can hope for, and that insisting upon an unattainable 'perfect solution' can easily cause us to lose out on an attainable least bad option, which is sure to be quickly filled by one that's much worse.

Nevertheless, the social science known as 'Economics', is a field that was established in order to evade and undermine those philosophic concepts and principles which make our Founders' era understanding of liberty possible, and it does so by focusing attention upon those aspects of our lives and activities which it improperly quantifies, so as to justify the unprincipled use of 'better policies' for imposing power over an entire society.

Beware of the Affordance Trap of 'these are our only choices!', especially as the habit of thinking that's been drilled into us in our schooling, politics, and of course economic thinking, is especially susceptible to that.

Be aware that most of the magician's tricks, count on your unwittingly cooperating with their tricks - following along with the magician's waving wand, watching the pretty assistant, and later repeating their performance of 'GDP is down!' or 'Inflation is up!' - that's not 'economic analysis', that's Praxis, repeating what is ultimately meaningless as if it mattered. The secret to the magician's trick, is that it's not necessary for their theories to be consciously learned and understood, so long as the audience repeats the patterns of action performed for them, people will absorb it through their own routine actions, without ever having consciously noted or accepted the details of whichever theory that particular magic act was performing.

And they're able to count on audience participation in their praxis, because we've all learned in our schooling to scan & cram truly meaningless facts to 'get good grades and get a good job', we've learned by practice the habit of seeking out and accepting the answers of authorities, regardless of whether we've understood their lessons or not. And the dirty little secret behind those grades, is that both the 'good students' who did their work and passed their tests, and those students who didn't do their work and failed most of their tests, both thoroughly learned the praxis of the lessons being taught (someone else has the answer and you don't know it), and both become useful game pieces in the necessary patterns of 'economic theory'.

The 'Economic' choice is a dialectical action that involves you in not thinking of what is real and true, in favor of a fabricated idea of what is seemingly 'useful', which substitutes a narrow 'how' for the 'what'. All 'Economic' ideologies ignore and implicitly deny those more important considerations, in order to advance a narrative that rationalizes the substitution of a 'Greater Good', for 'the pursuit of happiness', and when you fall into the affordance trap of 'Capitalism vs Socialism', what you are thinking of are 'economic issues', 'economic liberty', 'economic justice', etc., and what you are not thinking of, are those metaphysical, ethical, and moral issues, that would interfere with the carefully laid trap of 'economic thinking'.

The nature of what the 'Economic' choice of 'Capitalism vs Socialism' involves you in putting into practice (praxis) - which both sides of the same economic coin are urging you to make - is that by getting you to think of your society as an Economy, you are no longer thinking of it as a society!

'Capitalism', it must be remembered, was not a term that Adam Smith referred to or used in his writings - that was a little discussed technique of finance which Karl Marx seized upon as a label that'd be useful for disparaging Adam Smith's understanding that Natural Liberty was the real 'The Wealth of Nations'. By tarring Liberty with 'Capital'/'Money'/'the root of all evil', Marx succeeded in using 'Economic Thinking' to lure popular opinion away from the Political Economy of our Founders' era, and their understanding that individual rights and liberty were inextricably intertwined with a sound understanding of Property, and that an objective rule of law is and must be dedicated to upholding and defending them.

That understanding, and liberty, made clear that it was vital for a person to have the liberty to act on their own judgement, as that was the key to not only their own wealth and prosperity, and that of the entire nation as well. Modern misosophy, ideology, and that which Marxism concerns itself with, redirected popular understanding towards reframing the narrative's focus upon money and techniques of finance, control, and 'individualism'.

The fact that we don't have an immediate solution to the problems we face, is no reason to not recognize what the problem is, and in fact, simply recognizing the issue for what it is, being aware of the magicians' tricks, is a huge part of the solution, and is the means of breaking out of the praxis of 'economic thinking'.

Recognize that. Become aware of the reality they so desperately need you to not see, and alert others to it as well.

Realizing that, breaks it. There is another way, and it only requires your attention and willingness to consider and pursue questions to objective answers. Help others to see it too.

The truth has consequences. Recognizing that what is true, matters. Those who'd prefer to view you as Human Capital, know that too, and they fear it.

So now, with those cautions and points in mind, we can continue on and return to the post already in progress....