I'm not much of a economics guy. All I ever knew about economics was the basic marxist thought and that orthodox economics was a bunch of nonsense. I still, somewhere deep in my heart, think it's silly, but I would like to know some of their greatest works and overall thinking. I'm more interested in the Austrian thought as I have slightly more respect for their work and non-ideological version of neoclassical economics, even thought it's baked into their assumptions. I would like to be explained their why do they make these assumptions as a categorical tool and how to apply them reasonably. Thank you.
The Austrian school is anything but "non-ideological". But being educated on what their positions are is good, since it lies at the root of neoliberalism. Mises' text Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth introduces the economic calculation problem (ECP). I've critiqued it here and in video form here though certainly you don't have to take my words for it if you don't want. What I've read of Hayek's local knowledge problem is also interesting, and probably remains the only refuge left for the Austrians for the time being, until we can get democratic planning going. The LKP is actually part of why I emphasize that everyone must be able to plan.
There are a handful of austrians who are more practical, but the main thinkers, especially Mises, are incredibly dogmatic. Out of them all, Hayek is probably the most useful and interesting to read.
From what I've understood, Mises's critique of the USSR and actually existing socialism is that they would fail because they could not allocate capital goods well and that they would quickly collapse as a result. How ironic that the state led re-allocation of capital goods to industry would lead to such incredible growth early on.
@casperadmin Yeah that part of Mises' argument does not hold up at all. It's such a weird thing too, to claim that coordination of intermediate goods cannot be done. Gosplan managed that quite well as I understand, nearly to a fault. That is, prioritizing producing steel rather than say forks and knives and whatever other final products the steel is turned into.
Thanks for the replies. I was actually about to ask, if i have a reason to read human action besides trying to dunk on my right wing friends or to understand the austrian mindset.
Thanks for the replies. I was actually about to ask, if i have a reason to read human action besides trying to dunk on my right wing friends or to understand the austrian mindset.
I slogged through the first few hundred pages of human action, it was definitely not worth it.