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What is law? What is justice? What makes a “good law” and what is a “bad law”? Are we obliged to follow a bad law? Are we obliged to follow law at all? Is disobedience moral? Is law necessary for society? What would the law in a free society look like? These are just some of the questions that I’ll answer in my Law & Justice series.
In Part I: Ethics and Natural Law, we’ll derive the origins of law by examining human nature and the theory of natural rights, as well as form a simple code of ethics for a theory of law to abide by.
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In Defense of [Austrian] Economics
“The habit of talking and writing about economic affairs without having probed relentlessly to the bottom of their problems has taken the zest out of public discussions on questions vital to human society and diverted politics into paths that lead directly to the destruction of all civilization…Our contemporaries consider that anything which comes under the heading of Economics…is fair game to the unqualified critic….[E]ven those whose activities have, notoriously, often led to failure and bankruptcy, enjoy a spurious prestige as economists which should at all costs be destroyed…It is time these amateurs were unmasked.” Ludwig von Mises[1]
First Impressions of Economics*
What do you think of when you hear “economics?” Perhaps you imagine a middle-aged man with thick-rimmed glasses and a Ph.D pointing to graphs and a long list of financial equations. Or maybe you think it’s just the wicked “science of money.” Odds are, if you pictured something like that, you’ve got a lot of company.
Economics has a bad reputation – it is mind-numbingly boring, filled with incomprehensible jargon, graphs of a bunch of curved lines, a morass of equations, and it seems the only thing all economists are always concerned with are “the latest numbers.” The average person is overwhelmed by the complexities, but in addition, they may also feel a hint of universal awe and wonder–The thought that “these things must be incredibly important!” may linger among your distaste. Of course, we’re all aware that topics like unemployment, wages, and taxes certainly do affect all of us, and we all have some conception, however vague, of the forces of “supply” and “demand.” We know that these things are important, but due to their seemingly complicated nature, it’s probably best left to those who can comprehend their complexities (and withstand their dullness!). Economics has become applied mathematics, and the economist is merely a glorified statistician.
But it is all a farce, a clever ruse! Economics is both tremendously fascinating and commonsensical so that the average layman can appreciate it!
