Libertarians, My Libertarians!
Cruel to be kind means that I love you . Because, while I think you are mistaken, your hearts are in the right place -- yes, even you, Silas -- unlike some people . This Breitbart fellow (discussed in the link above), by all appearances, deliberately doctored a video of Shirley Sherrod to make her remarks appear virulently racist, when they had, in fact, the opposite import. I heard that at a recent Austrian conference, some folks were talking about "Callahan's conservative turn." While that description is not entirely inaccurate, I must say that a lot of these people who today call themselves conservative give me the heebie-jeebies.
Great article Gene.
ReplyDelete"Things become resources when acting man conceives of how he can employ them to further his ends."
This is one of my favorite concepts. When I talk about resources with people I meet it is clear to me they totally miss most of my points because they have no idea this is where I am coming from. If I try to explain the above to them they seem to follow but only apply it the resource I use in the example...and even then they will go on to violate the concept we just agreed was 'true'. It never ends.
I enjoyed both those articles very much. One thing I'm not sure I understood: "I am using “profit” here in the accounting sense, meaning an excess of income over expenses, and not in the economic sense of an above-normal return on capital." In the economic sense, if prudent use of capital in some economic environment produces a return of 10%, does this mean that a return of 10% is profitless, and that a return of 15% shows a profit of 5%?
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with tinyurl.com, upon which you seemed to rely greatly? I've run into it somewhere else recently in connection with software.
How about that coffee that has to be shat through a lynx (or some sort of feline) and sells for $100 a pound? Let the Fair Traders set up a huge lynx farm and distribute the lynxes to the indigent coffee growers. Who said economics was hard?
Wabulon,
ReplyDeleteIn the economic sense, if prudent use of capital in some economic environment produces a return of 10%, does this mean that a return of 10% is profitless, and that a return of 15% shows a profit of 5%?
I think so, yes. Economic profits are returns above what you could otherwise get by investing capital in an equally risky venture.
Mischa: thanx.
ReplyDeleteIn re 'tinyurl': I looked it up. I understand now.
Erratum: for "Mischa" read "Micha."
ReplyDeleteYes, Micha is right -- setting aside the issue of risk, let's say you could invest in T-Bills at 4% per annum. Instead, you open a business the yields you 3%. You have suffered an (economic) loss of 1%.
ReplyDelete