Did You Know Ayn Rand Was an Austrian Economist from Middle Europe?
Neither did I. And neither did she. Luckily we have Ken Kersch to enlighten us:
"In the oft-repeated list of major intellectual influences on Ryan – Ayn Rand, Ludwig Von Mises, Milton Friedman, Friedrich von Hayek – only Friedman was American-born. Although the others lived in the United States when they were older, all were Mitteleuropeans... In many of its iterations, Austrian economics is the apodictic mirror-image of that which it opposes – a cast utterly self-evident in Ayn Rand..." (I added the link to Mitteleuropa so you can see how it is defined. Rand was born close to Mitteleuropa, but culturally Russia is clearly outside the area.)
In any case, this is all part of a silly screed on how Paul Ryan is probably un-American since he likes a number of thinkers not born in the United States. Well, you know who else liked lots of European thinkers? Thomas Jefferson. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. A pretty suspicious bunch there, huh?
"In the oft-repeated list of major intellectual influences on Ryan – Ayn Rand, Ludwig Von Mises, Milton Friedman, Friedrich von Hayek – only Friedman was American-born. Although the others lived in the United States when they were older, all were Mitteleuropeans... In many of its iterations, Austrian economics is the apodictic mirror-image of that which it opposes – a cast utterly self-evident in Ayn Rand..." (I added the link to Mitteleuropa so you can see how it is defined. Rand was born close to Mitteleuropa, but culturally Russia is clearly outside the area.)
In any case, this is all part of a silly screed on how Paul Ryan is probably un-American since he likes a number of thinkers not born in the United States. Well, you know who else liked lots of European thinkers? Thomas Jefferson. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. A pretty suspicious bunch there, huh?
I also found this part pretty funny: "Since Austrian economic thought has been a major influence on today’s Republican Party, and since Austrian thought might soon be the governing philosophy in the White House..."
ReplyDeleteHuh?
I don't know what's worse, insinuating Romney is an Austrian, or thinking Austrian economics is a governing philosophy.
DeleteA fellow Balkinization reader?
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of real silliness, as well as some valuable material, on that blog. But I'm pretty sure the post you link to is a parody of Republicans who call Obama a European-style socialist.