Economics & Creation

* Reason 675: to keep, (or get) your kids out of the government schools. Co-host Doug McBurney informs Bob of the latest fad in the government schools, called "Big Booting". This schoolyard game involves a "kick to the head" from one student upon another just for fun…

* von Mises Just Shy of Brilliant: Having read Ludwig von Mises' magnum opus on economics “Human Action”, (and having inserted hundreds of hand written notes) Bob entrusted Doug with his copy in order to punish Doug for some past offense... Listen in as Bob and Doug discuss economics, a boom and bust, philosophy, history, atheism, money and credit in light of von Mises' insightful observations. Yet, because of his atheism, his insights are doomed to fall short of a comprehensive theory of human action. (And they likely ended up getting him sent to Hell.) His atheism created Mises' massive blindspot, whereby he emphatically insisted repeatedly that his science of "praxeology" (economics, and the wider sphere of human action) was not based on values of any kind, and then typically, within a paragraph or a page, he himself would falsify that claim. For socialism is wrong only because it violates God's enduring command, Thou shall not steal. And Mises rightly points out economic calculation is somewhere between difficult and impossible in an interventionist socialist context, to the extent that government intervention is expected. For example, how much money could an entrepreneur reasonably invest to purchase a 90-room luxurious beachfront resort in Venezeula while the socialist Hugo Chávez was president? Is it worth $30 million US dollars? $1 million? What are the chances that Chávez, or Maduro after him, would nationalize the property and just confiscate it? The value system that recognizes the right of private property ownership is opposed by socialists and communists who violate the eighth commandment, Thou shall not steal. Thus, his atheism blinded the otherwise brilliant Mises to embrace the very refutation of his entire theoretical system, his false assertion that values are irrelevant to the science of economics.

* BEL on Economics, von Mises, etc: See also...
- Our socialism landing page, kgov.com/socialism
- On von Mises, this page, kgov.com/von-mises
- On thought experiments, rsr.org/math#mises
- On the social order of insects, rsr.org/bees#mises
- On no natural income streams, rsr.org/pre-flood-world#mises
- On estate valuation calculation, kgov.com/wealth (Bob vs. Bezos)
- On The Theory of Money and Credit and Human Action, the best definintion at kgov.com/money
- Bob Interacts at Forbes.com with Adam Smith Institute's Tim Worstall on Bob's money definition
- Bob on the national sales tax vs America's two leading advocates kgov.com/debates#economics
- Would you sell your pirated music? on biblical principles against copyright infringement
- On ALL action designed to minimize discomfort (theology related)
- 2006: Celebrating Matthew 20 and unequal pay for equal work!
- 2016 10-yrs later: Bob Calls into Kelley & Kafer Against Equal Pay
- Bob interviews CNBC's Mad Money Jim Cramer
- Note on von Mises at Bob's Reading List on Ludwig's hated 'values' and 'inalienable rights', reproduced here...

* Performing a Thought Experiment on von Mises: Where is Ludwig right now? The following quotes bode ill for the economist's eternal soul. Mises describes what he views as a "trick" whereby an economist (or ruler) "elevates his personal value judgments to the dignity of a universally valid standard of absolute eternal values". Ludwig describes what he sees as all "arbitrary value judgments" about which each peson "assumes that he has discovered an incontestable standard of good and evil..." In Luke 18:20 for example Jesus recognized the absolutes within the Mosaic Law, including Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal. Yet Mises denies that there is any such thing as a universally standard of absolute eternal values. And rather than come right out and attack God's existence, He asserts the routine athiest claim that any divine standard is merely an unjustified elevation of personal judgments. On page 838 he mentions "alleged inalienable rights". On page 766 von Mises mentions "inalienable rights" in a negative context, as uttered and supported by one of his archrivals, the labor unions. And on page 688 he writes, "What the naïve mind calls reason is nothing but the absolutization of its own value judgments. The individual simply identifies the products of his own reasoning with the shaky notion of an absolute reason."

Regardless, Bob Enyart strongly recommends this book for its other amazing insights even though Mises repeatedly contradicts his own "no values" claim for economics. Economics is a branch of the science of human action (praxeology) that is closer to psychology, much to his chagrin, than to physics or chemistry. Thus values, that is, moral values, are essential for the science of economics. However, von Mises repeatedly denies this truth throughout his 1000-page book. Simultaneously, however, and everywhere he affirms, often within the space of a page of his denials, that if the government does not adhere to the moral precept, Thou Shall Not Steal, no economic calculation is even possible. Why not? By the law that God wrote in our conscience, that is, on our "hearts" (in our souls and spirits), His enduring command, Thou shall not steal, reveals to human beings that we have the right to own private property. So again, consider Mises valid observation that economic calculation is not even possible where socialist/interventionist policies violate the right to own private property. Thus, to the extent that a government violates private property, to that extent, economic calculation is not possible. Von Mises claim that the science of economics can exist apart from any system of moral values, therefore, is false. For apart from the value embodied in God's enduring command against theft, economic calculation itself is not even possible. History is replete with brilliant men driven to absurdity by their rejection of our creator God.

* Mises on Homosexuality: Even though he claims to reject absolute moral values von Mises notes in chapter 21, section 2, Joy and Tedium of Labor, in point 4 on page 586 that homosexual behavior is a strange perversion.

* BEL's Net Worth Worksheet: from kgov.com/wealth...

* Flashback to 2006: Bob gave a brief treatment on a business man's right from God to pay his workers varying rates for the same work, at kgov.com/matthew-20-unequal-pay-for-equal-work. We addressed that topic again ten years later in 2016 when Bob calls radio hosts Steve Kelly and Krista Kafer.