tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post6668469961939254093..comments2024-03-25T07:51:47.758-04:00Comments on Thoughts On Economics: Yeager MistakenRobert Vienneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14748118392842775431noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post-83538776608588738142007-11-07T02:29:00.000-05:002007-11-07T02:29:00.000-05:00Yeager is a fellow-traveller with Austrians and co...Yeager is a fellow-traveller with Austrians and contrasts some parts of his views with theirs.<BR/><BR/>I like the Bukharin book as well.<BR/><BR/>I did think of including in my paper a complaint that I could not find any recent author defending the Austrian theory who set it out in an analytically precise way. Garrison's book, for example, is about how to illustrate Austrian Business Cycle Theory, teach it, and contrast it with other theories, presuming it's true.Robert Vienneauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14748118392842775431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706564.post-16028483038715022052007-11-05T04:18:00.000-05:002007-11-05T04:18:00.000-05:00"price of waiting"? I thought that the Austrians' ...<I>"price of waiting"</I>? I thought that the Austrians' considered that Bohm-Bawerk's theory had demolished such concepts in favour of "time preference"? <BR/><BR/>Well, sometimes -- Rothbard invoked the concept of "waiting" quite a lot:<BR/><BR/><I>"What has been the contribution of these product-owners, or 'capitalists', to the production process? It is this: the saving and restriction of consumption, instead of being done by the owners of land and labour, has been done by the capitalists . . . The capitalists, therefore, made an essential contribution to production. They relieved the owners of the original factors from the necessity of sacrificing present goods and waiting for future goods."</I> [<B>Man, Economy, and State</B>, pp. 294-95]<BR/><BR/>Is <I>"time preference"</I> just another word for <I>"waiting"</I> which, in turn, just another word for <I>"sacrifice of abstinence"</I>?<BR/><BR/>Compare Senior to Rothbard. For Senior, <I>"the worse educated"</I> classes <I>"are always the most improvident, and consequently the least abstinent."</I> For Rothbard, <I>"the major problem with the lower-class poor is irresponsible present-mindedness."</I> [<B>For a New Liberty</B>, p. 154]<BR/><BR/>Bukharin had a few good words to say on this in his <B>Economics of the Leisure Class</B>, when he pointed out the obvious: "time preference" is dependent on social class and so "interest" is rooted in class monopoly of property.<BR/><BR/>Austrian economics has a certain lack of coherence which is cute, I suppose, if it were not for for its aim to defend capitalism (and usually capitalists). Which explains the knots it ties itself into...<BR/><BR/>Iain<BR/><A HREF="http://www.anarchistfaq.org" REL="nofollow">An Anarchist FAQ</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com