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Entry: The Great Education Bubble Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/the_great_education_bubble#26029 Post contents: Economics, like all social science, is value neutral. It is fundamentally descriptive of the unintended consequences of human action, including things like fiat currency, central banking, price controls and the like. Knowing those "unintended consequences," we can still choose for a variety of reasons to have the state intervene in the economy to, for example, prevent fraud, define property rights and their boundaries, enforce contracts, and the like. Just because I don't like loose monetary policy doesn't mean I have to like gay marriage, pot-smoking hippies, or the like, which one can rightfully oppose for a lot of reasons, none of which are primarily economic in nature. Every discipline has its proper scope. I wouldn't look to Ludwig von Mises for insight into what makes a great painting, how to command a platoon, or how to cook a quiche either. In other words, let's not get more mileage out of great economists and proper economic thinking, just because they have written obiter dicta about philosophical and political matters. This is not to say their opining is wrong on these matters, just that the quality of such opinions is distinct from the more rigorous and intrinsically value-neutral insights of economic science. Surely, as a student of Austrian Economists, you know that the heart of their system is the supposed "subjectivity" of economic values. I think this may be true in economic matters--bread vs. butter vs. DVDs vs. old Camaros--and need not lead to nihilism in moral matters, nor traditional matters of legislation dealing with morality. In other words, we mus step outside of economics and get our values from some other source to apply the insights of economic science. In other words, we can dislike loose monetary policy and loose morals, and there's no reason the state's intervention in the latter means we have to accept fiat monetary policy or other stupidities. Sent at: 2008 07 20