Lev Lafayette wrote:
On Thu, January 16, 2014 2:55 pm, Russell Coker wrote:
One amusing thing is that the criminal responsible was a fan of Austrian economics. Why is that amusing? It is just the sort of the thing that such people advocate.
I mean they're crazy as hell, but Silk Road is somewhat in line with their antagonism towards legal and fiat currency.
Well you might need to explain where that fits into their world-view; from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School I notice: "(1) Methodological Individualism: In the explanation of economic phenomena we have to go back to the actions (or inaction) of individuals; groups or "collectives" cannot act except through the actions of individual members........" Which seems like an extreme reductionist approach where a national economy is considered to be the sum of the actions of it's citizens; probably true, but of dubious utility. Bit like an attempt to formulate a gas law by summing the motions of individual molecules; instead of taking the statistical approach of kinematics. Of course extreme economic 'drys' would probably consider Al Capone a businessman; whose activities just happen to be illegal. /begin rant/ Personally I consider the whole free-market ideology particularly Adam Smith's notion of 'an invisible- hand', to be a pathetic, irresponsible, non-scientific delusion ! /end rant/ regards Rohan McLeod