tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post6681641983293519875..comments2024-02-24T00:37:43.087-05:00Comments on The Other McCain: Human beings are not numbersRobert Stacy McCainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03084541621503669804noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-56490125599618206822009-07-30T22:30:05.972-04:002009-07-30T22:30:05.972-04:00"Are we too free?" - "Nancy Pelosi ..."Are we too free?" - "Nancy Pelosi thinks so."<br />"Are we too free?" - "Barack Obama thinks so."<br />"Are we too free?" - "Arlen Specter thinks so."<br />"Are we too free?" - "John Cornyn thinks so."<br /><br />That message should be pounded into the brains of this nation until we right the course.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-77222404220129707712009-07-30T13:39:26.865-04:002009-07-30T13:39:26.865-04:00Noteworthy connections:
Stonewall's "foo...Noteworthy connections:<br /><br />Stonewall's "foot cavalry" demonstrated the value of drill and hard marching, or in modern reporters' terms, "shoe leather."David R. Grahamhttp://adwaitha-hermitage.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-74711590741933497942009-07-30T12:57:53.690-04:002009-07-30T12:57:53.690-04:00"The individual's desire for economic lib..."The individual's desire for economic liberty is a moral choice."<br /><br />Yes. Adam Smith's academic title at Glasgow was Professor of Moral Philosophy.<br /><br />The title of his magnum opus is not "Wealth of Nations." It is "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations."<br /><br />The significance of the book's title is decisive for its meaning.<br /><br />The "nature and causes of the wealth of nations" is, according to Smith, and as demonstrated by experience, moral man freely and eagerly making moral choices in moral social structure (economics). He did not support or propose "laize faire capitalism." That is French, Rousseau, produced to The Terror.<br /><br />Smith's observation, as expressed in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and confirmed in experience, is that human nature is inherently moral and must be moral to be happy and that the free expression of moral human nature produces the wealth of nations and numerous other beneficial delights.<br /><br />"An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" is in the nature of observations regarding what makes life go well. It is not, as modern economists self-appoint, including both Keynes and Friedman, a tendentious prescription/proscription for what everyone (well, not quite everyone ...) must do.<br /><br />Smith is a scientist in the true sense: an observer of what goes on, in this case what builds happiness (freely made prosperity) and what drives decline (compelled existence).<br /><br />Economics means "building up and out." It is a building, having both horizontal and vertical components, not a driving, which has only an horizontal component.<br /><br />Kant himself said that Scotland of the 18th Century was the most enlightened nation of Europe. Scotland and Smith were deeply admired by the German academy of those days. Scotland then had the world's highest, widest and deepest rate of literacy and was profusely productive.<br /><br />I am unfamiliar with Ropke's work but as you describe it subscribe it enthusiastically and surmise he reflects German admiration for the Scottish Enlightenment's achievements dating at least from the German Enlightenment (which differed significantly from the Scottish, English, French and American Enlightenments) and as expressed by its star representative, Kant.<br /><br />Of course Geithner and his boss and associates want decline (for the masses), not building, so what they are doing makes perfect sense, and they know that it does, which is why they are doing it.<br /><br />The outcome depends, as from their start, on how fast they can get it done before they are stopped.<br /><br />It is now, as Lincoln said of the Campaign in Northern Virginia, "... a question of legs." Jackson's "foot cavalry" answered that question then ....David R. Grahamhttp://adwaitha-hermitage.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-58128346654969433312009-07-30T10:37:01.019-04:002009-07-30T10:37:01.019-04:00The VERY brief deconstruction of "mathematica...The VERY brief deconstruction of "mathematical econ" is the observation that 'economics is a SOCIAL science.'<br /><br />After all is said and done, all Econ does is measure human action vis-a-vis costs--and it does that rather poorly because 'human action' is not always rational (i.e., model-able.)<br /><br />By the way, Ms. Shalit spent a good deal of her life in the Milwaukee area.Dad29https://www.blogger.com/profile/08554276286736923821noreply@blogger.com