Along the Way…

Posts Tagged ‘Economics’

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The book I’m currently reading, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, by Ludwig von Mises, has been an exciting discovery of the logical science behind human behavior.

It occurred to me, this afternoon, while reading Chapter 2, “The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action",” that progressives have a fundamental flaw in their understanding of our society. They don’t understand the difference between the individual and the aggregate.

I and We

The Ego is the unity of the acting being. It is unquestionably given and cannot be dissolved or conjured away by any reasoning or quibbling.

The We is always the result of a summing up which puts together two or more Egos. If somebody says I, no further questioning is necessary in order to establish the meaning. The same is valid with regard to the Thou and, provided the person in view is precisely indicated, with regard to the He. But if a man says We, further information is needed to denote who the Egos are who are comprised in this We. It is always single individuals who say We; even if they say it in chorus, it yet remains an utterance of single individuals.

The We cannot act otherwise than each of them acting on his own behalf. They can either all act together in accord, or one of them may act for all of them. In the latter case the cooperation of the others consists in their bringing about the situation which makes one man’s action effective for them too. Only in this sense does the office of a social entity act for the whole; the individual members of the collective body either cause or allow a single man’s action to concern them too.

The endeavors of psychology to dissolve the Ego and to unmask it as an illusion are idle. The praxeological Ego is beyond any doubts. No matter what a man was and what he may become later, in the very act of choosing and acting he is an Ego.

Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (Yale University Press, 1949), p. 44.

When President Obama says “we,” he is including me (and, too often, excluding himself). When I say “we,” in reference to that aggregate known as “Americans,” I am including everyone who meets the citizenship qualifications of the United States of America… this may or may not actually include the President himself; for the purposes of discussion, though, I generally grant him the benefit of the doubt, and include him.

This speech is more than worth the 25 minutes from your busy day, that it will take to watch it!

There are two men, today, who could technically be considered “messiahs” in the literal sense of the word (Hebrew for “anointed one,” as in a leader which carries legitimate mandate). Barack Obama is one, and Ron Paul is the other.

Whether you personally prefer to claim Obama as your messiah or you’d rather have Ron Paul as your leader, it would be worth your time to be familiar with the ideas presented by Ron Paul in this speech.