The Further Left You Are the Less You Know About Economics

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I don't think I that I have ever met an anarcho-capitalist who actually has a degree in economics, or who specializes in political economy/macro economics.
 
You are the guy that has proven that you do not understand the basic idea behind supply side economics.
 
I actually take issue with one of their questions:



Free trade can lead transitional unemployment, particularly in specific fields, and workers in the fields most affected these days are likely to be unionized, and somewhat more likely to be liberals.

In fact, over the whole range of their questions, I think they single out things which liberals are more likely to give the wrong answer to, because they tend to be hot-button issues for liberals. Take a look:



I'm not arguing that their answers aren't correct, but these are mostly issues that are going to divide along liberal and conservative lines, with liberals tending to be in the wrong. That isn't of course, to say that conservatives are simply right about economics. I might produce a different list of questions which divide along liberal and conservative lines that is more likely to be answered incorrectly by conservatives.

cliffs: this poll sucks.
 
Coming from the guy who can't even follow a conversation, much less anything economics related.
 
The only thing economists agree on is how to spell the word economics.

It's healthy to have disagreements -- the empirical research generally opens up more questions rather than proving that any one side of a debate is "correct"
 
Wow I hadn't actually read anything except for the title, but that poll does suck.

And what the hell is up with number 6? Of course they are being exploited how is it unenlightened to agree with that? (and I am generally in favor of sweatshops).
 
Going down the list of other social factors, the list of coefficients practically oozes my case. Economic intelligence appears to be positively correlated with: going to church, being white, and shopping at Walmart.

This is hilarious.
 
Yeah. So they have a link to their data. I downloaded it and loaded into a statistics application. They aren't doing regression, they're simply comparing the mean total incorrect score given various criteria. This is a total farce.
 
This 'study' finally hit a major newspapwer (WSJ, surprise!), which has, apparently, prompted Nate Silver to comment on it:

Are You Smarter Than a George Mason University Economics Professor?

I'm embarrassed for the Klein's GMU colleagues, who seem inclined (obligated?) to defend him. I've heard Klein interviewed before, although I confess I don't remember anything about him.
 
Walter Block has one.

Murray Rothbard had one.

Bruce L. Benson has one.

Bryan Caplan has one.

Thomas DiLorenzo has one.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe has one.

Peter Leeson has one.

Robert P. Murphy has one.

Joseph Salerno has one.

Mark Thornton has one.


Not to mention the vast number of respected Austrian economists that, while not being anarcho-capitalists, were libertarians in every sense of the word. (Mises, Hayek, Schumpeter, etc)

It's also interesting to note that libertarian-minded economists that have fully absorbed the works of Mises and Hayek and Rothbard have almost without exception become Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists. Those individuals that stayed committed to Mises' minimal state vision were few, and those individuals that committed to Hayek's views were even fewer.


Now, if you were talking about personally knowing people that were anarcho-capitalists that had no degree in economics, I won't disagree with you there. Indeed, I don't know of anyone, of any economic persuasion, with a degree in economics. There may be a couple on OT, I don't recall, but your point isn't really a point at all - most people don't have degrees in economics.
 
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