Comments (1)

• pbergn

  Author writes:

  "Even those who might at times like to lie, cheat, rob or kill for personal short-run gain can usually be persuaded of the longer-run advantages of social cooperation, i.e., of refraining from lying, cheating, robbing or stealing."

  Nothing further from the truth! Isn't this what Communists used to preach?!

  Sounds like all utopias are based on the same old fallacy of humans preferring constructive methods of procurement to that of destructive...

  Well, I've got news for you: to steal, plunder, cheat and destroy is much, much easier, than toil and create. And following the natural law of things tending to take the path of the least resistance, humans too, will naturally gravitate towards the path of least resistance, that is of using non-productive methods...

  I have seen neighbors that would go to extra lengths and spend time and money just to get back at the people they despise, however irrational it may be in the eyes of an Austrian...

  The way the human beings are constructed, they can only be stopped by force equal in measure and opposite in direction ...

  And who said that a certain sub-group of humans will not get together into cahoots and connive something evil? Why should they work, if it is much easier to defraud people?

  I have heard of and seen many, many examples of society's basest elements conspiring to steal from the unsuspecting, more gullible majority, like in prisons, concentration camps, public schools, in the streets i.e. in any environment where more or less the Law Of Jungle Rules...

  And to quote a pertinent phrase from the movie "Enemy of the State": "Who is going to monitor the monitors?"

  Now, if Austrian School of Economics is proposing a viable solution to the societal problems, it has to be able to demonstrate its sustainability, which, I am afraid, I do not see at all...

  In my humble opinion, it is human nature that is to blame...

  [As a disclaimer, I am a supporter of Free Market Capitalism. And I do tend to gravitate towards Austrian School of Economics. It's just I have many unresolved questions, that I tend to pose in a form of playing Devil's advocate. After all, if Austrians are correct, then there has to exists a logical refutation to any of my challenges...]

  Published: November 30, 2009 11:55 PM