Excellent presentation of the problem. And I trust you will be Jiminy Cricket on our shoulder during any investment decisions. Choices will be many but opportunities few.
Yess I totally agree and let’s also involve my two other pet hate phases. A fairer system and my all time ultra detested phrase “ doing the right thing”!!
I just re-listened to Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. He called it "Planning". Another word for it is Socialism. The idea is that the planners can better figure out how to run an economy than can the free market.
It never works, but Hayek explains why better than I ever could. The Road to Serfdom is the most effective critique of the socialist instinct that I have ever read. Someone pass a copy to Mamdani. The "warm embrace of socialism" never ends well.
In the US, the typical socialist will be so deeply in denial and so defensive that they will discount Hayek without reading him. They are trained to avoid, not consider, anything that questions their orthodoxy, so it is pretty pointless for most. Although not all socialists are the same. Some won’t have those personality defects and only are socialist because they haven’t given it thought and it sounded cool.
Right here, I hear you. And I'm also reading The Speculator, by Doug Casey and yourself, excellent and fun and making the same points, via a fictional adventure and high stakes education in West African mining country, the world of fast money, loose principles, but heros and mentors with moral courage and the desire to learn, and do right, ultimately. Cheers.
I have always interpreted the phrase, "the greater good," and its disgusting permutations, in the sense of, "says who?"
Goods can only be measured as either needs or wants. And nothing else. If I want it, that's a point in my favor. If I need it, then no one else has a proper claim upon it. That assumes I have the right of possession on that item. And if you want it, then tough luck. Unless you think you can take it from me. That is, you are also mindful that I have a right to fight back.
And if I don't have a right to fight back and protect my property? Then how does your right exceed my right? Or is it just Mao's gun in your hands?
This article is a solid example of first principles thinking. Thanks John.
Excellent presentation of the problem. And I trust you will be Jiminy Cricket on our shoulder during any investment decisions. Choices will be many but opportunities few.
Great essay, John. I wrote about this dangerous concept when it was wielded during the covid hysteria. If interested:
https://www.pretiuminsights.com/p/the-fallacy-of-the-greater-good
"scammed by colossal mediocrities".
Love that line!
Thank you.
This is the best article you have ever written
Yess I totally agree and let’s also involve my two other pet hate phases. A fairer system and my all time ultra detested phrase “ doing the right thing”!!
I just re-listened to Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. He called it "Planning". Another word for it is Socialism. The idea is that the planners can better figure out how to run an economy than can the free market.
It never works, but Hayek explains why better than I ever could. The Road to Serfdom is the most effective critique of the socialist instinct that I have ever read. Someone pass a copy to Mamdani. The "warm embrace of socialism" never ends well.
In the US, the typical socialist will be so deeply in denial and so defensive that they will discount Hayek without reading him. They are trained to avoid, not consider, anything that questions their orthodoxy, so it is pretty pointless for most. Although not all socialists are the same. Some won’t have those personality defects and only are socialist because they haven’t given it thought and it sounded cool.
Right here, I hear you. And I'm also reading The Speculator, by Doug Casey and yourself, excellent and fun and making the same points, via a fictional adventure and high stakes education in West African mining country, the world of fast money, loose principles, but heros and mentors with moral courage and the desire to learn, and do right, ultimately. Cheers.
I have always interpreted the phrase, "the greater good," and its disgusting permutations, in the sense of, "says who?"
Goods can only be measured as either needs or wants. And nothing else. If I want it, that's a point in my favor. If I need it, then no one else has a proper claim upon it. That assumes I have the right of possession on that item. And if you want it, then tough luck. Unless you think you can take it from me. That is, you are also mindful that I have a right to fight back.
And if I don't have a right to fight back and protect my property? Then how does your right exceed my right? Or is it just Mao's gun in your hands?
What states don't have a red flag at this point?
Well John, that's a nice summary of the "state of the state".
Jim Marshall