I’m reading quite a lot and well I am arrogant enough to write that I found great writers and economists which have expressed much better what I
thought to be true as myself.
Once upon a time I was learning farming. I worked on a paster station and I worked on a farm specialized on pig breeding and pig fattening. My father was a farmer as were both of my grandpas. So yes it seems I would be farmer too. And I started with it. I loved my work. At least most of it. There were jobs which were just gruesome. We had a disease under our pigs which one could not heal. So you have to kill fresh born shoats. I can assure you nothing is more terrible than to slaughter small ones. But that’s another story.
Why I did not get farmer in the end. Well to my “misfortune” I had (and I guess still have) an idea what makes economic sense and what no. So the later farm was somewhere at the edge going bankrupt. But the problem I saw was that
- everything was regulated
- and even worse subsided
And last but not least to earn something around 50000 DM would require a farm well valued above 1 000 000 DM. That are roughly 5% with all the risk and all the work. Well this cut it for me. I would have other sources of income but I did want to “earn” my living myself with a “fair” return on investment.
Anyway the point I want to come back to are subsidies. To that time I had discussions with my father in which I told him subsidies are wrong. Under any circumstance. So most of my income would be not paid for by people wanting to have my stuff but subsidies this was a thing I could not want. And this was a point my father and I were of a completely different opinion. To that time I did not even know about the austrian school of economcs. How should I? I was grown in a higher school and my teachers were paid for by the state. You can not expect from paid public servants that they serve the customers (in this case the scholars) or anything critical about state control. All they had to teach us was and still is state controlled. Oh yes they will tell you it’s for the better to use all, but that’s just another lie.
So I did not follow into the farmers shoes (a thing I partly regret, because in this crazy times it is good to have something to get you fed). I still started my other “career” I’m now software developer (and to be honest I love it).
But back to my “readings”. As you can see I start blogging around the time the first bail-outs were “done”. (See http://fdominicus.blogspot.com) even to that time I did not know from the austrian school. How should I? I was grown also on a state controlled university and you can bet what the national economics are. They a breed on a state controlled school, and are raised than in state controlled universities paid for by the states. So no you can not really expect an austrian economic in universities. But as you can read through my other blog and my blog here, I did not know them as I started blogging.
And still you can see I’m a clear fan of open markets. Nothing could be more fair is my strong opinion. And during the last 4 years I learned about the austrian school and there it was. My feelings expressed in great books. I guess it started with something from von Mises (I can’t remember really but it could have been human action). Well since then I read more and more about it and found my intuitive findings supported. And still I can understand that stuff (after all maybe the education at the university pays of for me, at least some parts of it are about critical thinking ) and there we have them: von Mises, Hayek, Rothbard. Now I have to get over 4 decades to learn anything about it, now tell me about mind washing….
So know I can clearly tell everyone which books to pick up to “get” something real. It’s indicative that von Mises never has tought much on a university, hell the austrians are the devils in person of all the good-doers in every positions of the state. And still they are the only ones which saw it coming. NO OTHER SCHOOL WAS ABLE TO DO THAT. You can bet whom I do believe more. You have one guess free 😉
Anyway they have written down what I has somewhat mangled up in my mind. And I’m delighted that I found that what I call horse sense (as you know I’m not an educated national economist) has some theoretical background and was the only school of thinking which could see it coming. So yes I see this as a confirmation of my reasons to even start my blogs.
You can call me arrogant or whatever you like, but it pleases me that things I figured out by myself are supported by the greatest economics the world has seen till now. And yes I’m proud that I figured this out by myself and that I could even see my bad feelings about the education at our “universities” have a sound foundation. So yes was able to figure that out myself but the books just showed me that I could not be that wrong. And yes I’m feeling also happy that I can name charlatanism if I see it. And yes the biggest crime ever was and still is the establishment of fiat-money. So we know it’s evil and so we should stick to the von Mises motto: Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito (Latin: Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it) and demand to get our money back and we have all the right to demand: “End the central banks”.
And one thing I (the I in very Big letter) will never forget: It started with the feeling of a 19 year old boy learning farming, which figured out some truth (maybe even some eternal one) himself while condemning subsidies. I know it does not mean anything to anyone else, it makes THE difference for the man in front of his screen and keyboard…