John Kenneth Galbraith RIP

[hmkpoker]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hey everyone,

Easy with jumping on this guy's grave. It's OK to have fundamental disagreements with someone's philosophy, economic or otherwise, and still acknowledge the contributions they've made to their respective fields.

[/ QUOTE ]

We are acknowledging them.

They're garbage.

[/ QUOTE ]

In what ways? I would be shocked if you'd ever read anything by Galbraith. The free-market othodoxy that most economists have embraced is both intellectual weak and morally inferior to the work done by Galbraith.

[/ QUOTE ]

After Keynes' <u>General Theory</u>, I'm done reading leftist economics. I decided he was an imbecile after reading this:

[ QUOTE ]
A life-long Democrat, Galbraith was heavily influenced by British economist John Maynard Keynes, who advocated government spending to reduce unemployment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not defending my assertion in this thread, because damn if I haven't participated in a lot of posts about economics here. If you want to actually discuss economics, the subject comes up a lot here.

[Jdanz]

this is uninformed. I mean even if you disagree with Keyens he was brilliant. A lot of brilliant people misunderstand stuff. People like Einstein thought that there was an invisible odorless massless gas like substance all over the universe called Ether, which we later found was wrong, but that doesn't make him not brilliant.

Keyens' book on war economy is incredibly insightful, but really the most amazing thing he's ever written was his book on the Peace in Paris (in 1919) where he pretty much detailed exactly how world war II was going to happen.

It's a mindblowing read.

[hmkpoker]

[ QUOTE ]
It's a mindblowing read.

[/ QUOTE ]

So was <u>General Theory.</u> It blew my mind that I had to read another couple hundred pages deducing on the fallacious axiom that a good's worth is equal to its market value, which is wrong.

[Jdanz]

hey! i'm not argueing about that book. I haven't read it though i plan to.

The point is being wrong doesn't make somebody not brilliant. It also doesn't make someone dumb.

I mean how obvious is that.

I disagree with some of his theory, but him being wrong about something doesn't mean that he isn't brilliant in other areas, the above mentioned World War II book, undoubtably proves his brilliance.

Almost all of the truly brilliant people in academics/sciences have also had some ridiculously wacky beliefs too. These things are not mutually exclusive.

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey could you guys turn down the douchebaggery plz? No class asshats.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Andrew Karpinski]

haha nh BCPVP

[nietzreznor]

[ QUOTE ]
In what ways? I would be shocked if you'd ever read anything by Galbraith. The free-market othodoxy that most economists have embraced is both intellectual weak and morally inferior to the work done by Galbraith.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you think "most economists" have embraced a free-market orthodoxy, you either have a major misunderstanding of what a free-market is, or of what most economists believe.

Also: don't know much about Galbraith, so I won't comment on his economic views. Sorry to hear that he died.

[hmkpoker]

Maybe I'll take a look at that book. One day...

[Jdanz]

meh, the book is pretty ancillary to my main point, which is let's just be happy the guy tried to make the world a better place.

And from everything i hear, he really did try.

[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
The point is being wrong doesn't make somebody not brilliant. It also doesn't make someone dumb.

[/ QUOTE ]

You should tell some of the opponents of AC that... It's possible to disagree with someone and still respect them.

Keynes was brilliant, but he also did a lot of harm to the world. What does that mean? I don't know.