Why isn't every economist an Austrian?

[hmkpoker]

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The argument for AC'ism on this board is mostly based on personal real life experience and the belief that "taxation is theft" not on sound economic analysis.

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Not really. I am no fan of the slogan "taxation is theft", but the fact of the matter is that simple one-liners like that are more effective in getting your point across to the status quo than saying something like "economic systems with internalized productive consequences are more conducive to productivity than economic systems with externalized productive consequences." Yeesh, what a mouthful. Unfortunately, those that actually are intelligent enough to understand what we are talking about look at this like dogmatic nonsense. It's as though we have a forum of many different grade levels; things directed at later grades are too confusing to those in earlier grades, and things directed at earlier grades look stupid to those in later grades.

I notice a lot of times that ACists here also try to say things so that they won't appear heartless, despite the fact that heartlessness is necessary to macroeconomic development (after all, the results of our economic decisions will make an impact on whether large groups of people prosper, fail, starve or die). I don't understand why there is an apologetic group claiming that private charities will help the homeless under anarchocapitalism; the whole point is that a capitalist system selects against unproductivity, thereby alleviating the problem of poverty. Worrying about how we subsidize the unproductive is like worrying about what's going to happen to the poor tapeworm living in my intestines after the surgery.

Personally, I could give a rat's ass whether taxation is "theft" or not. If socialism induced more productivity and happiness from purposefully acting human beings than capitalism, I'd support socialism.