Saturday, November 21, 2015

Thought of the Day: the Communist Creed, and Dirty Words in Economics

(blog post so I have a reference point)

The Communist Creed

Communism famously is about "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.". It occurs to me that there is a better formulation:

"From each according to his inability to hide, to each according to his ability to bullshit."

For the uninitiated; "inability to hide" refers both to property, as well as pretending to be sick or disabled and unable to work. "ability to bullshit" covers the 10,000 "needs" that appear when a person can only get what they can wheedle out of the head honcho.

Dirty Economic Words

"Need" has been referred to as a dirty word in economics, however there is something worse. "Should" is not merely a bad word: it is blasphemy. As soon as someone says "should" they are no longer making an economic argument, but a moral one. Worse, when a person starts mixing up moral arguments about how things should be, with arguments about what is, it becomes easy to forget what is. Confusion of thinking and insanity will soon follow, just don't. Not even once.

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