I always wondered why so many people who think they are intellectuals drift towards socialism. Hayek explains it perfectly here... tldr - They can't stand the random outcomes on individuals and don't understand the market takes into account far more information than a govt worker can.
on another thread... WeToddDidit... suggested some of the issues intellectuals have with the truth is caused by cognitive dissonance. Since facts and truth and economics are conservative many lefties have to make up their own truths. For instance when we have conversations about tax cuts and the increased revenues that follow them... some of the the lefties here deny reality by either posting articles about economic models or take the revenues and divide them by GDP. They apparently avoid following the links that show govt revenues went up after tax cuts or refuse to allow that thought into their brains. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress (discomfort) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; when performing an action that contradicts one of those beliefs, ideas, or values; or when confronted with new information that contradicts one of the beliefs, ideas, and values.[1][2] In A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal consistency. That a person who experiences inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and so is motivated to try to reduce the cognitive dissonance occurring, to justify behavior by changing parts or by adding new parts of the cognition causing the psychological dissonance, and by actively avoiding situations and information likely to increase the psychological discomfort.[1]
Great video, classic, Milton Friedman was so good at explaining things in a way that made your every day average joe understand, and he also had an awesome personality for an economist. Now that he is dead, and Thomas Sowell, and Ron Paul are hanging it up, the right realy needs a good Personable, intellectual economist to fill the void. Unfortunately most of them are anti social A-holes like Krugman.
It would be interesting for me to apply all that to the teachings of Jesus. For instance, conservatives preach an eye for an eye, they call it fiscal responsibility. The liberals preach the meek shall inherit the earth. Puts the liberal atheist in a bind. Especially when they claim Jesus was a liberal in one breath and then that belief in Him is just a conservatives cognitive dissonance.
Excellent, The market distributes information to people, the accurately predicting the future is a game, and the outcome of a game can never be just. Reminds me of Jon Stewart after he took a hit in his stock market winnings that he was planning on using for his retirement yelling at some Wall Street guy THIS ISN'T A FUCKING GAME MAN! When in fact it is and that explains why it is not just.
And that is my problem with all of them. They start with a lie. And then expect you to reason with them as if the lie they base everything on is true. All this socialism is just one more attempt to make it other than it is. And they can't quit now because then they would just return all their power back to the church, since it is the one institution dedicated to helping the victims of an unjust world.
[ Hayek also uses a moral argument that socialism is unjust as governments have to take from people (theft) to determine what people should want at any future point in time,which I've tried to explain to Piezoe a few times but it just doesn't seem to land and I really didn't know why it was so hard to understand so thanks for this answer.
Of all the Hayek videos, this is by far my favorite: And here is one of the rare tapes of Keynes. His manner of speaking and accent defines the British aristocracy of his day. He preceded Hayek in death by nearly 50 years! So sadly we have less in the way of preserved films of him speaking, but many stills of course. He died not long after Bretton Woods, the adoption of the gold standard probably helped do him in.