Skeptic Project

Because of the outrageous cost of attending Austrian doomsday conventions one must assume the attendees must be educated. Outside of the kids, I have never met a Ron Paul supporter who didn't have a college degree. In fact I read that Rand Paul is leading among voters with a college degree, yet losing among those without one.

Why does such a primative idea attract otherwise intelligent people?

"Having a college degree" doesn't necessarily mean "educated." Plenty of college degree holders suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

BTW, the Austrianist guru Murray Rothbard sucked as a philosopher:

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2009/08/rothbard-as-philosopher.html

@aaronmhatch:

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-ausmain.htm</p>

I keep asking Austrian doomsday cultists what the "dollar collapse" they predict will happen any day now means when April 15 rolls around again. Will we have to pay our taxes in beaver pelts or something because the dollar's value has disappeared? They don't want to answer my question; that would require them to concede the fact that our fiat money has value because the government requires us to pay our taxes with it.

Thanks, advancedathiest!

Alton:

"Moreover, people technically don't need a government to tell them what they can use when it comes to trade and commerce."

Are you suggesting the government should get out of the way?

Alton: I'm still learning about economics (I'm in grad school and have never had an econ class!), but I'm struggling to disagree with you.

I don't have a problem with the US dollar. I consider it to be more or less a representation of the exchanged good between two parties. I don't see why we need to have it matched to a gold standard; however. Even gold itself is nothing "special" - it's merely an element found in nature. I suppose it's shiny and attractive, but it in itself is rarely a end. I have to imagine it's typically a mean to a greater end, which is usually security or pleasure in some fashion.

@ Alton:

Rather than a doomsday scenario, certain Austrian economic advocates just want to see more currency alternatives and where people have the ability to form their own.

Otherwise known as "scams."

Sil wrote:

You could choose to accept whatever form of payment you want for your services, right? Well the U.S. Government chooses to accept payment in the form of (gasp) U.S. Dollars. Granted, I've only taken one class on economics and that was a few years ago but... is there anything stopping you from forming your own currency? I don't believe there is, but people don't want YOUR currency, they want currency with established value and insurance.

Yes, people may be able to form their own currency, but with a Country's note being an established, enforced monopoly by the government, alternative currencies have it difficult to flourish due to the population already having this built in mind share with government notes being the main thing valuable. Many of these alternative currencies that came around even relied on national government notes in order to exist. With government notes being automatically popular through legality, many people even lack the idea that they indeed have the ability to form their own currency. I agree that people will have to see value and insurance in an alternative currency in order to accept it, but the point here is having more options of this sense of value and insurance would grant even a wider range of economic opportunities.

Advancedatheist wrote:

Otherwise known as "scams."

Even with legal tender notes, people can form scams. As for alternative currencies, not all of them are scams. Time banking and Hub culture's 'Ven' are 2 good examples. Never the less, to minimize scams in any social interaction will take transparency of individuals and the things they use in commerce. Speaking of e-gold, one of its downfalls was due to lack of transparency where anonymous characters could screw people out of their money and launder stolen money since e-gold was not strict with verifying identities.

Didn't we try competing currencies in the free banking era and it lead to countless panics and bank runs?

"Didn't we try competing currencies in the free banking era and it lead to countless panics and bank runs? "

Multiple currencies just seem like a pain in the ass, nevermind the lack of any substantial economic benefits.

Sil wrote:

What opportunities would this unlock?

It could unlock more of the types of goods and services that exists now and enable more people to get funded in one way or another to engage in commerce. Basically, it all depends on what people choose to do with more economic means. With information systems technology and reciprocation in mind, and transparency of the rules for these currencies, having multiple currencies doesn't have to be a pain in the ass. Plus, you could still choose the ones or just the one you see value and insurance for.

Advancedatheist wrote:

Austrian economists want to replace a monetary system which works with an experiment which could lead to all sorts of chaos and abuse.

And others just want to see more mutual, complementary systems with fundamental requirements to prevent chaos and abuse.