Why leftist hate economics so much?

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Correct, largely because there is no such thing as a "pure free-market" outside of the vastly oversimplified assumptions of Econ 101.


Not really. You are making the implicit assumption that all people have equal opportunities to prove their worth. I have had educational opportunities that very few people have access to, and because of that I have much more choice in what I want to do with my life than most people who live in poorer areas of the country. The wealthier people I know have money through family connections, not because they created it, and this nepotism cannot possibly be construed as the result of government meddling. If everyone started off on a level playing field, then you might have an argument here, but that simply isn't how reality works. And providing a completely level playing field for everyone to start from would entail a massive increase in government involvement, so yeah... your ideology is just completely self-defeating.


What misadventure? I am not going to be wealthy because I have made choices to prioritize other things than material gain. I certainly could be extremely wealthy if I so chose. It's not difficult; all I'd have to do is get a law degree and do the bidding of some corporate giant. But I have other interests, and on average the marginal utility of increased income above about $60k/year is approximately zero, so it is actually economically irrational to simply pursue wealth.

There is no correlation between IQ and life outcomes above a threshold of about 120.


No, I think IQ tests are somewhat unreliable and incomplete, even if they are the best measure we have at the moment, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. IQ isn't everything. There is no correlation between IQ and the capacity for rational thought, for instance, as people like you so aptly demonstrate.

because people are too brainwashed by the 2 party system

Conservative wants to control your bedroom
Democraps wants to control your wallet

Most people are sheep who believe in the false dictonomy of the right-left political spectrum BS

Only Libertarians know the true political spectrum is libertarians/authoritarians...basically: Do you love freedom?

COnservatives hate social freedom so they are Fascists
Leftists hate economic freedom so they are socialists/nazi (NAZI= National Socialist German Workers)

we are for both economic and social freedom.....freedom,baby

Last edited by LibertarianAS on 07 Nov 2010, 2:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

^Gives plenty good reason why not to put too much faith into IQ tests alone as any kind of complete picture of intelligence.

Only conservatives are stupid enough to subjugate themselves to ultimate government control and the same stupid people later turn that experience into "government bad!" sentiments.

You saw people die? Cute. I don't care. Prove your worth as something other than a meat puppet.

You've still yet to say anything of worth in terms of your ideas or how you want to generate wealth but cannot due to government. You've also yet to even start to prove you have any kind of intelligence. This statement you've made about your military experience and your opinions of what impact it's had on you certainly doesn't back up any kind of proof of intelligence.

Nice try, but if people like you with an IQ in the top 95th percentile really could become billionaires in a chaotic free market with asymetries of inherited wealth then you should be smart enough to subvert or co-opt the 2 two parties.



Probably because it maps out a major divison. All political spectrums are oversimplifications used for convience and stressing issues that are at the front of the political debate.



I don't believe freedom should be alotted on the basis of wealth, so I can't be a right-libertarian.



So you think name actually means they're what they say they are? So the Democratic Republic of North Korea is a Democracy and a Republic by your logic, right?

Part of Caplan's argument is that voters are not only irrational, but also biased towards certain policies, despite their lack of knowledge. So, gaming the system might only have limited impact for that reason.

Well, honestly, while this would help. You'd still need to have a lot of traits outside of pure IQ to become extremely wealthy.

I'm not so much addressing Caplan as I am LibertarianAS's (who, by the way, I think there's a good chance he's a sock-puppet of Hanotaux's) view that people like him are such geniuses that they'd be billionaires were it not for the governmnet. If they'd be smart enough to succed in a chaotic playing fied, then surely they'd be sharp enough to game the political-legal superstructure.

@ LibertarianAS:
Dude, you can't even write in correct English, and you wonder why you're not a millionaire? Do you speak like you write?

No, I saw the later argument, and I accept it as valid.

I think you, I, and AG are probably all in agreement that LibertarianAS is full of it on this count. For one, it is quite likely that he is a net beneficiary of government policies, rather than being held back by government. For another, I'm just skeptical of his claims to be so immensely gifted. Even if we accept the claim that someone incapable of producing grammatically and logically coherent sentences has an IQ in the 95th percentile, such an IQ isn't even that impressive. It means there are at least 15 million Americans smarter than he is, and hundreds of millions of people smarter than him all across the world.

Okay, I'm now 100% certain that his claims to intelligence are complete garbage and have no basis.

Even accepting that he has a High IQ doesn't entail he's a practical or creative genius. Numerous people with genius IQs have failed miserably in life due to emotional disturbances or the tendency to develop overcomplicated rationalizations for ludicrious claims.

No, unlike LibertarianAS, Hanotaux spelled correctly and wrote in complete sentences.

It is not easy to write when you

1)are dyslexic (you know dyxlexia is often co-morbid with AS right?or you are one of the neurotypical losers who need excuse )

2)you reside at Aviano US Air Base(an US base in Italy) and you
constantly are forced to alt-tab

Do you realize the bad conseguence for me if someone here know I'm autistic right?

i never double-check my post

To the "I've got a high IQ so I should be a billionaire" guy:

1) IQ tests don't mean s**t
2) You don't need to be smart to be rich, read How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis, it's quite an insightful book despite the scammy sounding title, and the author is actually a self made billionaire