This is a bellwether election similar to the victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the wake of the Ron Paul campaigns, it is clear the country is ripening for some Murray Rothbard political economy. His election has nothing to do with his wrestling career.
“Once you come across Rothbard, it’s all over with. The arguments he makes are so logical and they’re so faultless that you really can’t disagree with him.”
The argument Glenn Jacobs makes above is so logical and so faultless that you really can’t disagree with him.
Just kidding.
I never heard of Murray Rothbard before you opened this thread, and I imagine I’m not alone. What do you think is next for the Rothbardians? Are there any other Rothbardians (other than Ron Paul, if he is one)?
Normally I’d be wary of a news organization that was founded a year ago by a high school student, but reading that their work “has been shared by Jordan Peterson, Glenn Beck, John McAfee, Austin Petersen, Silvio Schembri, and Lew Rockwell, amongst others,” all my reservations were allayed.
Murray Rothbard was the fairly modern voice for free market economists of the Austrian school; his hero was Ludwig von Mises (Human Action). If memory serves he was writing mainly in the 60s and 70s, although he lived until 1995. According to Wikipedia, he was a strong advocate for what he called “anarcho-capitalism.”
I suspect that Rothbard will be come the dominant economic theorist in the US now, because anyone who doesn’t agree with him will be chokeslammed and set on fire.
Shall we explore the in depth journey into the study of Economics that led him to the Austrian School?
Translated: “I hate math, and the book about Austrian Economics had less math than other economics books I looked at so I decided to follow that one.” :smack:
Jacobs won because he was the Republican nominee in a county that is massively Republican, his victory was a foregone conclusion when he won the primary. He won the primary by only 23 votes, and while Jacobs appears to be a pretty serious candidate who has done a lot to build towards this political career, his pro wrestling background definitely helped him.
He’s been very active in the local community for years as a philanthropist and helping with various causes, and doing those things he gets extra press/attention for them because he’s a pro wrestler. He also had a lot more personal wealth to fund his campaign than the two county commissioners he ran against in the primary, which is directly related to his wrestling career.
So how do you read it? When asked how he ended up following the Austrian school, his answer was that he went with this school of economics because the other one was all about numbers and formulas.
Sounds good in theory, but let’s try them out in practice for a while in Tennessee and see how that works before we roll them out nationwide. Consider it a beta test.
He is curious about how the world works. He viewed mainstream economics as not concerned with how the world works, but rather on mathematical model-building, therefore it was of no use to him in satisfying his curiosity. He found Austrian economics interesting because it eschews model-building, and instead satisfies his curiosity by attempting to explain how the world works.
I’m curious as to whether Mr. Jacobs campaigned on Rothbard’s “the War for Southern Independence in 1861 was one of the few just wars in history” position, or his categorization of those advocating for a women’s right to vote in he early 20th century as “spinsters whose busybody inclinations were not fettered by the responsibilities of home and hearth,” or his support for selling children as chattel. Do these positions go over well in Knox County?
Well, that county’s going to be a hot mess for a little while.
And of course someone who only reads one book about economics will base his economic views on that one book. That doesn’t tell us how good the theory is compared to other theories.
Hand him one of Krugman’s popular books, let him read it, and see what happens.