Your friend misunderstood your argument from the beginning. He thought that because you said correlation does not equal causation that you meant that there cannot be any causation in general and more specifically that taxation cannot therefore have any effects on the economy. Essentially he thought you were saying that if you cannot prove a particular cause then there can’t be any causation. Clearly not what you were saying and a logical fallacy if I ever saw one.
The actual point was that the qualitative effects of taxation can only be known through a priori theory.
I knew I was in for a long ride the minute I saw “senitor”. I couldn’t even get through the majority of that. Aristippus is right, intentionally or not, he straw manned your point and ended up debating something you weren’t saying. I think that’s a big part of the reason I couldn’t get through it.
I wouldn’t blame anyone for not reading through all of that, it’s a lot of writing and probably pretty elementary stuff for people on this board. The reason I kept at it for so long is because the guy who posted the chart originally does this type of thing on Facebook all the time and he and his brother’s are kind of the ring leaders of the young socialists in their circle. He usually has a lot of people following his posts and commenting about how capitalism is evil etc. I have seen people attempt to disagree an defend free markets but they’re typically ill-equipped and it turns into a nonsensical Republican vs. Democrat debate and they get shouted down by the Leftists until they quit. Since I had the time this weekend I wanted to mix it up and slay as many fallacies as I had the energy for so all followers could see and maybe make them think about their positions a little deeper. I wonder if that was somewhat successful because only 3 other people participated in the debate. Usually there are at least a dozen or so more. I’m assuming they realized the conversation was out of their league.
.
You’re probably right. But that’s a good thing. It could mean less readers/followers for that particular conversation, but it could also mean more. I’m sure you gave more than one person something to think about.
It’s also always a good idea to offer a link to some place that will get them more info…and start them on a learning journey. A rabbit hole, of sorts.