Right, Hans Hoppe is #1 rock star anarchist.
How long before libertarianism becomes Rolling Stone magazine with long lists of rankings every month?
I saw him in person this summer at Mises 2008 and he did have a rock star persona / was treated like a rock star by everyone else. It was interesting.
All schools are subsidized to a large extent by the government, so all schools are pretty much sttate schools to a lesser or greater extent. Also, Hoppe doesn’t teach anymore, he lives in Europe now.
IIRC, Molyneux makes no distinction between private or state universities for the reason that the state does mess with subsidies (this is a reason that Austrians oppose “vouchers”). And is not so much against the universities per se, but that it is absurd to tell people to leave their state jobs from this position… or to say the state is incompetent. People see competent and smart people – like Hoppe or Rothbard – in the state and they then think the state cannot be that stupid or it wouldn’t hire exceptionally brilliant people like them. There’s also the case that economics dept. don’t seem to be putting out more intelligent people in economics in general (for instance, much of what is taught in the universities seems to make people less economically literate about basic economics because it detaches from that into macro and pointless models).
I myself doubt that Rothbard’s actual professorial work was as effective as his large number of books and articles he did on the private market. And we also have the Mises institute and Lew Rockwell to thank for bringing a lot of his work to light as well, of course. Though I doubt his professorial work was effective, I still think he was a great intellectual.
Just to be clear about this. Also, isn’t Hoppe retired? Say what you want about universities, I really do hope that they crumble and the market makes education more efficient and easy. I think right now that is not the case… but I do see alternatives cropping up because the technology is getting so much better all the time. To me it is a medieval invention that the market should destroy ASAP and make way for higher intellectualism. And it wouldn’t hurt if people who were pro-market lead the way into this new frontier.
Because working for the IRS is really the same as using state owned universities as a means to spread libertarianism.
I’m sure after listening to Hoppe and Rothbard, that’s exactly what people think.
So what, you doubt Rothbard, Hoppe or Mises managed to convert anybody from their positions? If so, you’d be wrong.
This statement assumes that people in universities teaching from an Austrian perspective aren’t contributing, well, isn’t that exactly what you’re trying to prove?
But you’re right, I think Hoppe, Block etc. should stop working for universities and start posting videos on Youtube.
You’re joking, right? His seat is privately funded. The same with Rothbard.
-Jon
What? If you’re going to quote me and make dumb comments in response, make sure you understand what you’re quoting, first.
Shows how prejudiced you are.
-Jon
Why not just say “intellectual”?
-Jon
The IRS does not go door to door telling people that the IRS should be reformed and that it’s evil.
What do you mean “exactly”? It seems reasonable to me. Hoppe and Rothbard are smart guys. Ergo, the state could not be so incompetent. Also, the state could very well just hire enough smart people and be ok. And eliminating the state would mean that Hoppe and other good guys would have nowhere to work (since they are powerless, in your opinion, to work anywhere else).
It’s not an either/or on universities or youtube (though mises institute has it’s own channel, what is your point?). I don’t know why you denigrate technology as if that is something to be proud of. Though we all talk about the market as if it provides the greatest opportunity for anyone who wishes to achieve their goals, you don’t think anyone could possibly develop ways for themselves to make money in it giving professional advice. A great number of people that contribute to mises.org are not in academia.
Why is there any reason to believe that universities reach more people than lewrockwell.com or mises.org? I don’t think it is even close. Look at their class sizes versus the site traffic of these two sites. If Hoppe had a youtube channel, he could do a lot less work and reach even more people.
Lol, I’m huge classical fan and my cousin just got me into metal and bada ba ba ba, Im lovin it. As far as being a nerd, I prefer the term “gentleman and a scholar”.
No, you’re quite correct, it goes to their door for money. Which is good because?
Yeah, because the state actually created them piece by piece. I mean “exactly”, because it’s quite obvious that anybody who listens to Rothbard and Hoppe for long would see the state for what it is: a parasite. Nobody has argued that everybody who has ever worked for the state is stupid, so I don’t quite get what your point is.
Honestly, what a silly argument.
Yes, I’m sure all the otherwise libertarians look at Hoppe and detest the free market on account of what it would do to him. Was there any need for the strawman? You sound ridiculous enough as it is.
No, but “Stef” sits there making videos for Youtube, telling everybody how bad Ron Paul is for liberty, how bad Hoppe is for liberty. Other than making boring podcasts and writing poor books does he have another way? The funny thing is there’s quite a few more people who have heard of Paul, Hoppe and Rothbard than Molyneux, so I’ll leave it you to decide what the most effective way is.
I don’t know why you post strawmen is if thats something to be proud of.
And a lot of them are, what’s your point?
Even if that were true, that’s a lot different to saying “universities don’t do any good”.
And also be taken a lot less seriously. Which is exactly what libertarianism needs right now.
Indeed. They even overlap sometimes.
-Jon
Jon,
Your screen name, and for a long time your icon, were based on a character from a video game, which itself was based on Dungeons & Dragons. The prosecution rests, your honor.
Right, which has what to do with my initial comment which was, that I am by no means an ideal Hoppean emissary for libertarianism? Learn to read things in the context they’re given…
-Jon
Boy tensions are high today. You guys vote yet? lol
The RP campaign did fail. And the universities are good for some things. But not telling people that the universities should theoretically suck.
On the grounds that it converted numerous people (many on these forums alone) to libertarianism, and even failing that to at least favour smaller, more decentralised government? Yeah, I’d calle that a failure. Especially in comparison to all Molyneux’s acheivements, after all he did manage to win a prize for top ten podcast!
So what you’re saying now is that because formal education is currently terrible, we can’t use any formal education to teach them that it needn’t be so.
His goal was to become president, though. And that failed.
Maybe you should carry on this conversation with Molyneux instead of me, perhaps? I love to debate but I don’t so much like to be a vent for personal frustration at people I don’t know personally. Do you understand?
John, how dare you ask us to stop treating you as a punching bag for Stefan Molyneux!
Who do you think you are? [;)]
As if he’d actually have a conversation with anybody who doesn’t worship him.
I wasn’t using him as a “punhing bag for Stefan Molyneux”, he made a ridiculous claim that it’s wrong to work at universities and in the end he wasn’t willing to either admit he’s wrong or prove it.
Like a true Molynoid.