degsme
Council Member
IRP you made the mistake of using the term "Mainstream Economics".... The reality is that Lukey is LESS WELL versed in both Austrian and Marxist economics than you, Wooley or I AS WELL.Let me get this straight. The economics that is taught in universities is not mainstream economics? And you are versed in "proper" economics. Is that correct?
Who - besides Pedro Schwartz - do you take seriously as an economic thinker? (I will try to watch the video when I have a little more time.) But honestly, I would prefer it if you brought the ideas of those folks to bear rather than resorting - as degme argues and I concur - resorting to ad hominem attacks and guild by association. It really does seem to be that you are saying that mainstream academic economics is "Marxist."
For example this piece of nonsense:
Well if "wealth" is "productive value" (notice how he begs the question of what is wealth) then Lukey's definition of "private sector" INCLUDESWhen I speak of the "private sector" I am speaking (primarily) of the (shrinking) portion of the economy that creates all wealth.
- the whole of the VA healthcare system
- All of the National Highway Interstate System
- Pell grants and other GOVERNMENT funding for education
- the National Institute of Health were a lot of the basic research for wealth creating biological creations is done
- The old NASA which invented the microprocessor
- DARAPA which invented the internet
etc. etc.
So his notion of "the private sector" is essentially a meaingless one.
Notice though how he seeks to define this away
Not by demonstrating that the building of a road fails to create wealth, but simply by saying "That's not part of the private sector".The REAL private, for profit sector is GDP less government and not-for-profit spending (budgets). IOW, if the federal government spends a million $ on a road, that's not (really) part of the private sector
And then says
This is why government cannot grow the economy or jobs
IOW his whole line of "economic reasoning" is that
Because I say the government cannot create wealth - it cannot create wealth and therefore cannot grow the economy
Its as fudanmentally ignorant of the study of how economies works as it gets. Precisely because it is outside the realm of actual ECONOMIC Activity, and purely ideologica.