KOL158 | “The Social Theory of Hoppe: Lecture 6: Political Issues and Applications; Hoppe Q&A”

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 158. This is the final  of 6 lectures of my 2011 Mises Academy course “The Social Theory of Hoppe.” The slides for this lecture are appended below; links for“suggested readings” for the course are included in the podcast post for the first lecture, episode 153. Transcript below. LECTURE 6: POLITICAL ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS; HOPPE Q&A Video Slides TRANSCRIPT The Social Theory of Hoppe, Lecture 6: Political Issues and Applications; Hoppe Q&A Stephan Kinsella Mises Academy, Aug. 15, 2011   00:00:01 STEPHAN KINSELLA: Final class.  We have a lot to cover.  Before I start, let me say don’t be intimidated by the length of the slides if you see them later.  There’s a lot of slides.  I put a lot of text in there for your reading pleasure later.  We’ll skim over some of that.  It’s there for – just for a full sort of, almost like a paper for you to study later and for resources.  I’m going to try to cover as much of it as I can, and I suspect we’re going to go the full 90 minutes on the lecture.  And I’ll be happy to stay as long as we need after that for Q&A, so that’s my plan. 00:00:39 So let’s get going.  Slide two.  So we talked about economic issues and applications last week.  We have a few more to finish tonight, and I will post the final quiz later this week.  I think only maybe 15-20% of the class took the midterm, which is fine.  You’re not – don’t feel under an obligation to take it.  But some of you might find it fun and a good refresher, and you’re not really graded on a per-class basis.  It’s just personal grading.  So today, we’re going to cover the – we’re going to finish the economic applications and issues from last time. 00:01:19 We’re going to go over the Hoppe Q&A.  He did provide me with answers to a bunch of questions that you guys submitted.  And then we’re going to talk about a variety of political issues and applications.  In addition to the ones we’ve already discussed, of course, argumentation ethics, which is a political-type issue, but some other applications tonight.  I didn’t give any suggested readings for this week.  There’s just so many little issues.  All the links are in these slides, and we’re going to go over them tonight. 00:01:48 So I thought that was sufficient rather than giving you – Karl is asking about the midterm.  I don’t – I think it’s probably close already, but Danny can let you know that.  If it’s not, I wouldn’t mind having it held open a little bit longer if people who haven’t taken it yet want to take it.  Okay, fine.  Stephen says it’s still open, so just – it’s only 16 or 18 questions, all multiple choice.  Some are funny.  Some are harder.  Some are easy, so feel free to take it as a refresher. 00:02:21 00:02:28 Karl says sounds went out.  Can anyone else hear me?  Okay, Karl, it’s your issue.  Maybe Danny can help you.  Okay, now – so I’m going to get to one of the remaining issues that we had here.  I’m only – I’m going to go over these, and a lot of them cover what I think are the highlights so that we can cover a lot.  Okay.  So a brief review.  There is, in the Austrian economics literature, an issue called the “Economic Calculation Debate,” 1920 or so. 00:03:10 Mises wrote a famous article where he argued that one problem with a centrally planned socialist economy, that is, an economy where the government, the state owns the means of production, is that there won’t be market prices for these things.  And therefore, you won’t know how to compare alternative projects.  When entrepreneurs think about the future, they compare possible uses of resources they have available.