Thoughts and Quotations

I'm not sure if Stephen and Ben have felt similarly, but I've wanted to post some thoughts, or perhaps quotations, but they weren't developed into an essay, much like our traditional posts have been. I'll wager they have, though, and I'll start the trend. In true Pensées style, I'll even number them.

1. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important categories for understanding how human beings should relate. Our Triune God exists as one fully unified entity, yet existing in three eternal and distinct, operating in perfect harmony. If we adopted this platform as the basis for our human interactions, we would guard against both evils hyper-individualism and extreme collectivism. Much like splitting the atom, erring in either direction would release two mushrooms in the styles of polytheism or Mormonesque monotheism.

2. I do not know whether the doctrine of the Trinity is more important than the Gospel for relating to others, but I am inclined to that belief, because the Trinity is the source of the Gospel itself. I don't think many would argue that the Gospel created the Trinity.

3. "It is not possible to collapse tastes or time schedules onto one curve and call it consumer preference. Why? Because economic value is subjective to the individual." - Lew Rockwell, in "Why Austrian Economics Matters".

4. "Grant that somehow the government can spot a market failure, the burden of proof is still on the government to demostrate that it can perform the task more efficiently than the market. Austrians [meaning, the economic perspective] would refocus the energy that goes into finding market failures to understanding more about government failures." - ibid.

5. "Far from increasing total welfare, redistributionism diminshes it. By making property and its value less secure, income transfers lessen the benefits of ownership and production, and thus lower the incentives to both." - ibid.

6. "Austrians would eliminate deposit insurance, and not only allow bank runs to occur, but appreciate their potential as a necessary check. There would be no lender of last resort that is, the taxpayer in an Austrian monetary regrime, to bail out bankrupt and illiquid institutions." - ibid.