Dear Pierre:
The rise and fall of empires is a fascinating study. Thanks for sending this to me. In my view, there’s a historical pattern, but no necessity that this will always be followed. I think it depends upon the decisions made by the rulers. That is, I believe in free will, not historical necessity.
Here are my pubs on free will:
Van Schoelandt, Chad, Ivan Jankovic and Walter E. Block. 2016. “Rejoinder on Free Will, Determinism, Libertarianism and Austrian Economics.” Dialogue, Issue 2; http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/title.asp?lang=en&title=565; http://141.164.71.80/exchange/walterblock/Inbox/RE:%20Rejoinder%20on%20Free%20Will,%20Determinism,%20Libertarianism%20and%20Austrian%20Economics.EML/1_multipart_xF8FF_2_p565__DialogueBook2eng2016_81_95.pdf/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/p565__DialogueBook2eng2016_81_95.pdf?attach=1;
http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/title.asp?title=565; http://www.academia.edu/27719232/Rejoinder_on_Free_Will_Determinism_Libertarianism_and_Austrian_Economics
Block, Walter E. 2015. “Free will, determinism, libertarianism and Austrian economics” Dialogue, Issue 3, p.1; http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/110798998/free-will-determinism-libertarianism-austrian-economics;
Best regards,
Walter
From: Pierre Lawson
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 11:07 PM
To: Walter Block <[email protected]>
Subject: Full Blown Socialism?
Dr Block
I don’t know if you are familiar with Ray Dalio’s work. He does some phenomenal economic cycles research and analysis and is very experienced in the markets. I’ve read his latest post “The Changing World Order” and it truly is great work. However, I believe that he and other mainstream economists are ushering in Full Blown Socialism. In his final paragraph he leaves it a question of how do we fix Capitalism to create a system that works for everyone. That sounds like central planning to me. He also refrains from using the word Socialism in his writings and/or separates Socialism from Capitalism placing it in between Capitalism and Communism. The limited knowledge I have in the Austrian way is that we need a more free capitalist society and not more central control to fix this world for the long term. I also left Ray a comment in this regards. I would like to know what you think of this. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-cycle-united-states-dollar-part-2-ray-dalio/?trk=eml-email_series_follow_newsletter_01-hero-16-image_link&midToken=AQEXJ-YPR8_RhA&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=1gPVfYHzwCKFk1
3:46 am on September 23, 2020
