For years I used to read it as the much more literal exposition of the laws of thermodynamics – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Launch.
Yeah – economics can make life seem a little transactional. Like a lot of classical Western science it suffers a little from looking in great detail at individual aspects of the system and not at the whole of the system or the meaning of the system.
And obviously economics frames things in its own language, which is about transactions.
It’s slightly off-topic from TANSTAAFL but I find the idea of transaction costs to be pretty damning of USian style Libertarianism.
As for being used to trash non-Libertarian ideas or ideals. Yeah, I see how the rhetoric of that would work.
“You want a National Health Service do you, boy? Well, lemme tell ya – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” It’s a sharp way of pointing out the danger of socialised services that we focus overly much on how much is flowing out and how is getting it and not enough on what is flowing in and from whom. (I think it’s important to talk about and demonstrate fairness at both ends of the process of gathering funds together to pay for socialised services.)
My response to my own dribbling straw-based Libertarian would be to say - I didn’t expect a free lunch but I’m interested in sharing my lunch with other people and, by the way, the work of Ronald Coase on transaction costs indicates that a socialised medical service might be the most efficient way of providing health care thus minimising how much of our lunch gets eaten by the Ants of Entropy.
Glad you’re enjoying them – the next one should be up later today.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
Date: 2012-05-30 09:14 am (UTC)Yeah – economics can make life seem a little transactional. Like a lot of classical Western science it suffers a little from looking in great detail at individual aspects of the system and not at the whole of the system or the meaning of the system.
And obviously economics frames things in its own language, which is about transactions.
It’s slightly off-topic from TANSTAAFL but I find the idea of transaction costs to be pretty damning of USian style Libertarianism.
As for being used to trash non-Libertarian ideas or ideals. Yeah, I see how the rhetoric of that would work.
“You want a National Health Service do you, boy? Well, lemme tell ya – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” It’s a sharp way of pointing out the danger of socialised services that we focus overly much on how much is flowing out and how is getting it and not enough on what is flowing in and from whom. (I think it’s important to talk about and demonstrate fairness at both ends of the process of gathering funds together to pay for socialised services.)
My response to my own dribbling straw-based Libertarian would be to say - I didn’t expect a free lunch but I’m interested in sharing my lunch with other people and, by the way, the work of Ronald Coase on transaction costs indicates that a socialised medical service might be the most efficient way of providing health care thus minimising how much of our lunch gets eaten by the Ants of Entropy.
Glad you’re enjoying them – the next one should be up later today.