• TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Two books I started reading knowing I’d disagree with the author:

    • Introduction to Austrian Economics. That school of economics is helpful as a model for understanding economics, though only through the lens of an idealized system. The same way that understanding how a point-like mass moves helps you understand how a canon ball moves. But then it goes on to say that your inalienable/natural right to safety in your person is basically the fundamental property right from which all of what the anarcho-capitalists call “theory” directly derives. Which makes it rather circular. “Property rights ∴ property rights.”
    • The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil. I knew my reaction to it would be visceral, but defending DRM was the last straw. I finished the Austrian Economics book. But I didn’t get a quarter of the way into the Kurzweil book before rage quitting.