/econ/ - Economics

I first got interested in economics by reading Paul Krugman's op-ed columns in the New York Times. After a year or so I started going to /r/Politics, the biggest liberal echo chamber I know of. I would often times read the articles of Mother Jones, Thinkrogress, and alternet. I had no idea they were feeding me incorrect information about the economy. I thought that, under a small increase in the minimum wage, that more jobs would be created. I now know that minimum wage will make people lose jobs and increase the deficit. I thought that if the United States were more like European countries, our economy would be much better. Even though most of Europe had much worse economies, those were just explained away by austerity measures. I didn't realize that European economies had created very high structural unemployment due to their welfare state and that everything was more expensive there due to high taxes(I expected high taxes for a welfare state but not as high as what I learned) and inflation. I then learned about Richard D Wolff. He still spouted some bullshit, but he was clearly a very educated man( I believe he has three Phds). Wolff was a socialist, but in a lot of ways he was more fair and less biased to the other side than the liberals were. He showed how the unemployment rate talked about on the media was bullshit and didn't account for people who were underemployed or had gotten so depressed or fed up looking for a job that they gave up looking. I was now becoming skeptical of the democrats, although that's not really saying much because after 2012 pretty much everyone hated democrats, even liberals. Wolff taught me a lot about socialism and Communism. Previous teachers in high school made me think that socialism was whatever the government did that affected the economy on purpose, and that Socialism and Communism were the exact same thing. Wolff showed me that that socialism actually the ownership of the means of production by the workers, either directly through co-ops or through the state, and that Communism was stateless, classless society. He was the one who really inspired me to learn about economics. When I got to college, I wanted to either major in Economics or start my on CO-OP. College burned me out though, so right now I'm just gonna get an AAS degree in Computer Information Systems and then maybe go back to school to learn economics once I start earning a good amount of cash for a living. I may not though because most college classes feel like they are there to make the college money and don't have a whole lot to do with my degree. I am no longer super left when it comes to the economy, and think that most regulations hurt business while protecting a few very wealthy corporations. I think that a lot of current problems we have now are because of the government and lack of competition, such as healthcare and internet companies. I'm no libertarian, but I'm definitely more to the right on economic issues now. I no longer listen to Richard Wolff, I feel that at times it is just propaganda and not facts. Currently I'm interested in bitcoins and wondering if they can become a genuine alternative to the dollar.

>>26
Oh yeah, we also get the few wild fedora Libertarians that don't say:
>"The gvt will fix it"
As the left do. rather:
>"The free market will fix it"

They don't see the irony

>>26
Capitalist economists aren't left by definition; leftism doesn't automatically mean a command economy, which can also happen under rightism.

It's also hilarious how you accuse others of naivete when Austrian School economics are literally heterodox logic that deviate from standard scientific method

>>27

Well mist people don't care about the economy and think monies come from trees or soemthing

>>95

*most

had to learn it in school.

>>8
"A myth is like an air mattress; there's nothing in it, but it's wonderfully comfortable . And deflation causes an uncomfortable jolt."
-Milton Friedman

I really like that quote. Do you think it could work as a banner?