Difference between revisions of "Praxgirl/episode 1"
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==Retrieval== | ==Retrieval== | ||
* '''Link''': [[URL::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoNU_-__LlQ|Praxeology - Episode 1 - Introduction]] | * '''Link''': [[URL::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoNU_-__LlQ|Praxeology - Episode 1 - Introduction]] | ||
| − | * '''Notes''': As of 2013-03-09, the video is prefaced by a 15-second advertisement cannot be skipped; the actual content begins at 0:50 into the main video | + | * '''Notes''': As of 2013-03-09, the video is prefaced by a 15-second advertisement that cannot be skipped; the actual content begins at 0:50 into the main video |
==Description== | ==Description== | ||
Praxgirl starts with a brief explanation of the meaning and usefulness of [[praxeology]]. | Praxgirl starts with a brief explanation of the meaning and usefulness of [[praxeology]]. | ||
Revision as of 21:06, 9 March 2013
Retrieval
- Link: Praxeology - Episode 1 - Introduction
- Notes: As of 2013-03-09, the video is prefaced by a 15-second advertisement that cannot be skipped; the actual content begins at 0:50 into the main video
Description
Praxgirl starts with a brief explanation of the meaning and usefulness of praxeology.
She then gives a hypothetical example of a man who shingles his roof at a cost of $1000 rather than paying a roofer $5000, but who could instead have put the same time in doing paid work and earned $8000 -- thus leaving himself enough to pay a professional roofer and still have $3000 left over. If the goal was enjoyment, then he may have made a good decision; if the goal was saving money, then he clearly did not. Apparently this relates to praxeology somehow, because praxeology aids with "understanding of the limitations of human planning".
She then explains that a pencil requires a group of people to manufacture, and no single person knows how to make it. The pencil is therefore "a miracle of social cooperation on a massive scale, with no central planner".
She then analogizes from the pencil to more complex entities such as the internet and the global shipping network.
"Praxeology even explains the nature and origin of civilization itself!"
Praxeology apparently will also show us the "severe limits" of "all attempts to steer [society] by force".
Analysis
The claim that no single person knows how to make a pencil, all the way from raw materials to final product, leaves me skeptical -- but it's not my field, so I could be wrong.
The internet was in fact created by the government. It is now largely maintained and operated by private companies, who are busily centralizing themselves by buying each other out -- while trying to destroy much of the main purpose of the internet, i.e. the free and unrestricted exchange of information. Praxgirl's attempt to leave the audience thinking of this as the product of decentralized and unregulated social cooperation is therefore potentially misleading at best.