In reference to my blog post criticizing him, Gregory Hilton has apparently written: “He did not refute anything, and I was surprised his answers were so weak. I will definitely respond.” Hilton threw out roughly 100 claims about Ron Paul and is evidently expecting a refutation of each one. I don’t have time for such a project, for reasons Thomas Sowell explains in my post. Hilton pretends this means I can’t answer him. In fact, I have spent quite a bit of time responding to more substantive criticisms than his, as my YouTube channel and article archive attest. I can’t seriously be expected to prove the stupidity and immorality of the Iraq War, for instance, or the problems with the Ryan plan (any plan endorsed by the head of Slate must be held suspect, and I think we’ve had rather enough of economic plans that promise a balanced budget in 2040), or the perfectly sound reasons for opposing a presidential line-item veto, or why something merely called “free trade” is not necessarily free trade.
When I read inane yammering about the Austrian School of economics having 75 members, or being something stupid that conservatives should ignore (this makes Hilton the first conservative I know of actually to repudiate Mises and Hayek as opposed to merely ignoring them), or not believing in the scientific method, I am confirmed in my view that this person is not worth my time or yours. Do you suppose Hilton has read Epistemological Problems of Economics, or knows the first thing about the nature of the Austrian School’s objections to positivism? Do you think he even understands the question?
If you are interested in the Austrian School and economic method, by the way, read Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Economic Science and the Austrian Method. Gregory Hilton, on the other hand, could not care less about the issues involved. He just wants everyone to know he holds the officially approved position and is not with “extremists” who are [gasp!] outside the mainstream of economics. For who would ever, ever want to be outside the economics mainstream, given the bang-up job mainstream economists did in the years leading up to the Panic of 2008? Only incorrigible extremists, of course!