I'm John Batchel, Bachelor, visiting with Carola Binder, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin,

writing in praise of Ludwig von Mises, one of the foundations of the Austrian School of Economics,

but also a man who spent his life in education.

And what is the answer to intervention by the state

or socialism, that is, somebody must pay, but not me? The answer is education. What kind of

education, Carol, did he have it, did he lay down a curriculum, or was he speaking in generalities?

He was speaking somewhat in generalities, but he said very clearly that education and economic literacy was everybody's primary civic duty.

He saw the key political problems of his day as really being economic problems. So for citizens to make

good policy decisions, to make the right kinds of votes at the polls, they needed to know

economics and especially economic theory. What he thought of economic theory is very careful deductive reasoning.

So you start with some assumptions about individuals and their incentives and how they behave,

and you work logically from there.

And he thought that with that kind of, with education in economic literacy, people would see the errors of socialism and

interventionism. That without it, people could be fooled into supporting those kinds of policies.

The quote you provide from the professor that students in universities, I believe he was looking at the end of the 19th, early 20th century, his time frame.

They espouse without any inhibitions the interventionist panacea is recommended by their professors.

They do not see the contradictions in the words of their teachers,

who one day lament the madness of competition,

and the next day the evils of monopoly,

who one day complain about falling prices,

and the next day about rising living costs.

They, the students, take their degrees

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