Briefly

-I added my friend Nathan’s Natural Law to the old blogroll. He is a LibertarianChristian (ChristianLibertarian?), very effectively seeing government and religion as two very separate things. Good on him. Check out his blog if you’re into that sort of thing.

-I would like this semester to be over…immediately. I’m sick of school.

-Tattooing Convention, this weekend. I’d suggest you come out and see me, but you’re not reading this in the first place, so it isn’t like you’re be making it to the convention. Still, I’ll be at Wild Zero Studio’s set up. I think I just screwed up my punctuation. D’oh!

-In pursuing questioning about the issue of rationality and utility maximization - I’ve been struggling to rectify the notion that people are capable of making irrational decisions, what with my belief that human beings are constantly calculating utility when they make decisions - my friend Andy pointed out that there can be a difference between utility calculation and the rightness of it. In other words, somebody can decide to do something that they believe maximizes their utility (think: pleasure) when in fact, something else would have maximized their utility (still, think: pleasure) more. It doesn’t mean that the human beings weren’t calculating their utility; it just means that they got the wrong answer. However, I think it is fair to say that it is only the person who can decide about the rightness or wrongness of their own utility calculation. I hope I’ve phrased his point correctly.

The problem remains that it is assumed that human beings can act irrationally. This is usually based on a measurement of their actions against their words; as I’ve already stated, I firmly believe that actions mean far more than words, or to put it more popularly, actions speak louder than words. I can tell you, for instance, that I want this semester to be over. I do. But I haven’t quit school (an immediate semester ender) and so, I am forced to acknowledge that, while I want this semester to be over, enduring this semester certainly seems better than doing literally anything else that I am currently capable of. Hence, my belief isn’t that strong.

This is important to note, particularly in regard to Libertarian Economists who do a lot of talking and, quite frankly, very little acting. Unless giving money to Ron Paul counts as acting. It does probably. But the costs paid to donate money are relatively low.