Brink Lindsey

My comment on Cafe Hayek about Lindsey interview:

Lindsey falls short when explaining 60s and the rise of the left and right. He is “sort of” on the right track when he talks about agrarian, industrial economies, however he skips to “affluence” from this very fast, ignoring the fact how people work and produce effect their culture. An assembly line worker whose job is very repetitive will have different outlook on life than a computer programmer whose job is creative, even if these two people made the same amount of money. So affluence is a side-effect not a primary factor.

The 60s phenomena can be explained by “production method” idea very effectively - the critical year is 1956 when the number of white collar workers exceeded blue collar workers for the first time in America, and US was the first country this had happened. Individualism is directly connected to this seminal event, indirectly to affluence because knowledge based economy has less friction and produces more effectively, hence produces more wealth.

The fact that Keynes models blew up in 70s also is directly related to this IMHO - Keynes methods could not predict inflation and unemployment could rise at the same time. This must be directly related to the new method of production because this new economy has different rules, much more volatility and does not tolerate any more direction. It must and needs to move on its own. I believe Hayek is 100% compatible with knowledge economy because you cannot predict, then you must let the masses must do the prediction for you.