Two Dollar Fallacies

The BRICS Fallacy

Bentham s Fallacies, Then and Now

Four Fallacies of the Second Great Depression

LONDON The period since 2008 has produced a plentiful crop of recycled economic fallacies, mostly falling from the lips of political leaders. Here are my four favorites.

The wisdom of our ancestors fallacy has often been invoked in debates over same sex marriage. Anyone familiar with political discussion in the United States will instantly recognize a more specific version that could be called the wisdom of the Founding Fathers fallacy.

The fallacies that really challenge the modern reader, however, are those that characterize arguments that today are widely accepted even in the most educated and enlightened circles. One of these, Bentham says, in a jarring juxtaposition, may be termed Anarchy preacher s fallacy or The Rights of Man fallacy.

Economics is luxuriant with fallacies, because it is not a natural science like physics or chemistry. Propositions in economics are rarely absolutely true or false.

By 1811, he had sorted them into nearly 50 different types, with titles like Attack us, you attack Government, the No precedent argument, and the Good in theory, bad in practice fallacy. (One thing on which both Immanuel Kant and Bentham agree is that this last example is a fallacy If something is bad in practice, there must be a flaw in the theory.)

The use of nuclear energy for military ends can only bring horror and death and is therefore an aberration which, regrettably, mankind devised.

The fallacy, exemplified in a recent commentary by Philip Stephens of the Financial Times, is that, Athens is unable or unwilling or both to implement an economic reform program. Once this fallacy is presented as fact, it is only natural that coverage highlights how our government is, in Stephens s words, squandering the trust and goodwill of its eurozone partners.

The complainant did not pursue judicial review of the first RRT decision which he now impugns as both biased and flawed owing to a misapplication of the law.

More jobs? By jobs, he meant government spending, and he considered this a fallacy because blanket opposition to more government spending fails to take into account the good that the extra employees will be able to achieve.

Public support for independence in Scotland and Catalonia shows that this is not always the case. Bentham, of course, would have accepted that he might be mistaken.

And this is something that changes your understanding of the world around you, and teaches you that you're very wrong about something that you really believed firmly in.

The report exceeded its mandate when it attempts to evaluate the socio economic policies of the Government and risk of a humanitarian crisis , based on fundamentally flawed hypotheses.

MELBOURNE In 1809, Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, set to work on The Book of Fallacies. His goal was to expose the fallacious arguments used to block reforms like the abolition of rotten boroughs electorates with so few electors that a powerful lord or landowner could effectively select the member of parliament, while newer cities like Manchester remained unrepresented.

The general case of this fallacy is the fallacy of composition what makes sense for each household or company individually does not necessarily add up to the good of the whole. The particular case that John Maynard Keynes identified was the paradox of thrift if everyone tries to save more in bad times, aggregate demand will fall, lowering total savings, because of the decrease in consumption and economic growth.

The Great Credit Mistake

And that's actually very perverse.

This is just nuts.

PSI has taken the lead, with national affiliates, in information and organizational campaigns to build awareness and expose the fallacies associated with the privatization and downgrading of services.

This is just completely ridiculous.

Precautionary Absurdity

I still think you're nuts. But not as nuts as I thought.

But this is a fallacy.

Who shun all frivolities,

Slight inattention can cause a great disaster.

It's preposterous on its face.

And of course, that wasn't the case.

And who do not incline towards indecent matters.

and from idle talk turn away

And those who from everything vain turn away.

And those who turn away from Al Laghw (dirty, false, evil vain talk, falsehood, and all that Allah has forbidden).

Those who avoid nonsense.

who avoid whatever is vain and frivolous

And who shun vain conversation,

avoid vain talk,

who turn away from idle talk

And they who turn away from ill speech

who avoid impious talks,

And who keep aloof from what is vain,

those who turn away from all that is frivolous

Who avoid vain talk

But how wrong it is.